Ian McFarlane is a scenographer, theatre maker and puppeteer who currently resides in Mi'kma'ki. Ian creates works for theatre, outdoor spectacles and community-led projects. Expanding on the disciplines of puppetry, ecoscenography and sensory ethnography as foundations for creative inquiry, his practice is a unique fusion of landscape poetics, junkyard theatrics and performative alchemy that explores the unexpected correspondence between the performing body and the performing of the world.

Ian has worked with such companies as the Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry (Calgary, AB), and Bread and Puppet Theater (Vermont), as well as co-founded Mudfoot Theatre (Calgary, AB). He received an MFA in Contemporary Art from Simon Fraser University and has recently co-created North Barn Theatre, where he has designed, created and performed several touring performances, including A Gorgon's Tale (2022), Troubling Joy: A Bicycle Puppet Circus (2021) and Late Night Radio (2020). As of this fall, Ian will also be joining the Drama and Screen Studies Department at Mount Allison University as Resident Designer.

Other methods of navigation include a bicycle, a paddle, boardgames, dogs, poetry and quiet places.