Geneviève Paré
Co-Founder and Artistic Lead

Photo Courtesy of Mike Tan
www.miketanphoto.com

Geneviève is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist of Dutch and French heritage and is thankful to live, breathe, and share stories in Treaty Seven Territory of southern Alberta

Through a practice of building, shaping, and performing live theatre Geneviève ventures to invigorate human relationships to land and community. Process is a playground in Geneviève’s approach to performance making, striving for joyful collaboration, productive conflict, and levelled hierarchies. Ecologically sustainable theatre practices are paramount in Geneviève’s work. Outside of the theatre, Geneviève is a youth leader, wilderness guide, and a puppeteer for film and television.
 
Her recent works include Yabber (Mudfoot Theatre), Iniskim (Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry), Fraggle Rock (Jim Henson Company), GIANT (Ghost River Theatre), A Christmas Carol (Theatre Calgary), and We Are All Treaty People (Quest Theatre).

Kathryn Smith
Co-Visionary

Kathryn is a designer, director, and creator who has worked across western Canada. They have worked on and created a multitude of projects including award winning clown, puppet, and new creation productions. Their focus lies in collective creation, queer stories, and the ecology of ensemble. They are the Artistic Director at Vertigo Theatre, and a member of the Mudfoot Theatre Collective.

Select theatre credits: Murder In the Studio, The American/The Hitchhiker (Vertigo Theatre); USS Artemis (Boathaus Studios); inVISIBLE, A Chitenge Story, inVISIBLE Too (Handsome Alice Theatre); Safe Site Sessions, Bottle Picker Monologues (Downstage Theatre); Brave Girl, Care Takers, By the Book (Lunchbox Theatre); Yabber: A Folk Opera (Mudfoot Theatre, *collective creation). Kathryn is also an award winning singer songwriter/sound designer under the name KP Smith. Their music can be found on all major streaming services.

Evan Medd
Co-Visionary

Evan Medd (he/they) is a dramaturg, producer, performer, climate activist, and puppeteer who works across Turtle Island. His practice primarily focuses on dramaturgical strategizing of process design, community engaged art that intersects with environmental dialogues, and collaborative new play development and production with the Alberta-based Major Matt Mason Collective. 

Evan spends his summers working in PEI at The River Clyde Pageant, a community integrated outdoor spectacle that celebrates a social ecology while drawing attention to the impact of climate change on PEI’s waterways and ecosystems. Evan has also recently spearheaded a new initiative called Dreaming Climate Consciousness, a collaborative process where participants work together to imagine eco-conscious futures through the lens of speculative/science fiction. 

​Evan is passionate about utilizing creative practice as a means to stimulate imaginations while interrogating and examining the tensions that define our world.

Ian McFarlane
Co-Founder and Creative Kin

Ian McFarlane is a scenographer, a theatre maker and a puppeteer who currently resides in Mi'kma'ki. Ian creates works for theatre, outdoor spectacles and community-led projects. He has worked with such companies as the Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry (Calgary, AB), Bread and Puppet Theater (Vermont), as well as co-founded Mudfoot Theatre (Calgary, AB). He received an MFA in Contemporary Art from Simon Fraser University and has recently co-created North Barn Theatre where he has designed, created and performed several touring performances, including A Gorgon's Tale (2022), Troubling Joy: A Bicycle Puppet Circus (2021) and Late Night Radio (2020).

​Ian also serves as Director of Production for the River Clyde Pageant in New Glasgow, PEI where he has designed several large scale, community-led productions. Other methods of navigation include: a bicycle, a paddle, boardgames, poetry and quiet places.​

Current Collaborators

Kit Benz

Kit Benz is a clown, puppeteer, and physical theatre artist based in Moh'kins'tsis on Treaty 7 Territory. They are a graduate of the drama program at Bishop’s University as well as the Professional Training Program at Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre. Kit also spent several glorious summers training in Pochinko clown at the Manitoulin Conservatory for Creation and Performance.

Past work includes The Jungle Book; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (ATP), Iniskim: Return of the Buffalo (Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry), Yabber: A Junk Musical (Mudfoot Theatre), and All I Want for Christmas (Lunchbox Theatre). 

Ali DeRegt

Ali DeRegt is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist focused on devising, puppetry, and clown. She has recently completed an MFA from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, where she co-founded HOT TRASH! Theatre, a devised theatre company that focuses on DIY aesthetics, physical storytelling, and general nonsense.

Recent collaborations in Mohkinstsis include Verb Theatre, Mudfoot Theatre, and The Green Fools. You can see her puppetry work on Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock, which is streaming now on Apple TV Plus. And be sure to check out her current collaboration with Boathaus Studios and Camille Pavlenko to create a binaural, sci-fi, audio play, USS ARTEMIS, which is now available on Apple Podcasts.

Nia Devetzis

Nia Devetzis is a percussionist driven by the vivid and vast world of contemporary music, whether as a soloist or chamber musician. As a teaching artist, she is dedicated to education through performance and instruction, leading by example and questioning audience expectations by asking, what exactly is percussion?

Nia’s creative work expands across disciplines. She has been a collaborator for devised theatre works at the University of Calgary, including Conduct, Pierrot’s Gender Reveal Party and Just like the Moon performing as a musician/actor. This work continues with Mudfoot Theater on Yabber, where she has built instruments and musical puppets alongside story and music development.
Nia is an instructor at the Mount Royal Conservatory and an active educator and clinician in Calgary. She completed a Master of Music in Percussion Performance with Rod Squance at the University of Calgary. 

Nicola Elson​

Nicola Elson is a theatre-maker in as many ways as she can muster. She is a deviser, collaborator, director, actor, improvisor, clown, playwright, stilt walker, percussionist, and arts and crafter. When creating, Nicola’s first question is always, “What theatrical styles shall we explore to tell a story?” She uses the phrase theatrical styles as an umbrella term to include physical theatre, mask, clown, tréteau, foley, animating objects through puppetry, object theatre and shadow-theatre, and whatever else might emerge from playful experimentation. Sometimes Nicola works as a freelance artist and sometimes, she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Drama at the University of Lethbridge. When teaching, Nicola specializes in Devised Theatre, Improvisation, Theatre for Young Audiences, Theatre in Education and Social Justice Theatre. 

​Select Credits include: The Little Prince, Dracula, A Comedy of Terrors (University of Lethbridge), The Sissy Duckling (Theatre Outré), The Legend of the Lost Tooth (New West Theatre)

Monica Illa

Monica Ila is a multidisciplinary artist from Calgary, Alberta who works with sculpture, painting and puppetry. Playfulness is at the heart of everything she makes. She dreams of new worlds and builds giant versions of the beings that live there out of repurposed materials and fun fur. She uses acrylics to paint her characters in vibrant scenes of their imagined habitats. She is an experienced puppeteer and builder of a wide variety of puppet types.

​Monica is currently pursuing a BFA in Sculpture at the Alberta University of the Arts. She believes that art brings communities together and helps us find the whimsy within our own lives.