Little Angel Theatre announces plans for Childrens’ Puppet Festival this summer
Little Angel Theatre’s Children’s Puppet Festival will return for its second year, with the programme announced today.
The festival, which is set to take place at the north London venue from 2 August to 1 September 2024, recently won a one-off Offie Award at this year’s Off West End Awards for its work showcasing different styles of puppetry by award-winning companies for various age groups.
Highlights of the festival include two London premieres: a new version of the classic book The Little Prince, adapted by Lyngo Theatre Company and Minny Stynker from Soap Soup Theatre, one of Bristol’s leading family theatre makers, introducing projection mapping and augmented reality to Little Angel for the first time.
Also featured is the return of artist Sam Wilde’s company Cardboard Adventures with their show Boxville, an interactive build-your-own adventure. Claytime introduces children to the joy of clay, with performers molding clay into various objects and bringing them to life.
In Little Angel’s studio space will be Under the Little Red Moon by English Touring Opera, promising a sensory experience with music and movement for children under two, as well as String Theatre with Lottie, The Travelling Doll, following the recent addition of marionette puppetry to the Red List of Endangered Crafts.
The festival line-up includes puppetry styles from some of the UK’s leading theatre makers, such as Long Nose Puppets, Goofus, Garlic and Scarlet Oak Theatre. Georgia Hill’s Monster Circus will provide an interactive workshop experience where audiences can learn about different puppets and try puppetry themselves.
In addition to the festival, Little Angel Theatre will offer a range of family and adult activities throughout August, including “Puppet Playcations”, craft workshops, puppet making courses, “Hands On” introduction to puppetry sessions, all before the Open House Festival in September.
Little Angel associate artist and curator of the Children’s Puppet Festival Oliver Hymans said today: “Once again the festival is an opportunity to showcase the amazing breath of the versatile artform of puppetry. We were absolutely thrilled to win an award at the Offies for the festival’s inaugural year and we believe we have programmed just as an exciting line-up of artists and companies for this season!
“Following on from our work to get marionette making and performance onto the red list of endangered crafts in May 2023, we are more impassioned than ever to create a platform where puppetry and theatre for young audiences can thrive and flourish, receiving the recognition they deserve.”
