The Creative Team

 Performer, Workshop facilitator, Production Manager, Jeremy Lavender  joined Little Wing Puppets in 2015 and co-developed Trinket the Robot. He has Production managed Little Wing tours in Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. He has worked as an artist on many residencies with Little Wing including two Upwelling Festivals, the development a shadow puppet show with the Wugularr Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory for the Walking with Spirits Festival 2016. He also assisted teaching Bunraku-style puppetry in the Bass Coast Region in 2016. Jeremy has co-facilitated two month-long Creative Learning Partnerships making masks with the students of Langley Primary and Redesdale Mia Mia Primary (2016) and Bunraku-style puppets with Mother of God School, Ardeer (2019).

Co-writer, Anne Brooksbank has written a number of scripts for children and has won two AWGIE Awards for children’s screenwriting. In 1985 her script entitled On Loan was produced for the Winners television series by the Children’s Film and Television Corporation. The produced film won a Media Peace Award, and she subsequently adapted the script into a novel which was reprinted eleven times by Penguin and is still widely borrowed from school libraries. Since then, she has gone on to write five more books for children and young adults. Her book Mother’s Day was listed as Highly Recommended in the Family Therapists’ Association Awards in 2006. Sir Katherine was listed as a Notable Australian Book in the Children’s Council Book Awards in 2008. Father’s Day was shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards for Children’s Literature in 2012.

 Puppetry Mentor, Richard Bradshaw has performed with his shadow puppets for audiences of children and adults in Europe, North America and Asia, making some 40 overseas tours. His puppets have featured on The Muppet Show and he has given shadow-puppet workshops for puppeteers in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Poland, U.S.A., Canada, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.  In 1986 Richard received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) “for services to the arts as a puppeteer” and in 1987 he shared the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Award “for sustained excellence in the field of puppetry”.

Director, Jacob Williams is a multi-award winning graduate of The Victorian College of the Arts from Melbourne. Jacob began his career in Tasmania with Terrapin Puppet Theatre and has since gone on to perform and collaborate with some of Australia’s leading theatre companies. He was Head Puppeteer on King Kong-Live on Stage for Global Creatures for which he won both a Helpman and Green Room award. Jacob is the co-artistic director of the award-winning company Lemony S Puppet Theatre, whose work has toured nationally and internationally. Jacob has just returned from performing in the role of ‘Kong Captain’ for King Kong on Broadway, New York.

Co-Director, Clare Bartholomew has been performing, writing and producing new work in Australia and overseas for 17 years. She teaches clown master classes, has been a clown doctor working in children’s wards for 15 years. Clare is also co-producer of the highly successful cabaret/comedy act Die Roten Punkte. Her work has received seven Green Room Award nominations and winner of Best Cabaret.

Workshop Facilitator, Justine Warner is a puppeteer, puppet maker and workshop facilitator, and has worked with Little Wing Puppets since 2011, as an assistant artist for school residencies including Ringwood Heights Primary School and Officer Primary School. She has also toured nationally and internationally with Polyglot since 2006. As one of the core workshop artists at Polyglot, Justine facilitates workshops at schools and festivals. Justine has recently completed a national tour with The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show. 

Composer, Kelly Ryall is an award-winning composer, musician and sound designer for theatre, dance and film. Kelly is recognised internationally for creating immersive and multi-layered musical landscapes for the stage and screen. Kelly has won four Green Room Awards and a Melbourne International Arts Festival Award and been nominated for a Sydney Theatre Award and numerous Green Room Awards. Kelly has composed for many of the Australia’s leading theatre companies including Sydney Theatre Company, Melbourne Theatre Company and Bell Shakespeare.

Composer, Mal Webb is an around-the-world vocal adventurer, multi-instrumentalist and looping beatboxing songwriter. Mal Webb uses all sorts of vocal techniques, guitar, mbira, slide trumpet, trombone, chromatic harmonica and a loop recording pedal to create his tunes. Mal is a founding member of the Oxo Cubans, Sock and Totally Gourdgeous and has done a few spots on Spicks and Specks on ABC. Mal was also the composer for the Lano and Woodley show and the ABC TV series Woodley.

Composer, Thomas ‘Soup’ Campbell writes tunes, DJ’s and is a sound engineer. He has worked and toured extensively with various artists including MISO, Joelistics, The Cumbia Cosmonauts, and Editor.

Puppet maker, Lauren Redpath loves working with the weird and wonderful. She is graduate of the Victorian College of the Arts where she specialised in Props and Puppet Making. She has worked many times with Little Wing, and with many companies including Global Creatures, Polyglot, Curious Legends, Oz Opera and Bunk Puppets. She is currently undertaking a Post-Graduate Diploma in Visual Art at the VCA.

Scenic Artist, Dayna Morrissey is a production designer and scenic artist in the theatre and film industries.  She graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2007 with a Postgraduate Diploma in theatre design. Her work includes; Persona (Fraught Outfit) Speaking in Tongues (Griffin Theatre Company); Devine and The Lost Stories of the Magdalen Asylum (2010 Melbourne Fringe, Peepshow Inc.); Heracles High Five (Meat Market, Arts House & A-is-for-Atlas); Shadow Boxing (Tower Theatre Malthouse, The Groundswell Division); Smashed by Lally Katz, (VCA Directors season).

Lighting Designer, Danny Pettingill is a Melbourne based designer working predominantly in Theatre and Industry Lighting Design. Danny graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 2006 with a Bachelor of Production and was the recipient of the 2006 Orloff Family Trust Scholarship Award. Danny received a Melbourne Green Room Award for Outstanding Lighting Design in Independent Theatre for Platonov (The Hayloft Project, 2008) and has earned three Greenroom nominations for work as a lighting designer in 2008 and 2009 on productions of Red Sky Morning, Pool (No Water).