Puppeteers based in Calgary celebrating 25 years of artistry

The Old Trout Puppet Workshop, started by a group of friends, is now celebrating 25 years of creating and bringing puppets to life on stage.

In a century dedicated to digital culture, one of Calgary’s most enduring and beloved cultural exports are a bunch of puppeteers known as the Old Trouts.

The Old Trout Puppet Workshop’s core members are Judd Palmer, Pete Balkwill and Steve Kenderes. The three were part of a larger group that launched the Old Trouts in 1999 on a ranch near Waterton Lakes National Park -- and while the others have moved on, Palmer, Balkwill and Kenderes all share the same title of founder, co-artistic director.

“The plan was that we were going to just keep our lifelong friendships going through working together instead of wandering off and meeting each other once in a while at the bar,” said Palmer.

“What remains (of the Old Trouts 25 years later) are the three idiots who couldn’t think of anything else to do with their lives so we make puppet shows, mostly for grown ups -- which is strange to begin with but we make them and then we tour them all over the world.”

The next show starts March first with a two week run in Paris of the Old Trout’s production called Famous Puppet Death Scenes.

Most of the puppets are en route to France but Kenderes is refurbishing some in Calgary.

“We all have specialties,” he said. “So I tend to do a lot of the painting and anything with unusual materials, like rubbers and that type of thing, (the puppets are) quite old, they need to be refreshed every now and then because the rubber breaks down so I’m just making some new ones and going to replace some heads when we’re in Paris.”

The Paris show is selling out and they’ve already added more shows.

“It’s fascinating to see how different cultures appreciate our work in different ways,” said Palmer. “In France they’re very quiet, they don’t laugh but then they clap uproariously for like 15 minutes at the end of the show, whereas in Spain they get all the dark humor and they laugh in the way that you expect Spaniards to laugh.”

Kenderes never doubted that their puppet adventure would thrive for 25 years.

“We were so serious in some ways about making it the center of our lives,” he said. “We really immersed ourselves, we lived together, we ate together, we worked and played together and partied together and I really have put all my eggs in this basket.”

Kenderes says there’s not many people doing puppetry anymore and Calgary has a long history in the craft that dates back to Ronnie Burkett who formed his own theatre company in 1986 after participating in a number of successful productions.

Palmer says the group’s motto is “re-imagining the art of puppetry” and they strive to make every show different from the last one.

“Not only do we make puppet theater for adults, we also make films,” said Palmer. “We make animated films, we make operas, we make video games, music and books, we’ve published and illustrated children’s books.”

Balkwill says the three founders all share the title of co-artistic director because they have their hands in all stages of the productions, from start to finish.

“My training is in performance by and large,” he said. “I’m a puppeteer by association to my friendship and my love of the rest of the Old Trouts and so I really kind of learned the craft of puppetry through the school of hard knocks.”

Balkwill says he’s always watching and learning from other puppeteers where he can incorporate new tricks and techniques into a production. He says they’ve kept all the puppets they’ve built over the last 25 years.

“Puppeteers are functional hoarders,” he jokes. “We never reuse a puppet in any of our shows so every show we do has original puppets and original designs.”

Puppetry is one of the oldest artistic forms and the Old Trouts are passionate about keeping the craft alive.

“I think puppetry was used to help tell stories, to make sense of the world and to criticize and to satirize the world,” said Balkwill. “Because you can make a puppet of the king and then it can do absurd things and the king will laugh at it.”

The Old Trouts say they will continue to produce adult puppet shows for as long as they have audiences for them.

“If we have an objective over the next 25 years, it’s just to keep it fresh for ourselves,” said Palmer. “And that way we keep it fresh for the audience, they never know what to expect when they come into the theater.”

Learn more about the Old Trouts here: Puppets | The Old Trout Puppet Workshop