Meet Meander Theatre, one of three recipients of a Nottingham Puppet Festival bursary
Meander Theatre is a Learning Disability Led Theatre Company making work based on the interests or the lived experiences of our participants.
We’ve worked with puppetry since 2011, integrating handmade puppet figures and animated objects within shows we create alongside learning disabled and autistic creatives.
In June 2023, we showcased ‘I Come From’, a short piece combining spoken word and puppetry. This was created as part of a project we delivered in partnership with Nottingham Playhouse, facilitated in collaboration with puppeteer Bryony McCombie Smith and spoken word artist Neal Pike. The piece depicted the experience of bullying and hate crime as lived by the performers, this included the creation and performance of a cast of three puppets.
Using our bursary, we will use this script and concentrate on strengthening and developing our original work.
We will be running three sessions all held at City Arts with up to 7 participants attending the sessions. Most of this group were originally on the Space to Create course held at Nottingham Playhouse last year.
This project aims to increase the visibility of the Meander creatives; ensuring that learning disabled and/or autistic people are represented within the cultural offering in prominent spaces around Nottingham City.
The group will be focussing on creating, developing, constructing their puppetry skills and spoken word. Large- and small-scale puppets will be re-introduced and they will have the opportunity to create additional puppets.
At the final session on 16th April at 3.30pm there will be an informal scratch Sharing with a Q&A section led by the Meander Creatives.
Find out more about Meander Theatre on their Facebook and Instagram.