Ronnie Burkett, OC is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

puppeteer, best known for his original

theatrical Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

plays for adults, performed with

marionettes A marionette (; french: marionnette, ) is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a marionettist. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed ...

. Burkett, who hails from

Medicine Hat Medicine Hat is a city in southeast Alberta, Canada. It is located along the South Saskatchewan River. It is approximately east of Lethbridge and southeast of Calgary. This city and the adjacent Town of Redcliff to the northwest are with ...

, was the puppeteer for Ralph on the

TV Ontario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario E ...

series '' Harriet's Magic Hats'' during seasons three and four. He was also credited on two TV shows; Chicken Minute and Little Star.

Career

After winning a regional Emmy Award in 1979 for the puppets in "Cinderrabbit" on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

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''. In 1994, his work ''Tinka's New Dress'' was his international breakthrough, winning two

Dora Award The Dora Mavor Moore Award (also known as the Dora Award) is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped estab ...

s, four

Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award The Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award (also known as the Sterling Award) is a local Edmonton, Alberta award presented annually which honours excellence in theatre. The award covers a number of categories, including production, performance, direction ...

s and a special citation from the Obie Awards. Performed internationally, ''Tinka's New Dress'' was the first part of a

trilogy A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part wor ...

which continued with ''Street of Blood'' in 1999 and ''Happy'' in 2000. He also won a Chalmers Award in 1996 for ''Old Friends'', a piece commissioned by the Manitoba Theatre for Young People. In 2009, Burkett received the

Siminovitch Prize in Theatre The Siminovitch Prize is Canada's largest theatre award recognizing excellence in mid-career directors, playwrights and designers. $100,000 is awarded annually, and for recipients, who are given the public recognition and financial resources, it i ...

for design. In 2015, Burkett was the recipient of the Distinguished Artist Award from th
Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards
for his contributions to the arts in Alberta. His work, ''Provenance'', was performed for the first time in October 2003, premiering at Theatre Network in Edmonton. In November 2007, he finished touring his show ''10 Days on Earth'' that premiered at

CanStage Canadian Stage is a non-profit contemporary performance arts company based in Toronto, Ontario, ''Canada''. About Canadian Stage Canadian Stage is one of Canada's largest not-for-profit contemporary theatre companies, based in Toronto, Ontari ...

in Toronto in April 2006. In October 2008, he premiered his quasi-autobiographical show, ''Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy'', at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton; the show toured several cities in Canada, the UK, and Australia through late 2009. In 2011-12, he did an extensive Canadian tour of his new play, an apocalyptic comedy, ''Penny Plain''. His latest work, ''The Daisy Theatre'', inspired by underground Czech marionette theatre, is part improvisation and part cabaret and includes short vignettes penned by other Canadian playwrights. Burkett usually writes his own scripts. 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.

Early life

Ronnie Burkett was born June 10, 1957, in Lethbridge,

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

and spent his formative years in

. At age seven, he became fascinated with puppets after reading an article in the ''

World Book Encyclopedia The ''World Book Encyclopedia'' is an American encyclopedia. The encyclopedia is designed to cover major areas of knowledge uniformly, but it shows particular strength in scientific, technical, historical and medical subjects. ''World Book'' wa ...

''. After seeing

Bil Baird William Britton "Bil" Baird (August 15, 1904 – March 18, 1987) was an American puppeteer of the mid- and late 20th century. In a career that spanned over 60 years, he and his puppets performed for millions of adults and children. One of his be ...

's puppets in " The Lonely Goatherd" scene in the 1965 film ''

The Sound of Music ''The Sound of Music'' is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the 1949 memoir of Maria von Trapp, ''The Story of the Trapp Family Singers''. S ...

'', Burkett was determined to become a puppeteer. 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 Medicine Hat College is a public, board governed, comprehensive college serving southeastern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan, Canada. The college is located in the city of Medicine Hat, Alberta, and was founded in 1965. Almost 2,500 studen ...

for a year and was awarded a theatre scholarship to

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-d ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

but left after a semester to pursue his career. Openly gay, Burkett lives in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

with his partner, jazz singer John Alcorn.Grace, Gillian (September 2007). "Home at last", ''

Toronto Life ''Toronto Life'' is a monthly magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ''Toronto Life'' also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including ''Real Estate'', ''Stylebook'', ''Eatin ...

'' 41 (9): 55–65.

References

External links

Review of ''Provenance''
''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', January 3, 2004.
Web site of Burkett's press agent, John Lambert Associates, Inc.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burkett, Ronnie 1957 births 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights 21st-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights Canadian puppeteers Dora Mavor Moore Award winners Canadian gay writers Living people Writers from Lethbridge People from Medicine Hat LGBT dramatists and playwrights Canadian male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Canadian male writers 21st-century Canadian male writers Officers of the Order of Canada Regional Emmy Award winners