Tag Archives: gypsy shadow puppets

New Year, New Shows!

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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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.

Sherlock Holmes and The Speckled Shadow Puppets!

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Hello to all my lovely readers!

As promised here is a revelation of the SECRET puppet project that I was working on in October and November 2013.

I was asked to make a set of shadow puppets for Theatre Mill’s production of “Sherlock Holmes and the Speckled Band”.  This was staged in the fabulous National Trust property “The Treasurer’s House” in York.

That is me bottom left tutoring the new puppeteers back stage.

That is me bottom left tutoring the new puppeteers back stage.

Theatre Mill had decided to include a Gypsy Tale as part of the story and this was what the puppets would be used for.  This was not in the original Conan Doyle story but was added in to expand and complement the story.  This was a sensible decision in my opinion as the original story is actually very short.

I thought that Greek style shadow puppets would fit with the style of the production best.  So it was very interesting for me to try and produce puppets that were in a different style to my usual one.  I also suggested red as the colour for the screen as this would contribute to the supernatural atmosphere they were trying to create.  The original idea was that the screen would double as a shawl of one of the gypsies too so I thought it was a good colour for that as well.

I was not allowed to publicise this earlier as the Director and Producer were very keen to keep the shadow puppet show as a surprise for the audience.

I was lucky enough to find a review of the show that mentions the shadow puppet show specifically:

“My favourites, I have to say, were the colourful and ragamuffin bunch of gypsies that frequently piled onto the stage in a whirl of colour and sound. They were fun to watch, wonderful to listen to, and their puppetry show was so stunning that I would happily pay money just to see that bit again.” – Mari Elliott, Full Circle Arts

Click HERE to read the full review

Please feel free to ask me questions about the making of the show. 🙂 You can also contact me if you would like shadow puppets making for your own productions.