David Burchhardt
David is a Sheffield born Puppeteer and Actor. His love of puppetry began from a young age watching the TV shows of Gerry Anderson. A teacher once wrote in his school report: ‘There’s nothing I now don’t know about Thunderbirds thanks to David’s teaching!’ David trained on the B.A. (Hons) Physical Theatre course at East15 Acting School from 2014 – 2017. In his second year he was taught Puppetry and Object Manipulation by Lucy Forster from Improbable Theatre. After graduating he performed with Brunskill and Grimes on their Reindeer Puppet Parade at Meadowhall Shopping Centre in his hometown.
Courtesy of Jemima Yong
In 2018 he worked as a puppeteer with Jonny and Will on The Cuban Brothers music video of I Hate Hate. His big break into the puppetry community came in September 2018 where he worked with Little Angel Theatre on their 4 month tour of Sleepyhead directed by Michael Fowkes. It was a job he thoroughly enjoyed, especially honing in on the craft over the 4 months. 2019 saw David expand his training on the advanced Puppetry course by Gyre & Gimble.
He also assisted the puppetry direction for Squirrel at The Egg, Theatre Royal, Bath as well as working on a very early R&D for what would become Bluey’s Big Play. Just before the lockdown of 2020 he attended the Puppetry Construction course led by Peter O’Rourke. David joined Smoking Apples Theatre Company in 2021 for an R&D of their show Kinder about the Czech Kindertransport. He was a Co-Devisor and Performer for the show as well as Creative Cultural Consultant. Working in a Covid Secure Bubble between 2021 - 2022, the show opened at the Little Angel Theatre in May 2022 to critical acclaim.
The show went on a Spring/Summer tour, including poignant performances at the National Holocaust Memorial Centre & Museum. During the 2022 tour, Nicholas Winton Jnr, son of Sir Nicholas Winton who was the architect of the Czech Kindertransport, attended the show. The 2022 production was nominated for numerous awards, winning an Ettie Award for Best Theatre for Young Audiences Production and winning two Offie Awards including Best Production in the Theatre for Young Audiences category. Kinder went on a UK tour in Autumn 2023.
The winter of 2022 saw David train in Marionette Puppetry led by Ronnie Le Drew at the Norwich Puppet Theatre where he also worked alongside Ronnie on the Christmas Pantomime of Cinderella, directed by Mark Mander. David is a graduate of the 2023 Curious School of Puppetry where he was taught by leading practitioners in the art form.
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