Ronnie Burkett

After winning a regional Emmy Award in 1979 for the puppets in "Cinderrabbit" on PBS in the US, Burkett formed his own theatre company in Alberta in 1986.

His early works included Fool's Edge, Virtue Falls, The Punch Club and Awful Manors, as well as being an extra puppeteer on Under the Umbrella Tree.

Appearing onstage throughout each performance, he manipulates and is the voice of every character, from newborn ducks to dying mothers, Christ and Satan and everything in between.

He claims his first "real" show was a hand puppet musical titled The Patchwork Girl of Oz, which he wrote and began touring at age 14.

He attended Medicine Hat College for a year and was awarded a theatre scholarship to Brigham Young University in Utah but left after a semester to pursue his career.