Puppet master Ronnie Burkett and friends. Burkett brings his autobiographical show Billy Twinkle to Calgary in the 2009-10 season. (Cylla von Tiedemann/The Canadian Press)

Works by two of Canada's most innovative artists, puppeteer Ronnie Burkett and playwright Daniel MacIvor, are featured in the 2009-10 season by Calgary's Alberta Theatre Projects.

Lethbridge-born Burkett, known for his work with marionettes in adult theatre, is bringing Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy, the story of a cruise ship puppeteer having a mid-life crisis.

The quasi-autobiographical show debuted at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton in 2008 and is scheduled to tour several cities in Canada, the U.K. and Australia.

MacIvor, who won the $100,000 Siminovitch Prize this year, is bringing Communion, one in a trilogy of plays he has written about family and relationships.

It is the last season to be programmed by ATP artistic director Bob White, who will leave his post this spring after 22 years with the company. Vanessa Porteous is scheduled to replace him.

Another four new Canadian works will premiere at the 24th annual Enbridge playRites Festival of New Canadian Plays held in Calgary in February and March 2010. They are:

• Abraham Lincoln Goes to the Theatre by Larry Tremblay, translated by Chantal Bilodeau, a comic take on the schizophrenia of America.
• How Do I Love Thee? by Florence Gibson, about the classic romance of poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning.
• Tyland by Greg MacArthur, a thriller about two women on a lonely island.
• The Highest Step in the World by David van Belle and Eric Rose, a performance featuring aerial choreography and multimedia, co-produced with Ghost River Theatre.

Also in the season are revivals including:

• Shakespeare's Dog by Rick Chafe, the story of how a rogue from Stratford became the world's most famous playwright, adapted from the novel by Leon Rooke.
• I, Claudia by Kristen Thomson, the Crow's Theatre production of the one-woman show.
• Toad of Toad Hall by Philip Goulding, a family stage event adapted from The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.