The Wunderbriefs are mini puppet interactions flexible enough to pop up in corners, hallways, sidewalks, lobbies and basements that are created out of suitcases, old radios, wagons – you name it! They have concepts inspired around a variety of different audience interactions ranging from, one on one experiences or with small gatherings and are a mainstay of the Festival of Animated Objects.
With the pandemic keeping us away from these upclose and personal encounters for the time being, we’re instead giving you a ‘sneak peek’ into the creative process of these artists. Our Wunderbrief artists will be popping up to take over our social media daily with interviews, live streams, studio tours and more.
Meet the Artists!
The Artists
Iván Enrique Gómez Monroy
Iván Gómez was born in Mexico City in 1983. In 2003 he began his professional studies in Dramatic Art at the Autonomous University of the State of Hidalgo, Mexico. At the end of his bachelor’s degree in 2007, he joined the same University in the Cultural Promotion Office. He worked as an actor with the Titular Theater company; in the area of Cultural Promotion he collaborated as an academic advisor. He also worked in the teaching area as a teacher and coordinator of the Theater Department at the Hidalgo’s University. He currently works as director of the theater and animation company Trotacielos.
He has independently studied Graphic Design in 2017. He also attended a digital multimedia workshop called “Liveness Prosthesis, Gesture and Metaphor ” in 2012, He took a Dramaturgy Workshop in 2011; Personal Mythology Workshop at the Escuela Internacional de Teatro de América Latina y Centroamérica (EITALC) in 2005 and Photography at the State Center of Fine Arts of Hidalgo in 2017.
He has complemented his career with other artistic disciplines such as puppetry, shadow theater, mime, clown, stilts and photography, all with great passion.
In 2019 he emigrated to Canada where he participated in different cultural and arts festivals showing the richness of Mexican culture and exploring international settings as an immigrant.
Among the festivals he has participated in Canada are ExpoLatino, Mexifest, Fiestaval and Global Fest all in 2019. He currently colaborates with the Calgarian companies Expresarte Theater Club, Gato Negro, Mictlan: Arts and Research and Alta Baja Productions.
He has participated in more than 30 plays and hundreds of performances in both professionally and informal settings in theaters and outdoors public squares.
He lives by and for the theater, for him it is an art with a social purpose that evolves and never dies.
Ali DeRegt & Monica Ila
Ali DeRegt is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist from Calgary, Alberta focused on devising, puppetry, and clown. She is currently recovering from completing an MFA from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London. Recent collaborations include Quest Theatre (Calgary), The Green Fools (Calgary), Mudfoot Theatre (Calgary) and Theatre Deli (London). She is a co-founder of Pape & Taper Productions, a puppet theatre company focused on devising new work, as well as a founder of Hot Trash! a London based collective devoted to DIY aesthetics and clown-based performances. Ali has had the privilege of training in puppet performance and fabrication with The Old Trout Puppet Workshop and Long Grass Studio. She has also trained with the distinguished clown duo John Turner and Michael Kennard (Mump & Smoot). You can hear her co-hosting her podcast The Cine-Vals, a deep dive into the filmography of Val Kilmer, which can be found at boathausstudios.com. Her most recent animation credits include World Trigger, Card-fight!! Vanguard, and Future Card Buddyfight.
Monica Ila’s favourite thing is monsters. She is an emerging multidisciplinary artist who focuses on puppetry, painting and
sculpture. Monica loves to dream up new worlds and beings to live within them, often making her characters three-dimensional and life-sized. She is currently pursuing a BFA in Sculpture at the Alberta University of the Arts. Monica has created work as a puppeteer since 2016 and participated in the Banff Theatre Puppet Intensive, Festival of Animated Objects, Dolly Wiggler Cabaret and OUF! Festival Off Castieliers. She believes that art is instrumental in bringing communities closer together and in rediscovering whimsy
within our daily lives.
Monica Ila
Ali DeRegt
Stephanie Quilliams
Stephanie Quilliams has loved puppets since the first time the Friendly Giant told her to look up, waaaay up when she was a kid. Steph got into performing with puppets later in life. She started out volunteering for the Festival of Animated Objects in 2013 and gradually worked up the courage to put her vision of what puppets could be onstage in 2018. Since then, she’s had the honour of being a Puppet Incubator, had work shown in various CAOS puppet slams, and is delighted to be part of the Wunderbriefs group. Steph’s work explores ideas ranging from the feelings surrounding suicide and loss, to a tongue-in-cheek approach to female empowerment and self-care. Her aesthetic has wide variety of influences. Underground comic artists like S Clay Wilson are just as likely to inspire a piece as Bach’s Oboe Concerto. She is very excited to be involved in this year’s Festival.
Tangle Caron
Tangle delights in the many hats she gets to wear: puppeteer, musician, educator, creature builder, coffee addict, mama. In puppetry, she has found the intersection of many passions: a place where she can combine her interest in performance, music, movement, visual art and social activism. She first found herself on stage with a puppet 13 years ago and that initial spark became a long, slow burn of obsession that has taken her across the continent from The Puppetry Intensive at the Banff Centre, to interning with Bread and Puppet Theatre in Vermont USA. She started her puppet theatre company, Entangled Puppetry on the cherry blossom filled streets of Victoria, BC a decade ago with found-object and trash puppets. Today she and her husband Tyler share their whimsical, musical puppet visions with young and old in Canmore, AB. Covid has forced a surprisingly fruitful transition online and has provided Tangle with the opportunity to experiment with new forms of puppetry and connect with an international community of puppeteers. She is grateful for her wonderful family who endures her absences as she toils in the studio and for being a constant source of inspiration. Follow Tangle’s work @entangledpuppetry on Facebook and Instagram.
Jenna Turk
A creator and collaborator, Jenna is relatively new to puppetry – so please be kind. Her messy meta needle felt puppetry might be categorized as Maud Lewis meets your sock drawer. Trained as an actor and a writer, she has always been drawn to the physicality of theatre and believes in creating striking images – although not necessarily pretty ones. Independently, she makes work as part of The Deep End Collective, a feminist theatre & film collective that creates art inspired by real people, places, or events and imaginatively turns them on their heads. Recent projects include writing/directing two short films (with “real” people) Bearcat and Bungalow; directing Iceland for Theatre Calgary; and being the resident dramaturg for YOUth Riot. She hopes you are hanging in there.
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In the spirit of reconciliation, Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry acknowledges that we live, work and play on the traditional territories of the Blackfoot Confederacy (which includes the Siksika, Kainai, Piikani). We would also like to acknowledge the Tsuut'ina, the Îyâxe Nakoda Nations(Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Wesley), the Métis Nation (Region 3), and all of us who make their homes in the Treaty 7 region of Southern Alberta.