Little Angel Theatre Awarded £38,400 Wolfson Foundation Grant For New Street-Facing Workshop

Little Angel Theatre has been awarded a £38,400 grant from the Wolfson Foundation to support the creation of a new street-facing workshop at its Islington home, as the company enters its 65th year.

The new workshop will serve as a flagship facility for puppetry training and education, while also functioning as a creative hub for the design and construction of Little Angel Theatre’s productions. The funding will support a year-long Puppet Design Traineeship and provide at least six weeks of marionette training annually, addressing the conservation and revitalisation of marionette making, which was added to the Heritage Crafts Red List of Endangered Crafts in 2023.

The new training programme will be embedded within Little Angel’s artistic output, with trainees contributing directly to productions. The street-facing shopfront will also make the creative process visible to the public, with regularly changing window displays, seasonal family takeovers, and curated events offering insight into puppet design and making.

Artistic Director Samantha Lane and Executive Director Peta Swindall said the funding will allow the organisation to transform an underused retail unit into a fully equipped workshop led by Associate Director Oliver Hymans. They noted the project will strengthen training facilities, increase audience engagement through visible creative activity, and improve long-term sustainability by expanding commissioned work and generating earned income through courses, bench hire, and design services.

Hymans added that the project will actively train and support the next generation of puppet makers, safeguarding marionette-making as a form of living heritage, while also establishing an industry-leading design studio for commissioned puppetry across theatre, film, television, and live experiences.

Founded in 1961, Little Angel Theatre has built an international reputation for innovative puppetry for children and families, while maintaining a commitment to preserving traditional craft practices. Its intimate performance spaces are designed to introduce very young audiences to live performance while offering ambitious work for older children.

65TH ANNIVERSARY HIGHLIGHTS

Highlights of Little Angel Theatre’s 65th anniversary year include the London premiere of Toto the Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape, a new musical based on Dermot O’Leary’s children’s book, adapted by Samantha Lane and Barb Jungr (16 May–19 July); I Want My Hat Back by Ian Nicholson and Sam Wilde, based on the books by Jon Klassen (5 February–9 May); Lane’s adaptation of The Flying Bath, based on the book by Julia Donaldson (2 May–12 July); The Everywhere Bear, based on the book by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb (7 February–19 April); and Little Angel’s stage adaptation of A Squash and a Squeeze, which will tour the UK from 26 February to 22 March.