Ronnie Burkett (born June 10, 1957 in Lethbridge, Alberta) is a Canadian puppeteer, best known for his original theatrical plays for adults, performed with marionettes. He was the puppeteer for Ralph on the TV Ontario series Harriet's Magic Hats during seasons three and four.
After winning a regional Emmy Award in 1979 for the puppets in "Cinderrabbit" on PBS in the US, Burkett formed his own theatre company in Alberta in 1986. His early works included Fool's Edge, Virtue Falls, The Punch Club and Awful Manors. In 1994, his work Tinka's New Dress was his international breakthrough, winning two Dora Awards, four Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Awards and a special citation from the Obie Awards. Performed internationally, Tinka's New Dress was the first part of a trilogy which continued with Street of Blood in 1999 and Happy in 2000. He also won a Chalmers Award in 1996 for Old Friends, a piece commissioned by the Manitoba theatre for young people. In 2009, Burkett received the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre for design.
His work, Provenance, was performed for the first time in October 2003, premiering at Theatre Network in Edmonton. In November 2007, he finished touring his show 10 Days on Earth that premiered at CanStage in Toronto in April 2006. In October 2008, he premiered his latest, quasi-autobiographical show, Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy, at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton; the show is currently scheduled to tour several cities in Canada, the UK, and Australia through late 2009.
Burkett writes his own scripts. Appearing onstage throughout each performance, he manipulates and is the voice of every character, from newborn ducks to dying mothers, Christ and Satan and everything in between.
Openly gay, Burkett lives in Toronto with his partner, jazz singer John Alcorn.[1]