We'd love to work with a Puppetry Designer who is excited about children's theatre, actor-musician work, and devising. Collaboration, flexibility, and a good sense of humour are all highly valued. The Project: Dates: Fee: Desired experience: The Role: We are deliberately keeping the recruitment process light touch. Send us an email by 2nd September at 10am with: We will organise interviews early-mid September.Job Summary
Job Description
The Pigeon who became Prime Minister is a new show for 9-12 year olds being co-created by directors Joe Gilmour and Chani Merrell, under the banner of theatre company Welcome Party.
It is an actor-muso show following Pen the Pigeon on her adventures and will provide young people with an exciting first introduction to democracy, parties, voting, and inspire confidence in their own voices.
It will feature song and dance-along moments, a mini House of Commons debate, and audience casting their first ballot to determine the outcome of the show.
The 50 minute show will be followed by an hour-long workshop, utilising the world of the play to take participants on their first steps to using art to express the change they want to see.
We have received full Arts Council Funding to develop the show over two weeks of R&D, and various showings. The Project is also supported by Queen's Theatre Hornchurch, the Constitution Society, and Wonder Arts Wigan.
Designer Prep Week, 9th-13th November (can be flexible)
R&D week 1, 16th- 20th Nov 2026 at Queen's Theatre Hornchurch.
R&D week 2, 30th Nov-4th Dec 2026 between Queens Theatre Hornchurch and London.
£631 per week, 3x weeks, £1893 total. Fee Non-inclusive of materials budget, which will also be provided. Travel and Accomodation budget available if based outside of London.Job Requirements
Designing puppetry in an R&D process.
Some experience designing/making/sourcing costumes - we would like to explore the possibility of some of the animals being fully puppet, and others being part puppet-part costume, so some costume experience is useful.
Work on shows that are Green Book Intermediate Standard.
Work on school's tours- or similar- constraints of durability, repairability, and practicality.Job Responsibilities
We want to work closely and collaboratively with a puppetry designer to bring the bird world of the show to life.
You will be involved in creating the visual language of the show so that it is memorable, funny, and exciting for young audiences, but also practical for a schools tour and sustainably made.
The designer will source and create prototypes for the hybrid costume-puppetry outfits for the three main characters, as well as sourcing and making costumes and puppets ready for the Work-in-Progress showings at the end of the R&D.
Costumes and Puppets do not have to be final-form. Our aim is more to test what will work and have the show visually ready to get a good indication from a young audience what is working and what isn't.How to Apply
- Your website/cv/portfolio
- Anything else that’s useful for us to know about you - e.g. why you would be a good fit for this particular project, how you like to work, etc.