Mermaid Spotlight - Asif Illyas

Asif Illyas is a veteran of 30 years in the Canadian music scene. He has won numerous awards for his work in the pop songwriting and producing realm as well as composing for film and TV features. His extensive touring experience in bands over the years has taken him all over the world, performing on stages and in festivals with some of the world’s best including Colin Hay (Men At Work), Paula Cole, and producing and writing for Canadian acts like Ria Mae and Ashley MacIssac.

After his daughter, Ava, was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 2, Illyas decided that his touring days were on hold so that he could help take care of her so, in 2013, Asif released his ECMA award-winning debut solo album, “Synesthesia”, where he performed all the instruments himself. Still continuing to have challenges figuring out ways to stay home from touring and create music, in 2018, he released a unique online music show called “ Live On The Flight Deck”, an aerial version of Seinfeld’s “Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee”, where he took musician collaborators such as George Canyon and Alan Doyle on flights in a Boeing 737 simulator, hand-crafted by himself, above places they toured which brought him national media attention.

With, now 15 year old, Ava, he is showcasing songs that have been special to him during his life, going year by year, from 1978 to the present. They livestream the performances, raw and real, and Asif uses a new technique he learned recently of “percussive guitar” which aims to make the acoustic guitar have rhythm accompaniment all at once. Along with Ava’s talented ear, they perform intimate, acoustic versions along with original songs written during Asif’s extensive career.

He lives in Halifax with his wife and two children, continuing to perform when possible and creating film and multimedia music. Along with his performance series, he has created the musical score for the new main stage production by the world-renowned Mermaid Theatre "It's Okay To Be Different: Stories By Todd Parr", along with several themes for TV.

Mermaid Spotlight - Terra Spencer

Raised on the mud banks of the Avon River, award-winning Nova Scotian funeral director-turned-songwriter Terra Spencer has won over audiences in Canada, the UK, and Germany since her 2018 debut. She has already crafted a catalogue of startlingly intimate songs, marrying fingerstyle guitar, gospel piano, and her butterscotch voice with sly humour and '70s wood-paneled warmth. Terra recently released her third album, Old News, created with Ben Caplan and celebrated with a cross-Canada and UK tour, and will join David Francey in 2023 for his upcoming album release tour. In a room of 5 or 500, every show is a knee-to-knee conversation with a natural storyteller. "The real deal." - Ron Sexsmith

Terra Spencer's song "Brick and Mortar" won first place last week in the Commonwealth Song Contest last week! Out of 20,000 entries from 56 countries, "Brick and Mortar" was chosen by public votes and the votes of ten thousand songwriters as the WINNER!

Terra is also working on an exciting project here at Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia

Learn more about Terra and find her upcoming shows here: https://terraspencer.ca/home

Mermaid Spotlight - Alex Cubbon

Alex Cubbon is MermaidTV’s Lead Technical Artist. She graduated from Dalhousie University in 2016 with an honours degree in Theatre (Acting) and began her professional career as a puppeteer with Mermaid Theatre in 2017. In 2020, she joined the MermaidTV team and assisted in the creation of over 50-episodes of digital content for the MermaidTV platform. Alex’s extensive expertise of the Adobe Creative Design Suite, including software programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Character Animator are vital to the continued creation of Mermaid’s digital products. With her experience as a storytelling theatre artist and puppeteer, she helps drive animation narratives, develops layouts and backgrounds for animated worlds, and utilizes motion capture and lip-sync technology for creating life-like character dialogue.

Mermaid Spotlight - Ken Flett

Ken Flett has spent almost thirty years as a visual artist including doll making, sculpture, animation and now carving wooden puppets. Last November he produced the Diabolical Puppet Bomb in Bear River hosting 8 puppet performers. This brought together the community for an evening of storytelling created by amateur puppeteers. It was a DIY event and cemented in Ken the desire to further his understanding and skills with this medium. He has worked with Jennifer Marlow on a performance in the Diabolical Puppet Bomb and has spent time in the Loft of Mermaid Theatre with Jennifer under the wonderful guidance of Jim Morrow.

Ken has just driven across Canada (Nova Scotia to Vancouver Island) meeting several puppeteers along the way and performed two puppet shows on Vancouver Island of an original play he wrote, titled Dancing with Shadows. In addition to being a performer, Ken is also a teacher and as his skills in this medium grow he wants to share his knowledge with others to ensure that this form of artistic storytelling continues through younger generations.

Ken feels lucky to be a part of the rich community of puppeteers in Canada.

Mermaid Spotlight - Struan Robertson

Struan Robertson, Mermaid’s Education & Outreach Director, graduated from Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, QC with a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and Fine Art. At Bishop’s he studied puppetry under the direction of Tim Gosley, and further refined his skills as an ANIMOTION participant, the Mermaid Institute of Puppetry Arts acclaimed professional intensive program. He joined Mermaid as a touring artist with the productions of Code Green and Goodnight Moon & The Runaway Bunny, and performed with the company throughout Canada, the United States, Hong Kong, and Macau.

Struan became a full-time production employee in 2011 and has subsequently been responsible for assisting in production design and creating transformative sets, props, and puppets. Simultaneously, his unique skills as a teacher have made him a much sought-after instructor whose imaginative workshops using found-objects have delighted hundreds of children (as well as their parents and teachers) in Nova Scotia, US and in China. Struan was promoted to the position of Director of Education and Outreach for the Institute of Puppetry Arts in 2018, where he implemented new and creative programs for local, regional and international students of puppetry. Now Struan is Project Manager and Assistant to the Managing Artist Director where he helps send out Mermaid Theatre’s shows around the world.

Mermaid Spotlight - Jennifer Marlow

Artist Jennifer Marlow is a relative newcomer to the world of puppetry. Marlow had been woodcarving for over 20 years when she enrolled in the Academy of the Wooden Puppet with Bernd Ogrodnik (Iceland) to learn to make various styles of puppets.

Coinciding with studies in the Academy, Marlow immersed herself in the art of puppetry via Mermaid Theatre’s Animotion program (Nova Scotia) where she continues under the mentorship of Mermaid’s Artistic Director, Jim Morrow. This past winter, Marlow was invited to participate in a puppet retreat hosted by North Barn Theatre where discussions were had and ideas were exchanged. During that retreat, a 2-day physical theatre workshop with Marc-André Charron (National Arts Centre) introduced her to the world of mask and mime.

November 2022 she was invited to fellow wooden puppet colleague Ken Flett’s ‘Diabolical Puppet Bomb’ where she puppeteered in 3 different shows. She continues to work with ceramicist Teresa Bergen and musician Kim Barlow puppeteering for the beautiful musical theatre piece they created using ceramic marionettes. Together, with artist and puppeteer Krista Wells, they continue to develop vignettes of a travel journal written by Wells.

Currently, Marlow is working with deaf artist Tiphaine Girault (a fellow Animotion participant) assisting her as a puppeteer and puppet maker in the development of a story written by Girault. Marlow is enrolled in the Master program of the Wooden puppet beginning January 2024 as she excitedly accepts and seeks out collaborative work with fellow puppeteers, puppet makers and anything puppet.