Up North again...

So it's been a little over a month since my last update and what a busy month it's been. As the title suggests, I'm back up in Manchester for the time being but that's not all this month has brought! There have been making requests, R&D, directing gigs and a very exciting job has just started. To take those in order...

I'm very pleased to say I'll be making a puppet for a new circus show called Dust by Tamzen Moulding's company, Inverted. I'll be putting up some pictures next time of where I've got to with the puppet. It'll be very exciting!

Mervyn Millar at Significant Object had me in to play for a few days on a prototype for a fully life-size African Elephant puppet and her calf. It was a really challenging bit of work involving large-scale puppetry whilst stilt-walking. And whilst attached to the other puppeteers via harnesses. I think in the end we created something which looked like a believable elephant and we only had one major falling over incident (during which I JUST managed to stay upright...)

The wonderful people at HOAX Theatre are currently in the midst of a second run of their play Hysterical which I was involved in at the R&D stage last year. They asked me in to direct the puppetry for this revival and I was blown away by the work of the cast. Very dedicated, very easy to work with and very funny. They're currently performing in London so go find out more HERE

And finally, the reason I'm up in Manchester for the next three months! I have been lucky enough to land myself a role as an assistant puppeteer on The Furchester Hotel.

This co-production between CBeebies and Sesame sees Elmo come to the UK to work with his Aunt Funella, his Uncle Fergus and his cousin Phoebe in their hotel, The Furchester. He's brought along Cookie Monster too and the series looks at interpersonal relationships and problem solving in a fun, anarchic and characteristically Sesame Street way! I can't say anything specific about what I'll be up to on the series but we just finished our first week of rehearsals and start shooting tomorrow. It's a ton of fun with some incredibly talented performers. Not least of all Andy Heath as our Puppet Co-ordinator, Andrew Spooner as Fergus and Louise Gold as Funella but of course also Ryan Dillon as Elmo and David Rudman as Cookie Monster.

I'm having an absolute blast so far and I'm sure my next update will be full of vague indications of how much fun I'm having but for now I recommend you go watch some episodes of the last series on iPlayer.

As always do feel free to look around the site and to drop me a line. Until next time!

Mikey