My appearance in”Puppets and Puppet Theatre” by David Currell

I was delighted to receive my signed copy of the New Revised Second Edition of David Currell’s “Puppets & Puppet Theatre” on World Puppet Day. I was invited to share some images of my work for the book a while back now and I am thrilled to discover that these have been included on three separate pages of the book as well as a mention in the sound equipment section, the “Contributors” section and the Acknowledgements.

To be included in this book has special significance for me because it was books like my copy of “The Complete Book of Puppet Theatre” by David that helped me to make some of my first puppets when we first started out making things for Rough Magic Theatre‘s first production “The Tempest”.

To be included in a book like this after over 25 years doing puppetry and making puppets which may inspire a whole new generation of new puppeteers is amazing and wonderful.

I have not had time to read the whole thing in depth from cover to cover, but it is clear that it is an extraordinarily comprehensive and up to date guide to puppet making, performance techniques, staging and even touches on the business side of things.

This new edition includes such up to the minute making techniques and materials such as 3-D printed puppets (featuring Nik Palmer’s work), worbla, plastezote etc. as well as traditional materials such as wood and so on.

For anybody starting out this would be an excellent buy and indeed it could be useful for established practitioners to find out about new techniques and materials etc.

This is a fairly big book and every page is literally crammed with pictures, instructions and all sorts of practical information.

I shall do a follow up on the book after I have had time to read all of it, but I feel that this is almost like an encyclopedia of puppetry that you can consult when you have a specific issue or technique that you want to know more about.

If you want a copy of the book; it can be purchased online or from The Crowood Press for £25 + £3.99 postage (£28.99) or David says you can contact him for a signed copy for £25 including postage

Contact:                 davidcurrellauthor@gmail.com

New Year, New Shows!

I am currently working on a brand new shadow puppet show featuring a number of favourite fairy tales which we are calling “Fairytales of Wit, Wisdom and Witchcraft“. It has it’s own webpage with all the details so do CLICK HERE to take a look. It is particularly suited for schools, libraries, studio theatre and other small spaces.

We are taking bookings now for summer 2025 so do get in touch if you are interested!

Here is the promo video below:

Also coming soon are 3 new episodes of “Al and Kai’s Faboo News”. If you’re not already subscribed to the channel you can find it @faboonews on YouTube or at https://www.faboonews.com/

The first new episode will be airing at 9am on Saturday 15th of February and the next 2 on the following 2 Saturdays, plus keep your eyes peeled for Faboo News extras on Wednesdays.

The new episodes will be on the themes of The Great Outdoors, Medicine and Family,(feeling different).

If you want to get involved with the show you can click the “Faboo Yous” tab on the website or if you’re in the Lancaster area on Saturday Feb 1st Faboo News will be at the Fun Palace event at Lancaster library. The event is 12-4pm and I’ll have more specific times for Faboo News activities soon.

In the meantime if you’d like Faboo News to visit your school or community group you can find out more about Faboo Workshops by clicking HERE.

On another note, I recently found a video from a rehearsal of Theatre Mill’s “Sherlock Holmes and the Speckled Band” for which I was commissioned to make the shadow puppets:

If you would like to commission some shadow puppets please get in touch and you can find out more about commissions I have made on our commissions page HERE.