Mermaid Spotlight - Anika Lirette

Anika Lirette is a bilingual theatre and film artist, an artistic director, a project creator and a facilitator living in Acadie. She has performed in theatres throughout Acadie, Louisiana, Maine, St. Pierre and Miquelon, Quebec and Germany. Anika used to manage the artistic direction, the writing and the staging of new bilingual stories at the Grand-Pré National Historic Site between 2016 and 2019. She co-directed Le Théâtre Alacenne, a ad hoc project-based theatre company from 2003 to 2018. She is a young ambassador for the francophonie des Amériques and as such has traveled to New York, Louisiana, Maine and Costa Rica several times. She has lived abroad, more specifically in Eastern Europe, and is passionate about stories from around the world.

Anika has been at the Mermaid Theatre loft a few times for her projects with the Grand-Pré Historical Site and also with Theatre Alacenne. She worked at Mermaid for the creation of the play Ally and the Forest, a bilingual production that toured New Brunswick that was made with mostly recyclable materials. She has been at Mermaid with her Grand-Pré team to create the plays Village and Voyage, both a bilingual experience at the site that included puppetry. She also brought to screen a small web project at Mermaid called the Origins of Grand-Pré and recently worked as a co-host for the French Acadian part of the Animalingo series with Lapin!

Mermaid Spotlight - Ivy Abbott-Charles, Logan Robins and Kate Redding

Meet Ivy Abbott-Charles, Logan Robins, and Kate Redding!

The trio has been traveling around North America since October touring Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia's staged adaptation of It's Okay To Be Different: Stories by Todd Parr!

Ivy Abbott-Charles (she/her) is a Nova Scotian actor with a Master's degree in Classical and Contemporary Performance from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She has performed and collaborated on immersive theatre, children's theatre, new script development, and performance art projects, working with many Atlantic Canadian theatre companies including DaPoPo Theatre, Zuppa Circus, BARE Theatre, Unnatural Disaster Co., and more. Ivy has been teaching drama workshops and classes for five years through Neptune Theatre School, for toddlers, children, and teens.

Kate is a stage and production manager, based in Kjipuktuk, Mi’Kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). She is passionate about theatre for young audiences; one of her earliest theatre memories is watching a Mermaid performance, and she is ecstatic to be joining the company for this production. Recently worked with Theatre Baddeck, Red Sky Performance, Neptune Theatre, Theatre New Brunswick, Tarragon Theatre, and Shakespeare by the Sea. Love and thanks to Joe, who makes it all possible.

Logan (he/they) is an environmental theatre maker, improviser, puppeteer, educator, musician, writer, designer, and creator of exhaustive lists-based in the Sipekne’katik region of Mi’kma’ki (colonially known as Gaspereau Valley, Nova Scotia). Logan is thrilled to be exploring the world and sharing stories through puppetry with Mermaid Theatre! You can find Logan on Instagram: @loganrobins @unnaturaldisastertheatre

Mermaid Spotlight - Rebecca Thomas

Rebecca Thomas is an award winning Mi'kmaw poet and activist who does not want to be a poet or activist. She just happens to be good enough at poetry and persuasion to get people to listen but her ultimate goal is to make Canada a better place for her Indigenous community because so many people tend to forget they were here first. She has accidentally found herself as the former Poet Laureate of Halifax. She has performed with the Halluci Nation and has spoken and lectured at conferences and coffee houses from coast to coast.

She writes kids books about growing up the child of a residential school survivor. Her first book I'm Finding My Talk has been shortlisted for the First Nations Community Reads Award. Her most recent collection of poetry called "I place you into the fire" was listed as one of CBC's top 20 books of 2020. Her book "Swift Fox All Along" was a finalist for the 2020 Governor General's Award for children's literature. She has an upcoming children's book called "The Chair" set for a 2024 publishing date. She pays her bills by helping students who are overwhelmed with life and studies as a Student Services Advisor at the Nova Scotia Community College.

(Bio credit-James Arthur MacLean)

Rebecca Thomas is also the narrator for The Earth Book in Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia's staged adaptation of Todd Parr's It's Okay To Be Different (coming to Mermaid Theatre June 3rd).

Mermaid Spotlight - Tiphaine Girault

Tiphaine Girault spent time in Mermaid Theatre's loft space in April 2023 working on a new project called A Journey Home.

This project situates itself in a phonocentric society and works beyond sound to explore one’s experience of communication, multi-dimensionally. Communication forms one’s aesthetic value and relationships with the self, others and their environment. Communication is a reciprocal relationship and is a key theme throughout the project. The play’s aesthetic is a comic inspired background incorporating felted and shadow puppets.

This project situates itself among three foundational concepts: how language shapes one’s mind, world and foundation of communication and of sharing your lived experience with others (Myriam Montrat, 2018); how language is a action that can cross social boundaries forms connections between people, their environment and across time and space (Ruth Finnigan, 2002); And, lastly, how language reminds us, in every sentence, of our kinship with each other and this includes our relationship with the animate world (Robyn Kimmerer, 2013).

The principal creator is Tiphaine Girault, a deaf artist. As a deaf artist, whose home language is sign language -langue des signes québécoise, she chooses to work co-creatively with other artists who hear and, in particular, those do not know a sign language. Doing so, gains access to different sensory experiences that formed our different social and aesthetic values.

To learn more about this project and the art organization, SPiLL.PROpagation visit https://spill-propagation.com/

Mermaid Spotlight - Charlie A'Court

Planted at the crossroads of roots and soul, Charlie A'Court possesses a mighty voice, fierce guitar work and contemporary songwriting that is felt by fans across Canada and beyond. His latest album, When Country Gets The Blues, was nominated for Country Recording of The Year at the 2022 East Coast Music Awards.

Often stylistically compared to mentors like Eric Clapton and Otis Redding, Charlie has always been recognized for exploring his musical horizons. As a five-time ECMA winner and eight-time Nova Scotia Music Award winner Charlie has earned awards for Blues, Pop, and R&B/Soul Recordings of the Year, and on multiple occasions been recognized as Entertainer of the Year. A’Court has also received multiple Maple Blues Award nominations including Male Vocalist and Songwriter of the Year.

Growing up on the east coast in rural Nova Scotia, Canada, Charlie spent his youth learning to play guitar while immersed in his father’s vinyl record collection – discovering singers like Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. “I remember being so profoundly moved and almost not old enough to know why” says A’Court. "There was something honest about the way they sang. They would sing with such conviction that they simply commanded attention.”

Mermaid Spotlight - Franziska, Lily, Laura and Ailsa - While We Wait

Franziska, Lily, Laura and Ailsa spent time in Mermaid Theatre's Loft Space working on their project, While We Wait.

While We Wait is a puppet show in development by Gale Force Theatre for 5-9 year olds. They are exploring different genres of puppetry to bring to a story about longing, waiting and noticing the constant changes around us.

Franziska Glen (she/her) is an actor, puppeteer and theatre maker living in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. She is co-founder of Gale Force Theatre and is interested in theatre for young audiences, puppetry and in creating new work. Most recently she performed in Bouée with Satellite Théâtre (Moncton, NB) and Crypthand with Gale Force Theatre (Halifax, NS) which won the Theatre Nova Scotia Outstanding Emerging Production Award. She has worked and collaborated with Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, North Barn Theatre Collective and Bagel in Ballon. Franziska has trained in puppetry with Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, Bread and Puppet and in 2022 completed an apprenticeship with the River Clyde Pageant. Franziska is currently working on two new projects with Gale Force Theatre, Honey Harbour, an serialised audio drama for middle grades and While We Wait, a puppet show for children. She is the winner of the 2021 Theatre Nova Scotia Emerging Artist Award.

Lily Falk (she/her) is an emerging theatre artist living in Kjipuktuk and co-artistic director of Gale Force Theatre. Her first play Crypthand, won Best Original Script at the 2019 Fringe Festival and won the RBC Emerging Artist Award through Playwrights Guild of Canada in 2022. Most recently, she co-created a show delivered to parks on a tandem bike, collaborated with North Barn Theatre Collective, and was an apprentice at the 2022 River Clyde Pageant. She’s currently developing a serialized audio drama for kids inspired by winter solstice folklore with help from the Canada Council for the Arts. When she isn't doing theatre, Lily works as a nature play professional, bringing the magic of the outdoors to kids of all ages and abilities.

Laura Stinson (she / they) - Laura crafts images from both found and traditional materials. These creations become narratives, characters and atmospheres in a variety of theatrical spectacles. She began her career in puppetry with Bread and Puppet Theater in 2016 where she apprenticed under Peter Schumann. In addition to studying puppet animation in Nova Scotia with the Mermaid Theatre she also studied bunraku puppet building techniques with the Swedish master Thomas Lundqvist, puppetry performance with Joan Baixas of Barcelona and textile construction and puppet mechanics with Compagnie Coatimundi of Châteaurenard, France. In 2017 she collaborated with Noella Murphy and Julia Walker to form A Road Less Gravelled Productions, which has performed puppet shows at art festivals throughout Nova Scotia. After four years working as a touring member and subsequent resident puppeteer for Bread and Puppet, Laura co-founded North Barn Theatre in 2020. Since returning to Canada, she has worked as a designer and puppet builder for Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre, Ship’s Company Theatre, Mulgrave Road Theatre, Gale Force Theatre and Villains Theatre. She currently lives and makes art in Mi’kma’ki.

Ailsa Galbreath (she/her) is a theatre artist based in Punamu’kwati’jk (Dartmouth, NS). Most recently, Ailsa could be seen performing in Lily Falk's Crypthand. Ailsa, also, performed as part of secret theatre’s How Quickly Things Change at the Stages Festival this year. She has worked with PARC, secret theatre, Gale Force Theatre, EFT, HomeFirst, Zuppa Theatre, LunaSea Theatre Co, Halifax Theatre for Young People, Villian’s Theatre, and QueerActs Theatre Festival. Ailsa completed Mermaid Theatre's Animotion workshop, Irondale's physical theatre workshop and participated in Canada's National Voice Intensive's five week workshop. Ailsa is passionate about new work and unconventional theatre spaces. Ailsa is 1/4th of Tea Time Creation Co, a clown troupe who seek to subvert the status quo with wacky fun. Tea Time’s most recent production was A Midsummer Night’s Wet Dream performed at Good Robot Brewing in the north end of Halifax. Ailsa is a certified teacher of the Interactive Teaching Method of the Alexander Technique and a Co-Artistic Producer of LunaSea Theatre Company.