The Old Trout Puppet Workshop was founded on a ranch in southern Alberta back in the strange winter of 1999. They were a small gang of old buddies, with a fondness for beards and wood and wool and other old-fashioned and pleasant things; the world was uneasy with the threat of Y2K, and they felt an urge to huddle together for mutual protection, and to dedicate themselves to something fragile, ridiculous, and gentle, out on the edge of the world. So they learned to carve puppets, and paid their rent through wholesome labour; they collected eggs, fed the pigs, cooked big stews, and premiered their first show to a bunkhouse full of cowboys and Hutterites. They took that show into Calgary to the legendary alt-theatre festival known as the High Performance Rodeo, and people clapped; in that moment, an insatiable craving for applause was born in them, and the warm contentment of their ranch camaraderie turned into mean and craven Ambition.

They’ve been labouring under the lash of that evil spirit for almost twenty years now, during which time a great deal has changed. They moved to the city, for instance, and now operate out of a workshop next to an enormous distillery in industrial Calgary. It’s a thriving operation that has grown much larger than the original hairy few. They’ve got a shwack of productions either in development or on the actual road at this exact moment. They‘ve toured their productions across Canada and into the United States and Europe. They’ve mounted ten mainstage shows, most of which are lurking in crates at the workshop, ready to deploy.