The founders of the Old Trout Puppet Workshop – Judd Palmer, Pityu Kenderes and Peter Balkwill – will receive one of two 2013 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Awards.
According to their website:
The Old Trout Puppet Workshop was founded on a ranch in southern Alberta back in the strange winter of 1999. We 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 we felt an urge to huddle together for mutual protection, and to dedicate ourselves to something fragile, ridiculous, and gentle, out on the edge of the world. So we learned to carve puppets, and paid our rent through wholesome labour; we collected eggs, fed the pigs, cooked big stews, and premiered our first show to a bunkhouse full of cowboys and Hutterites.
The Trouts have produced award-winning puppet productions and have toured internationally. Productions include Ignorance, Famous Puppet Death Scenes and The Tooth Fairy.
Award patron, His Honour, Colonel (Retired) the Honourable Donald S. Ethell, OC OMM AOE MSC CD LLD, Lieutenant Governor of Alberta will present the hand-cast medals and two $30,000 awards at a gala dinner in Red Deer June 15, 2013. Recipients also receive a two-week Leighton Artist Colony residency at The Banff Centre.
Read the news story in Avenue Calgary Magazine.
Congratulations, guys!
