Nick is a puppet designer and maker. He studied drama at Hull University and theatre design at the Slade School of Fine Art. Whilst at the Slade he won a scholarship to train with Philippe Genty at the International Institute of the Marionette. He now runs a puppet making studio in Hove creating puppets for theatre and film.
Work with Gyre & Gimble includes: associate puppetry designer on Running Wild (Chichester Festival Theatre, Regent’s park Open Air Theatre & UK Tour) for which Nick sculpted all of the animal heads, and puppet co-designer/maker on The Lorax (Old Vic) and puppet fabrication for The Four Seasons: A Reimagining (Shakespeare’s Globe).
In 1996 he founded Blind Summit Theatre, and was the co-artistic director for many years, performing, designing and directing for the company. Productions include: The Table, Low Life, Martin’s Wedding, 1984 and Mr China’s Son. The company also created puppetry for Madame Butterfly, (ENO & Metropolitan Opera), Shunkin, A Dog’s Heart and The Master and Margarita (Complicite), Faeries (Royal Opera House), Kommilitonen! (Royal Academy of Music), El Gato Con Botas (Tectonic Theatre), His Dark Materials (Birmingham Rep) and directing the puppetry for the 2012 London Olympic Games opening ceremony.
Other work in puppetry includes: creating a giant firebird and gnome puppets for the Ten Pieces BBC Proms, puppet designer/director for Mr Popper’s Penguins (Kenny Wax Ltd) and Beauty and the Beast (Chichester Festival Theatre). As well as puppet designer for Doctor Dolittle (UK tour) and Ariodante (Aix Festival & DNO) and puppetry co-designer for Angels in America (National Theatre & Broadway).
Daisy is a puppet maker and puppeteer.
Work with Gyre & Gimble includes: puppet supervisor/maker for The Four Seasons: A Reimagining (Shakespeare’s Globe) as well as puppet maker for The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic & West End) and Running Wild (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre & UK Tour).
Other work includes: puppet supervisor/maker for Pinocchio and Peter Pan (National Theatre), puppet maker for Circus 1903 (Significant Object, international tour), Luzia (Cirque du Soleil), Dead Dog in a Suitcase and Other Love Songs (Kneehigh), A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (Little Angel Theatre & Kneehigh), Avenue Q (Q Puppets, UK tour), Imaginary Menagerie (Les Enfants Terribles) also The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom (Tall Stories).
Work as a puppeteer in film and television includes: Solo: A Star Wars Story (Lucasfilm), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (Lucasfilm), Muppets Most Wanted (Walt Disney Pictures), The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (Jim Henson Company), Rock, Paper, Scissors and Aleksandr the meerkat for Compare the Market.
Dulcie is a costume designer and maker who trained at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama after a Drama and English degree from Hull University.
With Gyre & Gimble she has used her skills in textiles to create the skins and fur for the animals in Running Wild (Chichester Festival Theatre, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre & UK Tour) and coverings for the puppets in The Lorax (Old Vic), as well as creating all of the inflatable elements for The Elephantom (National Theatre & West End).
Other work in puppet fabrication includes: A Christmas Carol (Chichester Festival Theatre), Goodnight Mister Tom (West End & UK tour), Tom Thumb (Edinburgh Festival & Tour, Fringe First Award winner), Low Life and 1984 (Blind Summit), Alice (Marianne Elliott, Ruby Films) and Ubu (Edinburgh Festival).
Work as costume designer includes: opening ceremonies for the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games, UEFA’s Euro 2008 in Switzerland, the All African Games in Nigeria and Congo-Brazzaville as well as Excalibur in the Stade de France and the Toyota Pavilion at the 2005 World Expo in Japan. She works regularly with French contemporary dance company CFB451 (L’Ogresse, La légèreté des tempêtes, Le fôret ébouriffée).
Dulcie is based in Paris but often finds herself working in the UK on unusual requests from the National Theatre. She created costumes for the giant puppets in Pinocchio, the feathers of the Angel in Angels in America, a nine metre inflatable caterpillar for Wonder.Land, an elastic lake for The Light Princess and strange pustules for the set of Treasure island.
Laura is an actor, puppeteer and director who trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art after a drama degree at Hull University.
Work with Gyre & Gimble includes: associate puppetry director of Running Wild (UK Tour), trunk puppeteer of Oona the elephant in Running Wild (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), the Lorax in The Lorax (Old Vic) and playing Mum in The Elephantom (National Theatre & West End).
Other work as a performer includes: Peter Pan and Women Beware Women (National Theatre), War Horse (West End), Oppenheimer (RSC & West End), The Shoemaker’s Holiday (RSC), Faeries (Royal Opera House), Recycled Rubbish, Mojo, Mischief and Hospitalworks (Theatre-Rites), Stilled, Brilliant, An Infinite Line Brighton, Little Universe, And The Rain Falls Down, The Bounce and A Few Short Exercises in Love (Fevered Sleep), Clown (Travelling Light), Beastie (Lone Twin), The Visible Men (New Art Club). Films include: London Road (BBC Films/BFI), movement artist on Gravity (Warner Bros), The Homeless Polar Bear (Greenpeace campaign film) and Alice (Ruby Films).
Work as a creative includes: Common (National Theatre, puppet director), Dinosaur World (UK Tour, puppetry director), War Horse (Berlin, associate movement director), The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime (West End, puppetry consultancy), Don Quixote (RSC, puppetry co-director), Oppenheimer (West End, movement restaging), 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony (assistant movement director), Goodnight Mister Tom (West End & UK Tour, associate puppetry director).
Fred is an actor and puppeteer who trained at Chichester Festival Youth Theatre.
Work with Gyre & Gimble includes: puppeteer of Napoleon the chimpanzee in The Hartlepool Monkey (UK Tour), Mani and Tonk the orangutans in Running Wild (Chichester Festival Theatre, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre & UK Tour). As well as participating in a series of online puppetry video tutorials for Gyre & Gimble Training.
Other work as a performer includes: Peter Pan (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Pass It On and Rattigan’s Nijinsky (Chichester Festival Theatre), Peter Pan, A Christmas Carol, The Hundred and One Dalmatians, The Witches and The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe (Chichester Festival Youth Theatre), The Tempest (Petersfield Shakespeare Festival) and Experiment (Nuffield Theatre). He also worked as fight director on Peter Pan (Chichester Festival Theatre).
Fred has taught puppetry in schools, universities and arts institutions across the UK, including the Turner Contemporary Art Gallery and National Theatre Learning’s programme of workshops for Pinocchio.
Avye is an actor, puppeteer and movement artist who trained at the Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris.
Work with Gyre & Gimble includes: puppeteer in The Four Seasons: A Reimagining (Shakespeare’s Globe) and trunk puppeteer/School Teacher in The Elephantom (National Theatre & West End).
Other work as a performer includes: War Horse (West End), Brief Encounter (Kneehigh), A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings (Little Angel Theatre & Kneehigh), Barrow Hill (Finborough) also The Iron Man and Something Very Far Away (Unicorn Theatre).
Film work includes: movement and puppetry artist on Gravity (Warner Bros), motion capture performer on Andy Serkis’s Mowgli (Imaginarium Productions), motion capture performer/movement coach on Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One (Amblin Entertainment), puppeteer on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Warner Bros), Pan (Warner Bros), Paddington (StudioCanal) and actor in The Mercy (BBC Films) and The Fifth Estate (Dreamworks).
In 2017 Avye co-directed Laika (Unicorn Theatre) with Bryony Hannah, winning the ‘Best Production for Young People 8+’ award at the Off West End Awards.