Puppetry Audio Archive launched

Penny Francis with Gary Friedman in London

In 1984, I first interviewed Penny Francis at the 1984 UNIMA Congress and Festival in Dresden, East Germany about the state of British puppetry. Penny is the co-founder of the Puppet Centre Trust, UK and was awarded the MBE for services to puppetry in 1998. Penny is also an Honorary Fellow of the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. She is one of the initial eleven interviews which I conducted in Dresden in 1984. This interview has finally been published, along with interviews with the extraordinary Convent Garden Punch Professor, the late-Percy Press Junior;  Nancy Staub from UNIMA USA; Hartmut Topf, journalist from Berlin;  John Blundell from Cannon Hill Puppet Theatre of Birmingham, among others, on Puppetry News here!  Watch out for more of this puppetry history to follow...