Puppetry

In 2013, Molly established her first arts organisation (Mr Wolf), creating puppets for a wide range of public events, performances and festivals. Collaborating with theatres, musicians, and dancers, Mr Wolf’s puppets were playful, joyful and centred around visual storytelling.

Molly has had the privilege of performing at Glastonbury, Shambala and Green Man Festival, collaborating with bands such as Stealing Sheep, and undertaking puppet residencies in India and France. The Giraffe even travelled to perform in China!

This wasn’t Molly’s first encounter with the world of puppets. Her parents ran a community arts theatre during her childhood, and she fondly recalls spending much of her upbringing travelling to festivals in the back of a van, surrounded by the most mystical puppet creations.

Shadow Puppetry

A nostalgic favourite of Molly’s is shadow puppetry. Raised on shadowy tales lit by fire, she loves this whimsical form of storytelling. Bands love it too! She’s created live visuals for several gigs in Liverpool and filmed performances that became music videos. The striking colours and silhouette aesthetic create a bold, graphic and distinctive look.

Life sized puppetry

Yes… Molly and a team of talented makers created a life-sized giraffe puppet from natural materials, and what a beauty it was. Admired far and wide, it even earned a return trip to China to appear in a live event alongside a whole zoo of puppet animals. Its legacy lives on.

Community Puppet Creation

There’s something magical about cocreating puppets for local events and processions. Within these designs, a collaborative craft process is woven in. Whether through workshops in crochet, weaving, sewing, or painting, these puppets truly grow with community input.

Youth puppet workshops

Molly has led a range of puppet-making workshops with young people to develop stories and narratives. She’s especially fond of shadow puppetry, enjoying the storytelling and creativity that emerge from these sessions.

Inflatable Puppets

When Molly discovered she could use ripstop fabric to make inflatable puppets, this inflatable star was born. With a strong community element, pupils helped design and draw the artwork for the panels that formed the fabric star.

Festival PuppetRY

Molly loved creating bespoke puppets for Glastonbury, Green Man, Boomtown and Shambala. On festival sites they come alive… Roaming, delighting, surprising and thrilling crowds. They’re in their element dancing with live bands and mingling with festivalgoers.

PuppetRY for stage

Creating puppets for stages differs from making them for carnivals and processions. Materials, lighting, set and costume interactions all demand careful planning. Scale shifts too… The puppets must read clearly, even to audiences in the back rows.

Puppet Residencies

Brouhaha International selected Molly for two carnival puppet residencies: two months in India and one month in Toulouse. These momentous opportunities helped shape her goals as a public artist. It’s clear she has always loved bright colours, dancing, and celebratory making.

PuppetRY R&D Projects

Working with Trigger Stuff as part of a 2-week residency in a hanger in Filton was truly an iconic experience. Testing, playing and developing the prototype for The Hatchling (a spectacular dragon that hatches from an egg, grows to the size of bus and flies from land over water) was a once in a life time puppet experience. Molly worked along side 12 other puppet obsessed creatives to feedback and evolve the puppet creation process for this epic creation.

Learn more about this project here.

Photos by Trigger Stuff