“A Day in the Life” with: Theatre Artist Ali DeRegt

Ali DeRegt is one of the wild ones. After graduating from the University of Lethbridge, she made the pilgrimage to Calgary and began a career filled with puppetry, clown and roles on some of Calgary’s / Canada’s biggest stages (and one time in Texas, where she saw the biggest gun she’d ever seen on a guy in a sandwich shop)… During the pandemic, Jim Henson came calling, and she did two seasons of Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock (AppleTV+). She’s a perennial member of casts and build teams for The Old Trout Puppet Workshop, and throughout the last 10 years, she has become one of Alberta’s finest puppeteers, designers, and builders. She is the curator of live performance for The Festival of Animated Objects, a director, choreographer, devising partner, script writer, a performer of depth and range, consummate advocate for the power of a fart joke, and everything else in between. She was recently the recipient of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta 2026 Emerging Artist Award and, in the same week, she was nominated for a Betty Mitchell Award. She loves her husband, Greg, and her best friend, Camille, but, above all, she loves her neighbour, Braden, who wrote this bio for her.

Ali DeRegt
Ali DeRegt and Family at the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta 2026 Emerging Artist Award’s ceremony.
Ali DeRegt
A photo from The Old Trout Puppet Workshop’s Peter and The Wolf at the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.
Photo of Ali from Hansel and Gretel with Calgary Opera and the Old Trout Puppet Workshop. Mask and Costume by the Old Trout Puppet Workshop.
Production photo of Ali DeRegt in Theatre Calgary’s Blithe Spirit.
Photo of Ali DeRegt inside a puppet created by Ali DeRegt and Monica Ila for TV Mini Series, Summer’s Monster.
In progress angler fish mask by Ali DeRegt for Adventure of Young Turtle.
Ali DeRegt
BTS of puppeteers Braden Griffiths, Genevieve Pare, Ali DeRegt and Dean Bareham from Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock Season 2.
Ali DeRegt
Vacation photo from the Waterworld Stunt Spectacular at Universal Studios.

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Which ’hood are you in?

Cliff Bungalow

What do you do?

I am a theatre artist specializing in puppetry and physical theatre.

What are you currently working on?

I just finished a run of The End, a new play by the Old Trout Puppet Workshop and am about to launch into a puppet build for a Lethbridge-based theatre company. I’ll also be travelling to Prague at the end of the month for a marionette carving workshop.

Where can we find your work?

I am the curator for live performance for the Festival of Animated Objects, which happens every March in Calgary. In May 2027, I’ll be performing in Peter and the Wolf with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Old Trout Puppet Workshop.

 

About Emilea Semancik 342 Articles
Emilea Semancik was born in North Vancouver. Emilea has always always wanted to work as a freelance writer and currently writes for the Vancouver Guardian. Taking influence from journalism culture surrounding the great and late Anthony Bourdain, she is a recipe author working towards publishing her own series of books. You can find her food blog on Instagram: