2007

Puppet Up! National festival of puppetry and visual theatre - coordinating and delivering large-scale processional puppet making in primary and secondary schools and community groups in Blackpool.

2006 (highlights)

Eureka Museum for Children, Halifax - early years creative play workshops

National Student Drama Festival, Scarborough - puppetry skills workshops leading to short devised pieces for cabaret

Central School of Speech and Drama, London - introduction to puppetry in devising and performance

Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston - 'The Collectors' puppet tours for reception and KS1 students with activities on art and collecting

Whitfield Primary School, Preston - 1 week residency with year 3 pupils making and using greek masks to perform greek myths

Life Education Centres national conference - 'Making the most of Harold' puppetry skills workshop

2005

Creative Partnerships Salford - working with Chatsworth High School on light and shadow, live projection and digital recording with ASDL teenagers on self-awareness project.

Creative Partnerships Salford - working with Crab Lane Primary on achieving literacy objectives through creative play.

Eureka! Museum for Children - Training play enablers in puppetry technique.

Octagon Theatre Bolton - training young performers on puppetry technique.

Watermark Preston - open access professional development sessions.

STARS Blackpool - working with special needs groups in the Summer.

London Borough of Richmond - Audience development workshops connected with touring performances in Richmond – 2 days.

Jersey Arts Centre - Audience development workshops connected with touring performances in Jersey

Family Workshops Claremont Blackpool

2004 Life Education - puppetry training for visiting school health workers.

Connexions - DNA worked with teenagers in Oxfordshire combining various puppetry & video techniques in a project aimed at looking at life and career choices.

Genie In a Bottle -A 20 day youth project In conjunction with Manchester Museum, Lets go Global & Contact theatre. Exploring our attitudes towards genetic engineering. This project resulted in a performance devised and performed by young people streamed live onto the internet and staged at the Green Room, Manchester

Arts in The Parks- Workshops in local parks in Preston with students from 3 special high schools.

Teacher training- Tutoring puppetry at Bethnal Green Museum of Chiildhood

The Lyric Hammersmith - workshops with the very young in Hammersmith, West London connected to touring performance 'Atishoo' workshops

Henshaw Society for the blind - devising new performances with partially sighted and fully sighted children using puppets that make noise.

Phoenix Youth Arts Bolton - creating a large processional dragon with young people in Bolton.

2003 Barnardos Parenting Adolescents’ (10 days)– a project working with mothers dealing with teenage children, creating a performance about parenting issues

Unity Theatre Shadow and rod technique with young people in Liverpool

Horse and Bamboo Theatre (2 days) – ‘The Animated Other’ professional development two day workshops

The Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith Three days assisting with research and development of ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’

The Dukes Playhouse Lancaster – Specialist puppetry direction on ‘Grimms Tales’

The Octagon Theatre, Bolton Assistance with puppetry training and devising on ‘The BFG’ for three days

Ounsdale High School Birmingham Mask making for two days with teenagers

Courtyard Youth Theatre Bicester Workshops for outdoor event.

Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood. Play workers training in puppetry technique

2002 Artist , Teacher & Librarian Training in easy Puppetry Techniques for the 'Young Cultural Creators' Literacy Programme at the Tate Britain, London.

Professional Development Training workshop 'Traditional Techniques to Contemporary Practice' at Horse & Bamboo, Rossendale.

Company Residency Week at Claremont Junior School, for Blackpool Child Protection Committee, 'Safe' - using puppetry to explore personal safety issues (Year 6).

Puppetry Training for the Discover Childrens Centre, London - Storybuilders using puppetry for story telling.

SRE:production - sex & relationship education through puppetry workshops, Ed. Pack & show for youth centres & secondary schools (Year 9), DNA Tour.

Teacher Training & workshops for Puppet Up! 2002 Blackpool Festival of Puppetry and Visual Theatre.

Early Years Workshops with 'Chicken Licken' shows at the National Theatre, London.

Company Residency week at Bispham High School Arts College (Year 7) making Carnival Costumes for the Commonwealth Games Parade, Manchester.

Company Residency Week at Kingsland High School, Wigan - Refugee Families Puppetry Project

Company Residency Weeks for Camden Council, London - Read On, Summer Festival Of Learning - Shadow puppetry play and performance.

2001 Life Education - training for visiting school health workers

Puppet Centre - DNA raised funding from Wandsworth Borough Council and co-ordinated 6 Sat afternoon drop-in sessions.

SRE project - 12 weeks of youth theatre production sessions plus teacher & school nurse training.

Puppet Up! 2001 - For the festival, Rachel Riggs co-ordinated 25 schools, youth and community schools with 10 puppeteers/artists.

Theatre Centre - One week residency at Carden School, Brighton, for production 'Violet & The Angel'

Bispham Arts College - week's residency with year 7 -Circus Puppet Parade

Barbican Festival - consultant to weekend of puppetry activities linked to Julie Taymour's 'The King Stag'

Warwick Arts Centre - development of workshop to compliment the touring production 'Sweetie Pie'

Portsmouth University - lecture demonstration for post-grad drama students

Worden High School, Leyland - lecture demonstration for secondary schools

Kingsland High School, Wigan - 'Journeys' two day residency with asylum seekers and local young people

Cumberland High School, London - lecture demonstration for secondary schools

TATE education - Two days of Training for Teachers & Librarians

2000 Artist in Residence for the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith working with local schools with Shadow theatre inspired by the xmas production of ''Pinocchio''.

Artist at the Tate Modern using puppetry to bring art alive for children, work inspired by the Louise Bourgeoise installation.

Forum 28, Barrow - artist in residence at Springboard an activity program run by Ashton Group contemporary theatre

1998/99 Specialist Puppetry Workshops for Life Education Drugs Education Centre.

Artist at the Tate Britain, London, on 'Constructing Identities' & 'Visual Paths to Literacy'.

Spec Needs Puppetry Workshop Leader for The Little Angel Theatre

Co-ordinator and facilitator of professional development workshops in puppetry for the Edinburgh Puppet and Animation Festival, British Festival Of Visual Theatre, and the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith.

Puppets & Poems -Two week residency at St Mary's and St Michael's RC school, London, working with nursery and reception classes on puppetry and visual theatre

1997 Artistic Director - Puppet Up!97& 99 Blackpool Festival of Puppetry.
Education Programme co-ordinator - Puppet Up!97& 99

1996 Workshop leader for 'Sticking With the Rainforest' Kazzum Arts Project to create rainforest pilot project for school residencies. Drayton Park school.

1995 Project leader for the Puppet Centre's 'Shadow Me'- special needs puppetry performance project linking schools.

All text and images © Dynamic New Animation 2002