"I had my first puppet when I was three and really fell in love with the art form"

Hometown
I was born in Coventry and lived in Manchester for 25 years, but for the last two years I have lived on a boat moored just outside Stockport, Greater Manchester

What do you do?
Puppeteer. I am currently co-artistic director of Doo-cot, but am about to return to working solo.

How long have you been at it?
I founded Doo-cot 18 years ago with Rachael Field, the co-artistic director

What was your very first role in theatre?
I have always been a puppeteer

Have you got qualifications?
A degree in sculpture and theatre. I took a year out between my second and third years to get practical experience, and worked with Lee Beagley of Kaboodle making masks and puppets for their production of Macbeth. I also toured with the show as assistant stage manager. I can remember taking sheets covered in stage blood to the laundrette!

I have also done a couple of special courses in France, one with the Paris based puppeteer Philippe Genty and one with the late Polish director Tadeusz Kantor.

How did you start working in theatre?
I realised if I wanted to be a puppeteer I had better just have courage and start to make shows. It was good meeting Rachael who is a painter and we started to make shows together.

I left college and set up a company. It was very, very, very hard. Money was very short, I signed on the dole and did bits of my own work. I did a government project called the Enterprise Allowance Scheme, aimed to get you off the dole and into self-employment, three times. (Sorry folks, it doesn’t exist any more)

Slowly the work began to get funding. Rachael and I had to form the company Doo-cot as a charity and then as a company limited by guarantee. This is not helpful now that we have to end the company as it means I own none of my puppets. So make sure if you follow this route you have a contract so you can negotiate to keep your puppets.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
I had my first puppet when I was three and really fell in love with the art form. I thought that to be a puppeteer you had to be a member of a puppet family, ie be born into it, so I never imagined I could be a puppeteer as a job.

My mum and dad wanted me to get a proper job so I was going to go into residential care work, but I became interested in art therapy and went to art school. That’s the beginning of my story as a puppeteer.

What do you do all day?
As things grew with Doo-cot I took on more and more of the administration, so I would phone up venues and ask if they wanted to book the show. It could be good fun but it could also be very hard work.
For the last two shows, Rachael was art director, and I made and used puppets for them and did supportive administration.

As Doo-cot grew we used more and more technology which was fun. For example, our Frankenstein’s monster had a camera for its eye.
Sometimes people would love the show other times they would hate it. People never simply said that was OK. The work always drew such a wide response. Doo-cot never just did what worked; we were always trying some thing new. That’s dangerous once funding gets tight and seats have to be sold.

I am now looking for work as a puppeteer with other companies and working on my own solo show.

What’s the best thing about your job?
I like the challenge of creating original work from an idea, which then grows into a show. I like it best when I can make a puppet and then perform with it. It doesn’t always have a narrative, although with my shows I do like a good story to begin an idea.

And the worst?
The worst was when we heard that all our funding had been withdrawn and we would have to finish Doo-cot. But then it is time for Rachael and I to explore our separate work so it is a positive thing too.

What’s your dream job in theatre?
I’ve had my dream job–waking up every morning with the funding to create my own shows. It was very special as well as being very hard work.

Have you got any wise words for someone who wants to be where you are now?
Follow your heart! If you want to follow money, don’t work in the arts.

Make sure you do your very best; you may need to seek out special training. I went to the Institut International de la Marionnette in Charleville Mezieres, France, and did two short courses. If you are under-26 you can do a three-year course. The Puppet Centre in London also runs a special short course. The Central School of Speech & Drama does an MA in puppetry.

There is an excellent website you can subscribe to called Puppeteers UK. You can also follow this link to a short film made by my 18-year-old niece Freya Watson and her friend Chloe White about my journey to be a puppeteer. Also visit our website