Folks Involved
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Co-Founder
Laura Stinson (she/they) - Laura crafts images from both found and traditional materials. These creations become narratives, characters and atmospheres in a variety of theatrical spectacles. She began her career in puppetry with Bread and Puppet Theater in 2016. After four years working as a touring member and subsequent resident puppeteer with the company, Laura moved back to Mi’kma’ki and co-founded North Barn Theatre with Ian McFarlane in 2020. Alongside making work with North Barn she continues to collaborate with other artists as a performer, puppet and set designer and builder. She also shares her specialized knowledge by leading community workshops in both puppet construction and performance across the Atlantic region. She currently lives and works in Mi’kma’ki.
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Co-Founder
Ian McFarlane (he/they): Ian McFarlane is a scenographer, a theatre maker and a puppeteer whose work expands on the disciplines of material performance, ecoscenography and sensory ethnography. Creating for the theatre, community advocacy and interdisciplinary collaboration, his practice fosters a fusion of landscape poetics, regenerative invention and performative alchemy. He completed his MFA in Contemporary Art at Simon Fraser University and has taught across Canada in a variety of academic and community settings. Ian is the current Resident Designer and Lecturer for the Drama and Screen Studies Department at Mount Allison University.
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Collaborator
Diego is a fashion, costume and graphic designer based in Dartmouth/ Punamu’kwati’jk, NS. With a degree in Fashion and Graphics design, they started their career in productions in his hometown, Porto Alegre- Brazil. Later. In 2017 they went to Ontario to expand his knowledge in costume (graduated from Fanshawe - London, Ontario). Since 2021 Diego has been working with costumes in Atlantic Theatre. They have worked with Festival Antigonish, Neptune Theatre, Two Planks and a Passion, Halifax Theatre for Young People, Ships Company Theatre, Eastern Front Theatre and Confederation Centre. In 2024 Diego was recognized with the Robert Merritt Award for Outstanding Costume Design. Recently, with North Barn mentorship, they have adventuring into the puppet making universe.
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Collaborator
Iranian/Canadian composer, pianist, and singer/songwriter Behrooz Mihankhah started performing professionally as a singer/songwriter in India in 2011. In 2013 he shifted his focus to piano and composition when he went to Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music in Tamil Nadu, India in 2013. Along with a major in piano and composition he studied jazz, western harmony, Carnatic music and Konnakol. While in India, he played, toured, and had multiple television performances with various ensembles. He toured throughout India (New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Rajasthan, Mumbai) and Eastern Canada (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI). Behrooz holds a Bachelor of Music from St. Francis Xavier University in Jazz Studies and a Music Arts Diploma from the Nova Scotia Community College. Since 2015 Behrooz has lived in Halifax where he has been writing, producing, performing, and touring. Inspired by his migrations through Iran, India, and finally to Canada, Behrooz Mihankhah’s latest album "Lydium", takes impressionist and jazz compositions and presents them in an Iranian instrumental context. This collection of original and pre-existing pieces fuses musical traditions of the past with contemporary concepts of composition and improvisation.