Oliver Hymans has programmed the festival [Owen Harvey]

A NEW festival hopes to encourage kids to take up a career in puppetry.

The Little Angel Theatre has launched its first ever puppet festival, set to run until September 3.

Oliver Hymans, who has programmed the festival, said he wants it to inspire future generations to keep puppetry going.

“I hope there’s a young person sitting in the audience thinking, ‘I want to make these things,’ because that was me,” he said.  “Puppets lend themselves to storytelling and narratives where the design and visual side of it is key. There’s a charm to them  – we want them to live and exist and go on adventures, but at the same time, we know they’re puppets.

“[Seeing a puppet play] opens up your imagination. It also shows young people that there’s a viable career and opportunities in this for those who want to pursue it. And, there’s a sense of community when you go and see a show – those opportunities for parents to talk after a show is something I don’t think you get when you just stick a screen in front of a kid.”

Mr Hymans has worked as a puppet artist and theatre maker for 15 years. He said that the artform is very much alive and is coming back with a vengeance, adding: “You can do things with puppets that you can’t do with live actors on stage, which is sometimes challenging but opens up a whole world in the imaginations of young people. You can play with scale, you can go on a huge, epic journey by making everything smaller, which unless you have a huge budget to do it, you wouldn’t otherwise be able to do on a live stage. There’s a huge resurgence in that now – if you watch the latest Star Wars films, the new Barbie movie, His Dark Materials that the BBC did – they’ll use a mixture of live puppets and CGI. Directors are going back to getting craftspeople to make these things. If something has been made by a real person, it feels like you can almost reach out and touch it.”

Mr Hymans said that the plan is for the festival to become an annual event and provide a platform for young, up-and-coming puppet artists to showcase their productions.

As well as shows, adults and children will have the chance to take on the practical side of puppetry with workshops running throughout the festival.

Get tickets at https://www.littleangeltheatre.com/seasons/childrens-puppet-festival-2023/