The Vancouver International Puppet Festival strives to encourage and promote the growth and appreciation of puppetry in Vancouver and Canada by providing people of all ages the opportunity to participate in the creativity, positivity and ingenuity of the craft.
Through performances, events, workshops and dialogue, our goal is to create a space to showcase the unique work and talents of the Vancouver puppet community and to bring the talent of international puppeteers to our city.
Along side our endeavors of the Festival itself we have another smaller festival know as the Home Grown series which gives the opportunity for local productions to workshop, develop and showcase thier new works in a full theatre run.
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Without the call to action from Barbara Chirinos from the then Granville Island Cultural Society this festival would not exist. It was Barbara who assembled the cofounders and gave generous support to make everything possible for our team to bring the amazing talents to Vancouver’s stages.
THE TEAM
Here are the festival team members that make this festival happen who are all are volunteers.
Randi Edmundson
Driven by curiosity, Randi wears many hats in the world of theatre, including producing, directing, performance, and design.
Her passion for puppetry has taken her across the country and the globe, including recent research with Papermoon Puppet Theatre in Indonesia. She has a background in devising new works for a wide range of audiences and has worked as a puppeteer and puppet creator with Chemainus Theatre Festival, Neworld Theatre, Caravan Farm Theatre, the Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry, the National Arts Centre, Lunchbox Theatre, Upintheair Theatre, and Western Canada Theatre.
She has studied under puppet thinkers Peter Balkwill, David Lane, Ronnie Burkett, Mervyn Millar, Clea Minaker, Jeny Cassady, and Ingrid Hansen. With her Jessie-Richardson Award winning company Little Onion Puppet Co., Randi has toured multiple original puppet works across Western Canada.
She holds a BFA in Performance from the University of Victoria and an MFA in Directing from the University of Calgary. Randi is grateful to create as a freelance artist on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territory in Vancouver and as the Artistic Producer of Project X Theatre in unceded Secwepemc territory in Kamloops.
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Shizuka Kai
Shizuka is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on puppetry and set design, working as a trained puppeteer on tv/film, an illustrator/graphic designer, director, and jewelry maker. She has worked with many theatre companies including Arts Club, Neworld, Théâtre la Seizième, Carousel Theatre for Young People, Electric Company, Rumble, Green Thumb, Boca del Lupo, Theatre Newfoundland Labrador, and others.
Shiz is a three-time Jessie Richardson Award winner with multiple nominations, with an Ovation award win and nomination. She has extensive theatre training in Japan at Nihon University and at Studio 58 where she received the Earl Klein Memorial Scholarship during her graduating term. She has also received the Bill Millerd Artist Fund in 2019 and most recently, the Steven B Jung Award in 2022.
Shiz is currently focusing on developing 3 puppet shows:
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Otosan – Premiering at Vancouver Children’s Festival in 2023
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Puppets in the Classroom – Also premiering at VICF in 2023.
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Monsters Like Us – In early development phase with support from VACT.
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Stephanie Elgersma
Stephanie Elgersma started her career in Vancouver (CA), graduating from the acting program at Studio 58. Acting highlights include roles with The Only Animal, star star Theatre, and Pacific Theatre. Stephanie also has written, produced, and performed two solo shows. In 2013 she joined Ensemble Theatre Company, and acted in and produced three repertory seasons. She then shifted her attention to puppetry and moved to London (UK) to pursue this goal. Her curiosity has lead to work in all aspects of puppetry: puppet directing, puppet making, and puppeteering. As a puppeteer, she studied with puppetry icons such as Sue Buckmaster, Mervyn Millar, Sandglass Theatre, Pickled Image, and Blind Summit. She has puppeteered for House of Cats Theatre, a music video for Alexis Taylor (London), star star theatre, The Only Animal, Axis Theatre, UpintheAir Theatre, and Vancouver International Children's Festival (Vancouver). As a maker, she interned with award-winning puppeteer and fabricator Oli Smart; and worked on 101 Dalmatians for the Birmingham Rep and A Christmas Carol for Wilton's Music Hall. The majority of her making work has been with Nick Barnes Puppet Studio, where she assisted on shows for Les Petits, The Old Vic, and Disney Paris. Most recently, Stephanie has turned her attention to directing puppets. She directed the puppetry for Blackheath Halls Opera in London, and, in Vancouver, she returned to Studio 58 to co-create, co-design, and co-direct Zoetrope - a 10-person non-verbal puppet show set to music - with fellow alumnus and puppet artist Shizuka Kai. Most recently, she directed the puppetry in Skyborn: A Land Reclamation Odyssey for the PuSh Festival. Stephanie fills the rest of her time teaching puppetry workshops, freelancing as a puppetry consultant, or needle felting happy animals for her business Felt and Fluff.
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THE FOUNDERS
Tara Travis
Tara is an actor-writer-puppeteer-creative human known for her prowess as a solo performer, her physical shape-shifting abilities and vocal acrobatics.
Throughout her career, she has co-created and performed in over 30 original plays, most recently the Sterling Award-winning bonkers spectacular The Spinsters with Small Matters Productions. Solo works with Monster Theatre include Erika the Red, Who Killed Gertrude Crump? (nominated for 4 Jessie Richardson Theatre Awards, including Best Actor, Female), and the multi-award-winning Til Death: The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Other solo creations include Lavinia, Fluffy 10th Street: Confessions of a Dirty Puppet, Searching for Dick: A Paranormal Comedy, and The Unfortunate Ruth, recipient of the PTC New Play Prize. Other select stage credits include Leading Ladies and The Wizard of Oz (Gateway Theatre), Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch and Rip! A Winkle In Time (Axis Theatre), and This is Cancer (Bruce Horak).
A co-founder of the Vancouver International Puppet Festival, Tara has incorporated animated object, hand and rod and shadow puppetry into many of her works. As a performance artist (in collaboration with Elizabeth Milton) she has been seen in galleries across Canada, including VIVO and live at Vancouver Art Gallery’s FUSE.
She is grateful to live, create, and connect on the lands of the Coast Salish People, the xÊ·mÉ™θkÊ·É™yÌ“É™m (Musqueam), Sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and sÉ™lÌ“ílwÉ™taʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) First Nations. www.taratravis.com
Jeny Cassady
Involved with puppetry since age 19, Jeny’s puppet education began while working with a children’s touring puppetry group, where she learned the basics along side her students. While doing her BFA in acting at University of Victoria, she became the go-to person for puppetry where she found herself creating and inventing puppets, performing with, and even directing a number of productions. From stage to television- her first TV production landed her in the company of the best film and television puppeteers in Canada, and the 6 month shooting schedule became like an apprenticeship for her. Many film and television productions in the decades since have allowed her to build skills in many puppet formats; hand & rod, shadow, Bunraku, animatronics, suit puppets, marionette, as well as unique combinations of all of these styles. Film and TV highlights include Muppet's Wizard of Oz, Falling Skies, Stargate SG-1, Sanctuary, Haunting Hour, Eureka, Twilight: New Moon, and Henson’s Turkey Hollow, Imaginary Mary, the Arts Club Theatre's Avenue-Q.
Dusty Hagerud
Creative Director and founder of Color Sound Lab Custom Puppet Makers, Dusty has been puppeteering, puppet wrangling and fabricating in Puppetry for over 27 years in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and Toronto in theatre, advertising, film, and television.
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Dusty was a recipient of a 2009 Leo Award for Anachronism Pictures’ “The Anachronism” and 2019 Leo Award for "Biidaaban, The Dawn Comes"
2015 Jessie Award with Tara Travis on Monster Theatre’s “The Little Prince”
2023/24 Emmy Award for Fraggle Rock.
Morris Chapdelaine
A multi-award winning Television and Film Producer, Morris is best known for Van Helsing (2016), The Order (2018), and Wu Assassins (2018). Morris is also a Vancouver-based filmmaker, puppeteer, writer and sometimes television personality. He has produced He has directed over 12 short films to date, and has worked in front of the camera as a puppeteer and actor on several television productions including Falling Skies, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate SG-1, Smallville, The L Word, The Puppet Life, Jim Henson's Turkey Hollow, and feature films like AVP2, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Slither, The Hole and many more. He has also appeared as the Producer Mentor for OutTV’s Hot Pink Shorts program. Morris holds a BFA with distinction from The University of Alberta and is also a graduate of the Creative Producers Workshop from the prestigious Canadian Film Centre. More than anything he is excited to be a founding member of the Vancouver International Puppet Festival.
Steven Snider
A graduate of the Illustration and Design program at Capillano University in North Vancouver, BC, Steve currently works as a graphic designer & Gallery facilitator for the West Vancouver Community Arts Council. While he works on illustrations as often as possible, his work is often found in editorial pieces and alongside magazine interviews.
His puppet building can be seen in many music videos and productions built by Color Sound Lab.
Sarah Aplas
Sarah Aplas is a forever student who is always looking for new things, ideas, and people to spark her interest. In her most recent degree in education, puppetry became the focus. No longer just a long-time lover of puppetry in film and television, Sarah began turning her artistic talents to building and is excited to be starting her journey as a fabricator. Sarah is thrilled to be a part of the first Vancouver International Puppet Festival as the Assistant Festival Co-ordinator.
Tracy Stewart
Filmmaker, painter and artist, Tracy Stewart is a tour-de-force of creativity and ingenuity. Her drive, involvement and commitment to creative works has trancended mediums and helped present some of the most resilient work in the western hemisphere has seen in the last 20 years.
Wryly Andherson
Moth Orbit Object Theater (MOOT) was formed in 2010, and has since performed festivals and galleries throughout B.C. MOOT continues to explore the dramatic uses of performing objects: how anything and everything can be brought to life, from everyday found objects to the most deliberately designed puppets, masks, costumes and sets. Moth Orbit Object Theater is a moth-eaten monument built of found objects and rejected materials. Re-imagined and re-animated, trash becomes treasure and static materials become spirited. Each act of puppetry holds a mirror to the existential condition and suggests a solution: it is possible to remain enchanted despite an awareness of the mechanisms at play.
in partnership with
Sponsors
Thank you to all of our sponsors for your generous support!
Thank you to all of the dreamers who dare to imagine
and the lovers of puppets.
It is definately magic!
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