Famous Puppet Death Scenes

The Old Trout Puppet Workshop was founded back in the blustery winter of 1999 by a gang of old buddies in a coal-heated shack on a ranch in southern Alberta. Since those distant and savage days, the Old Trouts have grown to become one of Canada’s best-known artistic exports: now based in Calgary, they’ve made puppet shows for both children and adults that tour the world, written and illustrated several books, crafted immense sculptures, and made films (including a Juno Award winning video for Feist, and a Christmas special with the National Film Board). Not to mention running a puppet festival, teaching extensively and creating large scale shows with companies like the National Arts Centre, Theatre Calgary, and Vancouver Opera. Most recently, they teamed up with Calgary Opera to create a brand-new puppet opera based on an ancient Greek ghost story, Ghost Opera. Next up: who knows? They’re working on a video game and an augmented reality app, inventing a robot, working on adaptations of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow and Dr. Faustus, and touring Famous Puppet Death Scenes to anywhere that will invite them, because they are desperate to be wanted.