Little Lark of London

“Puppetry is such a powerful tool for telling stories and tapping into the human experience”

After winning an Offie Award last year, the Little Angel Children’s Puppet Festival returns for the months of August and September. Recently, we had the chance to speak with Oliver Hymans, the curator of this year’s festival. We discussed how he first got into the world of puppetry, what it is like to curate for a puppet festival and even what advice he has for those looking to get into puppetry.

How did you first get involved in the world of puppets?

It was very random. I never had a grand plan to devote my career to the wonderful world of puppets, but rather the puppets found me! I trained in scenography/theatre design and one of the first companies I worked for was Blind Summit Theatre who make amazing puppet shows for adult audiences. The rest is history . . .

What made you want to get involved in this year’s Little Angel Children’s Puppet Festival?

I’m the curator of the festival and, after the success of last year’s festival, including our Offie Award for programming, we just had to bring it back for another year. We hope to keep running it every year, with plans to expand it. 

What is your role within the Little Angel Theatre?

I’m the Associate Director – responsible for a lot of things, but my main role is leading the design department, training new and aspiring artists and programming the Children’s Puppet Festival. 

Can you tell us a bit about your creative process for designing puppets?

Every puppet is different, so when starting the process of designing a puppet, the designer must first understand what the puppet needs to do and how many hands (or puppeteers) are available to operate it. We often make a prototype first to test the new design, followed by making the puppet look like the character or thing it’s meant to be – so adding costumes, hair, paint jobs, etc. 

What is it like to curate for a festival like the Little Angel Children’s Puppet Festival?

Curating a puppetry festival like this involves lots of research into companies and work that already exist, but also giving a chance to new artists who have a fresh idea for a show. There’s a huge amount of talent out there (we had over 100 applications for shows for this year’s festival) but it’s about finding the best performances and a variety of different styles to show off the art form of puppetry to our audiences.  

What is it about puppets that you think is so appealing to audiences, especially younger people?

Puppetry is such a powerful tool for telling stories and tapping into the human experience. You can do and say things with puppetry which you cannot do with real live actors. You can also transport your audiences to magical and fantastical worlds – and for children and young people, their imaginations will run wild when they see a piece of great live theatre where the puppets take centre stage. 

What do you hope audiences take away from the Little Angel Children’s Puppet Festival?

We want our audiences to be inspired by the wide range of puppetry styles and shows on offer at this festival – from Opera for Babies to interactive, craft-along activities, there’s something for all ages and tastes. 

What advice do you have for those interested in going into puppetry?

My advice for aspiring puppeteers would be for them to try to see as much puppetry work as possible. Follow your favourite makers on social media and have a go making work (it’s amazing what you can do to practice puppetry with everyday objects). You could also look into one of Little Angel Theatre’s adult training courses, which I run – both the Foundation and Intermediate courses prepare you for working in the industry.

The Little Angel Children’s Puppet Festival runs from August to September 2024. More information can be found here.