Ailie Cohen

Ailie is a puppeteer, performer, illustrator, designer and puppetry director and maker for among others, National Theatre of Scotland, Grid Iron, TAG, The Citizens and Vanishing Point. Her own shows include 'I Vant to be Alone’, Rumpelstiltskin at the Fairytale Laundry', ‘Jazz Mouse’, 'The New Not New' and ‘Cloud Man’ which was Ailie’s first collaboration with Lewis Hetherington.  ‘Cloud Man’ was selected to appear as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase 2011 and is still touring internationally. 

Ailie is an associate artist of Puppet State Theatre Company, with which she collaborated on ‘The Man Who Planted Trees’, and has toured worldwide since 2006.

Lewis Hetherington

Lewis is a Glasgow based Playwright and Theatre Maker. As associate of the award-winning Analogue he co-wrote Mile End and Beachy Head, and wrote Fringe First winning 2401 Objects. With Catrin Evans he wrote and directed Leaving Planet Earth for Grid Iron, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Writing credits include Khamsah for National Youth Theatre, presented in Saudi Arabia, Friends Electric for Visible Fictions, Tin Forest; South West for National Theatre Scotland, A Perfect Child for A Play A Pie and A Pint at Oran Mor, Rebecca’s Midnight for Lyra Theatre, Red Riding Hood, Goldilocks for Platform, Cloud Man created with Ailie Cohen.

Lewis’ work has been produced throughout the UK and internationally. His work is published by Oberon.

Rick Conte

Rick Conte studied journalism and played the drums in bands at the University of Georgia. He moved to Edinburgh, Scotland in 1989. After releasing three singles with a band in Scotland, he was hired to provide percussion for a theatrical project with the Edinburgh Puppet Company in 1992. He became a puppeteer on that project and has since worked with many of the UK’s prominent theatre companies, including the National Theatre of Scotland, Wee Stories, and Catherine Wheels Theatre Company. He gained immeasurable performance and practical experience at Edinburgh’s Bongo Club Cabaret 1998-2002. Using characters from Puppet Interventions, a company formed with his colleague Matt Rudkin, Rick addressed the European Conference on Alcohol Policy in Helsinki, Leiden and Warsaw.  In 2006 he began a run of a show developed with Puppetstate Theatre Company, ‘The Man Who Planted Trees’ by Jean Giono, which has toured the world to such places as the Sydney Opera House and the Lincoln Center in NYC, winning many awards.  ‘The Man Who Planted Trees’ is still touring and in great demand through 2015.

Recently Rick has provided puppet direction for The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s production of ‘Avenue Q’ at the Edinburgh Fringe 2013, and ‘A Christmas Carol’ at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, and Christmas 2013.  He will be facilitating puppetry workshops for the American University in Shanghai for their drama festival in February 2014.

Niroshini Thambar

Niroshini is a musician and composer, creating work for theatre, installation, and with communities. Themes of identity, migration and life story frequently inspire and thread through her work. Recent soundtrack composition includes Secret Life of Suitcases (Ailie Cohen Puppets/Unicorn Theatre) and The Bridge (Annie George), commissioned for the Commonwealth Games 2014 cultural programme. Installations include Transmission, commissioned by Drake Music Scotland, which engages with aging, memory and creativity, and Memory Box, which explores Sri-Lankan diaspora identity. Soundtrack collaborations with Nik Paget-Tomlinson include From Here to There (La Nua/Edinburgh Mela), Cloud Man (Ailie Cohen Puppets), and the sound design for Drift (Vision Mechanics). Niroshini was recently selected as an artist-in-residence by Creative Carbon Scotland for the Mull Arts and Sustainability Residency 2015.

Andrew Gannon

Andrew is a freelance Theatre Technician and Lighting Designer. He started working in the industry at the Traverse Theatre in 2008. Since leaving the Traverse and Andrew has worked and toured with many companies including Vanishing Point ('Interiors') and Ailie Cohen's ‘Cloudman’. Andrew continues to work as a Technical Manager and Production Manager for a number of tours and will be working with Lung Ha’s Theatre Company, Tortoise in a Nutshell, DanceBase and Vanishing Point in this coming year.

Samuel Jameson

Samuel trained as an actor in Edinburgh and has found work as a performer, writer and puppeteer alongside other Scottish theatre artists. He's traveled the UK and abroad with shows by Ailie Cohen Puppet Maker (The Secret Life of Suitcases), Visible Fictions (Friends Electric), Frozen Charlotte (Too Many Penguins?, Sense, Blush), Starcatchers (SpaceDust) and Poorboy (Blood and Roses).