Rag and Bone Puppet Theatre

Rag & Bone Puppet Theatre was started in 1978 by the husband and wife team of Kathy MacLellan and John Nolan. Since then we've played across Canada, from Victoria to St. John's, and from southern Ontario to Baffin Island.

We've played most of the major children's festivals in Canada. We often present our shows at Ottawa's National Arts Centre. We've won a Citation of Excellence in the Art of Puppetry from UNIMA, which is the international puppetry association
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Kathy MacLellanhas written for many children's tv shows, including Mr. Dressup, Under the Umbrella Tree and Theadore Tugboat.
John Nolan appears as Jackson on the YTV show Crazy Quilt.
Russell Levia provides music for most of our shows. He frequently plays in clubs and community centres, and at festivals such as the Ottawa Folk Festival and the Blue Skies Festival. He has released 3 albums: Tea for Two, So Rare and, just released, The Wayward Wind. Click here for more on So Rare.

About our style...

In our productions we appear in full view of the audience as we work the puppets, and freely move from being narrators to being puppeteers. We play with the puppets in the same way that children play with dolls and toys.

This style of puppetry is called open manipulation. The children have a chance to see “how everything works”, and the puppeteers have direct contact with the audience, combining puppetry with storytelling and acting. Although it’s a bit unusual in Canada, it’s nothing new: the Japanese Bunraku theatre has been performing with visible puppeteers for centuries. Our staging is intended to involve the audience imaginatively with the story. Simple props and lengths of fabric indicate scenery, and imagination fills in the details.Live music is an important part of our shows, weaving throughout the performance. All of our music is especially arranged for our show, often based on classical themes.

Rag & Bone Puppet Theatre
1693 Boyer Road,
Orléans, Ontario
K1C 3L1
(613) 824-5972
or email us at mailbox@ragandbone.ca
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