Join Mermaid Theatre Founders Saralee Lewis (Wolfville NS, Canada) and Tom Miller (Toronto ON, Canada) in a riveting conversation with Peter Balkwill from Old Trouts (Calgary AB, Canada) celebrating the impact of Canadian puppetry on the arts in Canada and beyond!

Get ready to laugh, reminisce, and contemplate the power of puppetry as we celebrate Canadian Puppetry and Mermaid Theatre's 50th Anniversary!

Accessibility: This live online session will be presented with auto-generated English captions.

A bit about the Artists:

Saralee Lewis - A native of Montreal, Saralee Lewis studied at McGill University and worked in journalism and arts promotion prior to moving to Nova Scotia in 1971. The following year she co-founded Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia with Tom Miller and the late Evelyn Garbary, and held management and public affairs roles until her retirement in 2020. Mermaid now ranks among North America’s most respected family audience theatres and has played for more than six and a half million spectators in nineteen countries on four continents. Among other honours, Lewis was named a Member of the Order of Canada in April 2000 and received a D.Litt. (honoris causa) from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax in 2001.

Thomas Miller was born and educated in the United States, while his working life has been in Canada. Playing with puppets and making pictures was an important part of his childhood. Tom holds a BA in Art and MFA in painting. He co-founded Mermaid Theatre and was their Resident Designer. In 1981 Tom took up painting again, filling his studio with colour infused paintings of a variety of subjects; he regularly contributes to commercial and public art galleries.

Peter Balkwill is a founding co-Artistic Director at the Old Trout Puppet Workshop and Co-Artistic Curator for the International Festival of Animated Objects in Calgary, Alberta. He holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Washington in Seattle, and a BFA in Theatre from University of Victoria. His studies focused on the physical application of theatre in creation, acting and directing. Peter has served as Artist in Residence at the University of Lethbridge and University of Calgary; he was head of movement at the University of Victoria, and he has facilitated workshops with companies across North America, Denmark and France.

This event is also available as part of our Puppet Power: Festival of Ideas All Access Pass and Event Recording Package.