Artistic Associates

Nan Balkwill

Nan is an ensemble-based physical Theatre Artist, Theatre Educator, Indigenous Student Graduation Coach, Certified Yoga Instructor and Mum. She holds degrees in Theatre, Community Development Studies, Theatre Education and is an Alumni of the Professional Training Program at Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, CA.

She is grateful for the opportunities she has had to work and learn with variety of companies and projects over the years; Green Fools Theatre Society, Vermont’s Bread and Puppet Theatre, Clunk Puppet Lab, Champagne Palace Band, MoMo Mixed-ability Dance Theater, Calgary Contact Improv Dance, Long Grass Studio, Erlton/Stampede Clowns, Girls Gone Wilde, Animated Objects Festival, Vincent Massey Theatre, Turtle Dog Film Productions, Prague Quadrennial, Theatre Wakefield and Iniskim Return of the Buffalo, the Puppet-Lantern Performance and Documentary Film.

As the Indigenous Student Grad Coach at Forest Lawn High School she has been co-creating the Indigenous Learning Lodge and the Indigenous Youth Leadership program over the last 7 years. Nan is a supportive signatory on the Buffalo Treaty and is passionate about continuing to learn and live her responsibilities as a Treaty 7 relative.

Kit Benz

Kit Benz is a clown, puppeteer, physical theatre artist, writer, and arts educator based in Moh’kins’tsis (colonially known as Calgary) 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 spent several glorious summers training in Pochinko clown at the Manitoulin Conservatory for Creation and Performance and is always finding ways to incorporate clown into their everyday life.

When not pursuing the arts, Kit can be found gardening, birdwatching, or doting on their cats.

Ali DeRegt

Ali DeRegt (she/they) is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist focused on devising, puppetry, and clown. They hold an MFA from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, where they co-founded HOT TRASH! Theatre, a devised theatre company that focuses on DIY aesthetics, physical storytelling, and general nonsense. She also is the new Artistic Director for live programming at the Festival of Animated Objects here in Calgary.

Recent credits include:  All I Want for Christmas, Go For Gold Audrey Pham (Lunchbox), INISKIM (Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry), Peter and the Wolf (The Old Trout Puppet Workshop), Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley (Persephone Theatre), and seasons 1 & 2 of Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (The Jim Henson Company and Apple TV+).

Ali is a recipient of the Duval Lang Emerging Leader Award and an Elizabeth Sterling Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement in Theatre for Young Audiences.

Randi Edmundson

Driven by curiosity, Randi wears many hats in the world of theatre, including producing, directing, performance, and design. She has been working and teaching in puppetry for the last decade and loves introducing new puppeteers to the potential of the form. Her passion for puppetry has taken her across the country and the globe, including artistic research in Indonesia with Papermoon Puppet Theatre. With her Jessie-Richardson Award winning company Little Onion Puppet Co., Randi has toured multiple original puppet works across Western Canada. She holds a BFA in Performance from the University of Victoria and an MFA in Directing from the University of Calgary. Randi is grateful to create as a freelance artist on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territory in Vancouver and on unceded Secwepemc territory in Kamloops, where she is proud to be the Artistic Producer of Project X Theatre.

Braden Griffiths

Born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Braden has been an actor, playwright, puppeteer, and arts educator for the past twenty years. With a few plays shy of 100 professional acting credits, he has performed throughout Western Canada (and occasionally overseas: East Asia and Australia). As a designer, builder and puppeteer, he has worked internationally but is most proud of his work with his local heroes at Green Fools, CAMP and The Old Trout Puppet Workshop. He is a published playwright (with Ellen Close) and was recently a puppeteer on two seasons of Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. In between all that stuff, he can be found teaching young people life skills through theatre, most often with the CBE or at Theatre Alberta’s Artstrek. He’s been nominated for a bunch of awards and won a few, but considers it garish to brag about such things (winky face emoji).

Monica Ila

Monica Ila (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist, cartographer and prairie mermaid from Calgary, Alberta. Her work includes sculpture, murals, painting, and puppetry. Playfulness is at the heart of everything she makes. Monica is pursuing a BFA in Sculpture at the Alberta University of the Arts. Her artwork has been exhibited in galleries and public institutions across Canada. Monica believes that art is instrumental in bringing communities closer together and rediscovering the whimsy within our daily lives.

Dave Lane

Dave is a painter, performer, puppet & mask maker based in North Adams, Massachusetts. He was one of the original members of the Old Trout Puppet Workshop, and more recently worked on their original television special From Naughty to Nice, co-produced by National Film Board of Canada. Once upon a time he and a rag tag group of artists created a legendary Fringe Show called The Death of Benvenuto Cellini with the Green Fools Theatre Society in Alberta, Canada.

Dave has led workshops across New England and at Dell’Arte International in Blue Lake, California. His street performances of Punch and Judy toured coast to coast in the both the US and Canada including at New York City’s Lincoln Center’s Out-of-Doors Festival, the Calgary International Children’s Festival, the Edmonton International Street Performing Festival, and many more.

Dave helped to found The Newfoundland Puppet Collective which brought the community together over the course of two summers, to create a puppet-adaptation of the traditional Newfoundland tale, Jack and the Bottle of World’s End Water using articulated lantern puppets. The script was written by Andy Jones and Mary Fearon. This work has led to the formation of the Berkshire Lantern Walk, and became the design aesthetic for the intercultural project, Iniskim, Return of the Buffalo, celebrating the return of Buffalo to Banff National Park.

Dave is a three-time, Jim Henson Foundation grant recipient for his original plays The Chronicles of Rose, and Émile Zola’s The Belly of Paris.

Graham Percy

Graham is a longtime actor, sometime educator, and aspiring academic. Having performed across the country, his main contributions have come through long associations with Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, the Atlantic Theatre Festival, Two Planks and a Passion Theatre, and Vertigo Theatre.

A graduate of Queen’s University, and Jacque Lecoq’s International School of Theatre in Paris, France, Graham is currently pursuing a master’s in interdisciplinary studies at the University of Calgary, investigating theatre through space and place. 

Jamie Tognazzini

Jamie T is a queer transdisciplinary artist who appears as a theatre performer, puppeteer, vocalist/musician/musical theatre performer, clown and movement artist.  “Sister Mary” is Jamie’s clown – a queer faith healer facilitating absurd religious experiences, appearing in dozens of episodes with handmade props/costumes/wigs. Jamie’s been a proud ensemble member and premiered original shows with notable companies including One Yellow Rabbit, Ghost River Theatre, Catalyst Theatre, The Old Trout Puppet Workshop, and numerous others. 

Jamie has performed in dozens of cabarets and festivals, including immersive public art installations for Wreck City and Nuit Blanche, crafting original costumes/sets/puppets from trash and trash-adjacent materials. Apprenticing with the Old Trout Puppet Workshop and recently performing with them in Texas was a genuine dream come true.  

An Incubator Artist with the International Festival of Animated Objects, Jamie debuts a new solo musical puppet creation in 2026.  Currently, Bonnyboom is home to Jamie’s messy studio. It’s an absolute honour to be an Associate Artist of CAMP.