Guy & Johanne Noël
YES SANTA CLAUS, THERE IS A VIRGINIA
ABOUT THE AUTHORS, PUPPETEERS, ARTISTS
Janine Tougas has a Certificate in Expressive Arts Therapy from the Winnipeg Holistic Expressive Arts Therapy Institute, a Master in Education specializing in Counselling from the University of Manitoba and a Master in Fine Arts specializing in Puppetry from Connecticut College. Janine has over 500 credited hours of study in Virginia Satir’s work and has integrated Satir’s principles in many programs for parents, teachers and young people throughout Canada.
Michael Kurek has a music degree from Sir Wilfrid Laurier University, a Master of Divinity from Trinity College, University of Toronto, and a Master of Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Winnipeg.
Natalie Labossière began her professional career as a schoolteacher. For the past 30 years, she has been a professional puppeteer and program developer, integrating Virginia Satir’s principles in creative arts workshop with children and teachers throughout Canada. Natalie co-stars in the DVD The Four Little Pigs, a play based on Satir’s communication styles.
Johanne Noël is a seamstress-costumer, puppet-builder, dancer and puppeteer. She has hundreds of performances to her credit and was featured as a key performer on the televised puppet series Paul & Suzanne. Johanne co-stars in the DVD The Four Little Pigs. Offstage, she integrates the Satir principles as a real-life grandmother to ten active and creative children.
Denis Savoie’s interests range from snow and stone sculpting to painting gigantic wall murals to ink drawings. During the long winters, Denis participates in winter carnavals in Canada and the US building snow sculptures of his own design, many inspired by Indigenous legends and lore. In children’s books, Denis has illustrated two hundred stories for Paul & Suzanne series sold worldwide.
Brigitte Gobeil is happiest being her own boss and illustrating children’s stories. Her affable, fun-loving nature is communicated in the more than 100 children’s books she has illustrated and coloured. She also puts her training as a graphic artist to good use as member of a creative team of program developers who promote the benefits of the creative arts in education, from language development to financial literacy.
