Beauty and the Beast came to the Norwich Puppet Theatre for the Christmas Season 2014 - in a rejuvenated re-imagining of the tale! The production takes a new look at what is beautiful and what is beastly. Most of the characters are in some sort of disguise, they all transform and the lessons learned don't come through spells and enchantments. What's beautiful in life can come from unexpected places and in all forms and creatures.
The show was supported by public funding Arts Council England.
Director and Designer - Gavin Glover Producer - Joy Haynes Writer/Dramaturg - Tilly Lunken Music and Sound Design - Hannah Marshall Performers - Josh Elwell, Sian Kidd, Johathan Storey Maker/Performer - Gretchen Maynard-Hahn Production Manager - Tim Tracy Puppet Maker - Jan Zalud Costume and Design - Mark Mander Maker - Karolina Czyz
Interns - Rhiannon O'Brien, Izzy Hollis, Sam Richards, Addya Panayiotou
Performance photos by Andi Sapey
The show was created by the team in the weeks leading up to the show and it was a fantastic effort from everyone to pull together and make something so beautiful. As with all processes we all learned a lot about how we work as artists and kept surprising each other by how much work could be achieved! Our makers especially produced such lovely puppets, you get such characters, just from their faces!
Puppet making photos by Jan Zalud
There is an interview with me about the process of nutting out a show before we got into rehearsals here on the Norwich Puppet Theatre Blog.
The journey for Beauty and the Beast started long before the current team was assembled and the show was made.
People involved with this included performers: Mark Mander, Mark Whittaker, Jonny Story and Rachel Leonard; director, Steve Tiplady; musician Hannah Marshall; Joy Haynes and for the second week of R&D writer/dramaturg Tilly Lunken.