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Happy Year of the Dragon!
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Thingumajig Theatre celebrated its 5th birthday in October 2011, marking the end of our busiest year yet. Double celebrations as we’d just moved into our fantastic warehouse in Hebden Bridge, home of Handmade Parade. It was a sad farewell to Wainsgate Chapel where we’d spent many happy hours paper mache-ing in the church yard and wandering the hills in our breaks......but a big hello to drive-in shutter doors and loading up our van out of the wind and rain!
Here’s what we’ve been up to lately:
Hullaba Lulu
 We’ve just opened Hullaba Lulu, our brand new show for families. An eccentric couple travel their strange monochrome world in a quirky land-boat, until their lives are turned upside down by a new arrival -- the adorable and colourful Lulu. In her ever-changing forms, Lulu teaches the couple all about love, play and eventually, how to say goodbye.
Hullaba Lulu will be touring England this spring for its initial tour. We are planning another tour in winter/spring 2013 and are now taking bookings for this. Hullaba Lulu will then go into our repertoire along with our other touring shows.
Plucky the Giant Chicken
 Also new this spring is our walkabout, Plucky the Chicken. Having previewed last year at Hebden Bridge Handmade Parade, Skipton and Rossendale, she is ready to join our stable of walkabout creatures and is looking forward to a busy season. Plucky is a very big, very friendly and possibly over curious chicken. Accompanied by her hen-pecked sidekick, Plucky guarantees to bring fun, farmyard frolics, music and song to everyone. Egg-xactly what your event needs.
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Here are a few highlights in the year since our last newsletter. Click on any images for a movie or webpage.
Our Little Giant Girl
 Kelda the Viking Girl giant puppet had a great time touring the Wirral in spring 2011, as part of Liverpool Discovers. She and her companions had an 8-stop tour of attractions in the Wirral bringing a new sense of wonder to each location. After her tour, she joined our cast of walkabout characters and was spotted at a few other events throughout the summer in Measham, Witham and the Cambridge Folk Festival! More about Kelda
International Touring
 In February/March we toured A November Day to USA where we were hosted by the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. We also played at Fayetteville, Arkansas, and had a week at Open Eye Theater in Minneapolis. Later in the year, A November Day and The Mystery of the Sock Snatcher did a tour of Ireland organised by the Dublin Puppet Festival. More about A November Day
Taking Flight: A Todmorden Community Play
 In May, we collaborated with local artists and members of the community at the Unitarian Church in Todmorden, our hometown, to create a performance about immigration and the search for home. See the Taking Flight movie
Hebden Bridge Handmade Parade
 In June, it was all hands on deck to bring the 4th Hebden Bridge Handmade Parade. This year’s theme was FOOD and with over 700 parade participants (in a town of 5000), it was the biggest yet and has become one of the cultural highlights of the year in the area. More about Handmade Parade
Manchester Day Parade
 We were asked to make a giant boy footballer (who we named "Jimmy") for the Manchester Day Parade to represent the Abraham Moss Warriors—a fantastic club set in a sometimes tough neighbourhood that joins youths from over 40 nationalities in a common love: playing football. One of our all-time favourite moments was when the boys (and one girl) saw our giant puppet at parade line-up for the first time wearing the same kit they wore. We’ve never been cheered so enthusiastically for a puppet! Watch a movie of Jimmy
Puja
 In July we were in Donegal, Ireland directing a site-specific event for LUXe as part of the Earagail Arts Festival. Puja was a one-night performance that included a procession, installation performances and a pageant finale about the return of a mythical bird to Fort Dunree, a wonderful historic site on top of cliffs overlooking Lough Swilly.
Skipton Sheep
 Back at home in August and September, we led a giant puppet workshop in Skipton and taught local artists to make 4 giant sheep puppets and a sheep dog mask for this year’s Skipton Puppet Festival. The sheep were expertly performed by workshop participants throughout the festival and in the festival’s first ever parade. No doubt they will proudly represent the Skipton Puppet Festival for years to come. See a gallery of the Sheep and Puppet Parade
Giants Here and There
 In addition to this, our Hippo, Yeshe the Yak, Veronica and Sunbirds made many appearances at festivals up and down the country. Some notable events included the grand opening of the Hepworth Wakefield Gallery, Hat Fair, Finale of Portsmouth Festivities, Sheffield’s Fright Night, Witham Puppet Festival, Guisborough Forest Festival and Preston’s Egg Rolling Festival.
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Lulu has arrived
With a few months hard work devising, building and rehearsing behind us (incorporating a broken finger for Andrew!) Hullaba Lulu is now launched on her tour with two successful performances behind us at Sundial, Cirencester and The Boo, Waterfoot. We’re thrilled with the progress of the show, and are delighted with the new technical equipment that our Arts Council England Grants for the Arts award enabled us to buy. We now have our own touring lights and are very excited to be learning new skills, which will allow us to take all our theatre shows into lots of new non-theatre spaces.
We had a wonderful team of people working with us on Hullaba Lulu: Mark Whitaker (director), Chris Davies (sound engineer and cello), Jonny Quick (technical advisor), Julian Taylor, Gill Smith and Alison Duddle (making) and invaluable support from Horse and Bamboo who provided rehearsal space for the last 2 weeks of creating the show. Special thanks to Christina Eddowes from Horse and Bamboo who helped us create the lighting design for the show and Rebecca Dearden for booking a fabulous tour. Find out more about Lulu
Photo Credits: Banner, Plucky, Sheep: Ian Hodgson
Hullaba Lulu, A November Day: Nigel Hillier Taking Flight, Handmade Parade: Craig Shaw Sun Bird: Hepworth Wakefield Kelda, Hullaba Lulu build: A. Kim Jimmy: K. Kim
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