Upfront Puppet Theatre - The Company
The company was created to develop the art form of puppetry and to create a centre of creativity and excellence for the art form. was formed as a “not for profit” company in 2003 to create a puppet company with it’s own theatre building and workshops. It’s first production was at Christmas 2004 in an eighty seat venue, created from an old farm workshop building in rural Cumbria. John was trained as a theatre designer sat the Design school of the English National Opera, before working as a designer in many northern theatres. He has a degree in drama from Manchester University and has lectured in drama, directing, production and design. Puppetry has always been on e of John’s major passions. Elaine was trained as a primary teacher and worked for many years teaching reception and junior school children. She is now a puppeteer for Upfront and brings to the company an educational focus for it’s work. Her job also includes company administration and she is responsible for scheduling the seasons of performances and handling the day to day finances . Freelance puppeteers and makers are employed for each production, they work with the company to create and perform the shows. Since the company was formed there have been productions every year at Christmas, Summer and Easter. In 2010 the company designed a new building, raised the funding and built a new 144 seat venue during 2012. The theatre is designed with specific resources for puppetry as well as for other general use as a venue. Future plans include a permanent exhibition of the history of puppetry and a young peoples’ performance company based at the venue.
