Norwich Puppet Theatre has been awarded a £60,000 Arts Council England Grant through the National Lottery for two new productions with leading puppetry company Indefinite Articles and highly-reputed puppeteer Peter O’Rourke. Rehearsals for The Chalk Giants are now beginning and the show opens at Norwich Puppet Theatre on 24 July for a 2-week run before showing at the Edinburgh Festival in late August. A gala performance is planned to take place in Norwich in September, with two further public performances before the show then goes on tour to schools and other venues across the East of England. Tickets for the performances in July are already on sale and schools interested in booking a place on the tour should contact the Puppet Theatre. The second production with Peter O’Rourke, a fresh take on the classic tale Little Red Riding Hood, will begin to be developed in 2011.

Whilst the Norwich Puppet Theatre, as an arts charity, still faces challenges with the sustainability of its core funding, the latest project award from the Arts Council reflects their support for the Theatre’s exciting vision for the future.

“We are delighted to have received funding for the new productions. It marks the beginning of a new chapter at Norwich Puppet Theatre. Following core funding cuts in 2008, as experienced across the arts sector, the theatre has been reshaping itself, programming high quality puppetry and offering a wide range of educational activities. Our vision is to produce once more, high quality puppetry productions for regional audiences to enjoy. This will re-establish Norwich on the map as a centre for puppetry excellence – The Chalk Giants is our first step along this road. We hope people will support our latest venture and come along to see The Chalk Giants this summer!” – Nic Hopkins, Chair of the Board, Norwich Puppet Theatre.

The Chalk Giants, which is ideal for families with children age 5 and over, is based on an old English folk-tale and creates a world of magic and mystery with chalk drawings, light and shadow puppetry. Writing for the production has been commissioned from Guyanese-born John Agard and music has been commissioned from Jonathan Lambert. The story, which was researched and developed with local people and schools, references features of the landscape, both real and legendary, through improvised storytelling about the Icknield Way in Suffolk (known as the ‘chalk belt’) and its local myths.

Indefinite Articles’ work with Norwich Puppet Theatre has enabled them to explore new aspects of puppetry: “The Chalk Giants is an exciting production as we will be interacting with the audience with improvisation and scripted narrative. By working within one of the few building-based organisations dedicated to the development and advocacy of puppet theatre in the UK, we have been able to focus on further exploring the theatrical use of puppets and objects in the translation of narrative ideas. We hope to engage people with chalk as a material which is both vital and tactile (one now almost obsolete in the classroom) and to excite and inspire them with the animated lines and images created in the performance. We are proud to be sharing the exciting venture with Norwich Puppet and are delighted to be able to use the theatre, with its great facilities for puppeteers, as our base” – Sally Brown and Steve Tipaldy, Indefinite Articles.

Norwich Puppet Theatre, one of only two theatres in England dedicated to puppetry, is 30 years-old at the beginning of December. Celebrations kick-off with a special exhibition at Fusion in the Forum, Norwich, from 29 November – 3 December. The birthday will also include a party and an auction of glove puppets signed and decorated by a host of celebrities. The anniversary programme is set to run over several months. More information will be announced with the launch of the theatre’s autumn programme. The season will also see the unveiling of the theatre’s new visual identity developed by East Publishing, which will be evident with a striking new events brochure and website.

Since opening in 1980, hundreds of puppetry professionals have developed their art and skills in devising, directing and performing puppet theatre in Norwich. They have become some of the leading names in the puppetry community, at the heart of the art form in the region, the UK and Europe with hundreds of performances reaching audiences across the world.

“We are immensely proud of the part Norwich Puppet Theatre has played in the development of puppetry as an art form and in training some of the leading puppeteers in the sector. Amongst the Theatre’s alumni and the companies with whom they have gone on to work are Ray DaSilva (the founder), Peter O’Rourke (Spitting Image, Little Angel Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company), John Roberts (Puppetcraft), Sean Myatt (Nottingham Trent University), Joy Haynes (Banyan Theatre), Zannie Fraser (Ripstop Productions), Mark Pitman & Iklooshar Malara (Garlic Theatre), Luis Boy, Mark Whitaker (with Horse and Bamboo Theatre and others), Sam Dutton (Royal Shakespeare Company and others) to name but a few” – Ian Woods, General Manager, Norwich Puppet Theatre.