Keith Frederick
After a near lifetime of collecting, making, and performing with marionettes as a hobby, in 2008 Keith started volunteering at the Little Angel Theatre in Islington; London. With a career background in Fashion Design and Tailoring, his making skills were quickly recognised and in 2010 Keith was asked to design and build the entire cast of puppets for the Little Angel Theatres production of ‘Dog’s Don’t do Ballet’, his first major commission and the beginning of his professional puppet making career. Since then, Keith has gone on to design and build puppets and costume for many other shows.
On his two most recent builds ‘Jack V Giant’ for the Polka Theatre (Tabletop Puppets, their costumes, and a Giant puppet Head) and ‘Cinderella’ for the Norwich Puppet Theatre (10 x 75cm/30” Marionettes and their costumes) he learnt and utilised 3D printing technology in conjunction with more traditional puppet building methods.
Keith is currently designing and building puppets for a new show, based on the children’s books written by Tom Fletcher, and has also been nominated for an ‘Off Westend Award’ for his puppets in ‘Wow said the Owl’, a Little Angel Theatre production. As well as making puppets for commercial and private commissions, both here in the UK and abroad, he has also had the privilege to teach puppet making at The Wimbledon School of Art for BA and MA students.
Credits include:
Design and build for: ‘There’s A Monster In My Show’ (MEI Entertainment) Jack V Giant (Polka Theatre) ‘Miracle the Dog’ (Britain’s Got Talent) ‘Storm Whale’ (York Theatre Royal) ‘Dog’s Don’t Do Ballet’ ‘Wow said the Owl’ ‘Wow it’s Nighttime’ (Little Angel Theatre), ‘The Twirlywoos’ (MEI Entertainment) ‘The Hobbit’ (Middle Earth Productions USA) ‘Sour Puss’ (Lori Hopkins Puppetry), ‘Wee Dragon’ (Wee Dragon Productions)
Some of the build teams Keith has been a part off: Cinderella (Norwich Puppet Theatre) ‘A Quiet Place’: Day One (puppet costume, Paramount Films) ‘Miracle’ The Dog (Britain’s Got Talent) ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’ ‘The Fabulous Flutterbys’ ‘Petrushka’ ‘McBeth’ ‘Alice In Wonderland’ ‘Hold on Mr Rabbit’ ‘The Tempest’ and ‘Very Old Man with Enormous Wings’ (Little Angel Theatre) ‘Peter Pan’ (Polka theatre) ‘Awful Auntie’ (Birmingham Stage), Hound of the Baskervilles (Sue Dacre, The Mill at Sonning), The Dong with The Luminous Nose (puppet costume, Cubic Feet) Man, Down Title Sequence (Costume Maker & Puppeteer for DWS & Baby Cow Productions), BBC Bite Size (Costume).
