We had a great time performing our new show “7 Songs of Love” at the Moving Parts Arts Scratch Space at Beverley Puppet Festival this year. You can see images of the show in rehearsal on the slideshow above.

We will performing the show again at More Music in Morecambe on Saturday October 1st sometime between 12 and 4pm as part of their Fun Palaces event. So please do come and see it if you are interested in booking the show. We are interested in using the show for rural touring as well as more conventional theatre spaces. The show has a heavy emphasis on eighteenth century sailors/sailing so would be great for any maritime themed events/locations. It features a variety of eighteeth century folk songs so would also be of interest to folk festivals/music festivals. The show uses a minimum performance area of 4m square and ideally requires blackout, (does not have to be total). We are currently self-sufficient regarding tech. The version we performed at Beverley was 25 minutes long, but we intend to work on expanding the show to around 45 minutes (potentially with an interval). We can also combine showings with shadow puppetry workshops for adults or children as required. We are in the process of putting together a video trailer using the footage we got from the scratch space showings and will post this too as soon as we have it.

We are interested in partnering with venues to work with us on improving and expanding the show. We need space to rehearse and develop the show, a third eye, ideally some funding and performance opportunities as well. Please get in touch if this is you!

It was so wonderful to see so many familiar faces in person rather than on a computer screen. The atmosphere was really great and the fact that we were accommodated in the Beverley Friary YHA (which was also the festival hub) meant that there was plenty of opportunity to meet other puppeteers when we were not performing. We had just one performance on the Saturday and one on the Sunday which meant that (for a change) we had plenty of time to see other people’s shows. We were also able to attend the PuppeteersUK meeting at which the Chair (Malcolm Knight of Scottish Mask & Puppet Centre) spoke about the future plans for PUK and the current situation in the UK regarding the puppetry sector and also the impact of Brexit on touring, festivals etc.

We watched some of the other Scratch Space shows (as we wanted to support our fellow scratch space artists) including 7 Ravens by Tragic Carpet, Displaced by Prickly Pear Productions and Noughtymation by our friends at Noisy Oyster.

We also took a look at Noisy Oyster’s “The Noughty-One” installation which used the same 3-D printed puppets as the “Noughtymation” scratch piece. Nik Palmer had been experimenting with these during lockdown and I was very interested to see them in action live.

Sarah Rowland-Barker returned the favour by coming to see our scratch space show. We got lots of positive feedback from the audiences as well as some suggestions for improvements. One of the things we were unsure of was the age range the show was suitable for as the content is more adult than our usual offerings. Feedback suggested that it was suitable for Keystage 2 and up.

We also went to see “Kit and Caboodle” by Thingumajig Theatre. I have encountered Thingumajig many times at many different festivals etc. but I have mainly seen their processional work and this was our first time seeing one of their static shows, (I say static but it was of course combined with a little walkabout to gather an audience with their wonderful pack mule “Kit”).

It was very interesting seeing this show after having watched the Scratch Space show “Displaced”, (which was used the real stories of different refugees) as Kit and Caboodle dealt with many of the same issues but in a more subtle and family friendly way. It was good to see some positive/sympathetic messages about immigrants and refugees in both these shows as we need an antidote to all of the toxic messages about this subject in the press. As Kit and Caboodle is a street show there is more chance of the message reaching ordinary people in the street who might just happen to come upon it accidentally. As an indoor show, however, “Displaced” would undoubtedly be attended by people who are already sympathetic to the message of the show.

Andrew Kim very kindly let me have a closer look at the crankie theatre box that very cleverly slotted into the side of the set, (you can see it in action in the video below). I even got to have a go at cranking it! This was particularly interesting for me at the moment as I want to experiment with some crankie shows myself.