We caught up with Jimmy Grimes, director of our brand new production Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, to ask him about puppetry, creativity and Red Riding Hood. What can you tell us about the puppetry in Red Riding Hood and the Wolf? We are being told a story by Robyn, an 8 year old with a creative spirit that leads her to create all the characters, locations and effects within her bedroom. What I wanted to tap into was the commitment with which children play, the way in which they explore physicality through the movement of their toys and the freedom that this might bring to us as storytell ..read more

Ahead of his performance at the Autism Arts Festival we spoke to Josiah Carr, self-professed ‘King of Banter’ and member of our Spectrum Youth Theatre, about puppetry and creating theatre. “I believe puppetry is an important art form” Josiah Carr: I properly got interested in puppetry when I was invited into Spectrum Youth Theatre. It was my first time doing puppetry. I joined STY three years ago and was quite nervous at first but I soon got used to every one there and got used to it quite quickly. Maui’s Island was my first show I liked the puppets. A lot of the puppets were compl ..read more

Have a go at making your very own Origami Wolf, inspired by our upcoming show, Red Riding Hood and the Wolf.                                                 What you will need: Plain Paper (Square) Scissors Glue Stick Ruler Pencil Felt-tip Pens Step 1:                                                                &n ..read more

We caught up with Tinka Slavicek to talk about her background in puppetry ahead of our new course at Little Angel Theatre, Personality Puppets. “Play is absolutely the main thing.” When did you get the puppetry bug? In early childhood  – my aunt was a puppeteer in Kvak Puppet Theatre and I was dedicated follower of all their magical performances. Later on, while studying pedagogy, I was lucky to have Vlasta Pokrivka, the artistic director of Kvak Puppet Theatre, as my teacher in puppetry and scene art, which lead to me becoming the member of Kvak and spending several wonderful ..read more

We caught up with Jon Barton, writer of our brand new production Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, to ask him about what inspires him as a writer. Little Angel Theatre: What was your favourite puppet from childhood? Jon Barton: My favourite was Sweep from The Sooty Show. Sweep was a perpetually hapless dog who squeaks when he talked, but he always had an opinion, and always had something to say! LAT: What was your favourite bedtime story and why? JB: Roald Dahl’s Treasury were big hits in my house. The favourites were Revolting Rhymes and Fantastic Mr Fox. I loved that his writing could take ..read more

We asked Oliver Smart, professional Puppeteer, Director of Folded Feather Theatre Company and Little Angel Theatre tutor extraordinaire, to tell us a bit about his forthcoming one day Introduction to Puppetry Performance course (Sunday 19th March, 10am – 5pm, Little Angel Studios). This workshop continues to be one of our most popular adult courses, so – what can participants expect? Over to you Oli… Oli Smart: My aim on this course is to introduce as much about puppetry as is possible in a six hour, action packed day. The day begins with an introductory session where many different puppetry ..read more

Words by Jon Barton, writer of ‘Red Riding Hood and the Wolf’ a new production for ages 5+ at Little Angel Theatre this spring. It is a cautionary tale for all time. A little girl in a red cloak, hoodwinked by a Big Bad Wolf. There are countless variations of Red Riding Hood. It has been told and retold all over the world. But my earliest memory of the story was not the traditional one. Picture if you will, a chubby little boy tucked into bed with dreams of staying up quashed, not by exhaustive attempts at doing so, but by the pleasure of Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes. It is one of my fon ..read more

Lori Hopkins is a puppeteer and performer. Lori recently performed in our Christmas production ‘Me…’. See Lori in her own brand new show ‘The Explorer’ 1 & 2 April. Find out more HERE. Do you have a  favourite memory of Little Angel Theatre? We’d love to hear it. Just email martin@littleangeltheatre.com     ..read more

In Christmas 2010 my then one year old daughter Olive got a book for Christmas, Dogs Don’t Do Ballet. For a while it sat in a pile with other bedtime story books. After reading it the first it began working its way to the front of the pile more and more often. My wife Andrea and I were as likely to pick it as the girl. The irrepressible character of the little dog who wants to dance, the sharp illustrations, the mix of elegance and slapstick and the message that we can be whatever we want, all combined to make something that felt ripe for translating to the stage. Two years later we’d put toge ..read more

We recently enjoyed a staff adventure to the British Museum to see their Southeast Asian Shadow puppetry exhibition. Curator Dr Alexandra Green gave a fascinating tour of their puppet collection from Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. The intricate patterning and curvilinear designs of the Javanese shadow puppets were my favourite, displayed re-enacting the great battle scene from the Indian epic the Mahabharata. With 102 puppets, I thought our production of A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings was impressive, yet these performances had hundreds and hundreds of puppets! Our touring manager, Hatti ..read more