Extreme Puppetry Workshops
Extreme Puppetry Workshops
Blind Summit is one of the world’s leading puppet based theatre companies, led by Artistic Director Mark Down.
We have been making puppet based work at all scales, from a puppet on a table, to giant puppets in the Olympic Opening Ceremony in London, to last year’s sell out show The Sex Lives of Puppets.
Our specialty is working with teams of puppeteers, using an improvisational technique to create highly realistic, characterful performances.
Our workshops give you a chance to learn some of this technique, practise your skills, design puppets, and start making theatre!
"It exceeded my expectations"
"I rediscovered my creativity"
Participants Puppetry Toolkit Workshop
March 25
NEXT WORKSHOPS...
TBC - Spring 2026
MAKE A PUPPET - 3 DAYS
Make a three person puppet and bring it to life in 3 days!
Do you want to make a puppet but you don't know where to start? This is the workshop for you. In this workshop you will design and make a simple 3 person operated puppet using materials such as cardboard, paper, tape, lolly pop sticks and hessian sack. You will learn to make joints that don't go back on themselves, sculpt a characterful head, learn a quick and easy way to make hands and feet, and put it all together. On the final day you have the chance to bring it to life with other participants to see how it works and think about fixes you want to make. We show you how to get started, and the rest is up to you!
You will learn to:
Design a puppet for operating by three puppeteers
Make simple joints that move in a realistic way
Create a head full of character from newspaper/ cardboard and tape
Play with costume and hair to give the puppet character
Learn some basics to bring your puppets to life
Work in groups to devise short scenes
Review how the puppet works and make some fixes
Make a short presentation to the rest of the group
WHEN?
10am - 6pm every day
WHERE?
Central London. Location tbc
WHAT DOES IT COST?
£350 for the whole week payable in advance
(£300 early-bird discount if you book by June 30)
Blind Summit’s “extreme puppetry” technique is an improvisational, multi-puppeteer performance style that underpins all of their work. In this 3 day course we will revise basic puppetry principles and apply them to more advanced 3 person improvisation. This workshop is suitable for people wanting to explore more deeply their puppetry technique.
You will learn:
How to bring your puppets to life on your own
How three puppeteers can work on one puppet through improvisation
How to lead and follow with different parts of the puppet
How to interpret puppet movement and communicate clearly with the audience
Dramaturgical principles of the puppet-puppeteer relationship
Improvising in Genre
WHEN?
10am - 6pm every day
WHERE?
Central London. Location tbc
WHAT DOES IT COST?
£350 for the 3 days, payable in advance
(£300 with early-bird booking discount)
HOW TO BOOK
The workshop is open to everyone. If you would like to join us, please email charli@blindsummit.com with a little bit of information about yourself (CV) and why you would like to take part (max 200 words).
We will get back to you as soon as we can.
Please keep in mind that the spaces are limited. We look forward to hearing from you.
Charli x