Lyndie Wright Receives MBE For Services to Puppetry

The 50th anniversary year for Little Angel Theatre was crowned when Lyndie Wright received the MBE in the New Year's Honours for services to the craft of puppetry. Most recently, Lyndie has designed and made puppets for Little Angel's collaboration with Kneehigh Theatre - A VERY OLD MAN WITH ENORMOUS WINGS – which runs at Little Angel until the end of January 2012.

During 2011, 50 years from the time she and her late husband John Wright opened the doors of the former temperance hall in a quiet Islington square, Lyndie Wright also received the J.M. Barrie Award for a lifetime's achievement in work for young people and John Wright was recognized by a green plaque which was formally installed on the theatre's façade in July.

Lyndie still works daily in her special corner of the workspace at Little Angel and lives in the nearby cottage, as she has done since 1961. Her two children, puppeteer Sarah and film director Joe, were brought up in the cottage and theatre and went to Islington schools.

Lyndie Wright was born in South Africa. She first saw John Wright and his puppets when he brought his company on tour to the town where she lived. Her delight at the work spurred her to train at art college and to work for John's company as a young art student. Her training completed, she and John moved to London and founded Little Angel Theatre in 1961. For the first 40 years, Lyndie designed Little Angel shows, made most of the puppets and performed in productions, as well as bringing up her two children. She retired formally in 2002 but continues to design and make puppets for Little Angel and many other theatres including The Royal Shakespeare Company (THE TEMPEST and VENUS AND ADONIS), National Theatre (CORAM BOY), Opera North, Opera Circus, Tamasha, Kneehigh, Polka Theatre and Theatre-Rites.

Peter Glanville, Artistic Director of Little Angel, said today, "We are all thrilled at Lyndie's achievement in receiving this prestigious award. Working with her on THE TEMPEST and many other shows has been a high point of my six years at Little Angel."

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