© 2025 Beatrice Sica.
I am neither a clown nor a puppeteer, but I love both clowning and puppetry, so much so that before and during the Covid pandemic, I took quite a lot of courses in both (only a few in clowning, in fact, because soon the love for puppetry took over). In Spring 2020 I also took a module on "Il teatro di animazione in funzione terapeutica", taught at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, as part of their MA in Medical Humanities; from that module stemmed my article "Puppets and Covid-19. Lockdown, Health Prevention, and Language Education for Children." I performed with the Brighton Summer School of Puppetry in Summer 2019 and the Little Angel Theatre Puppetry online Ensemble in Autumn 2020. Since then, I have only performed for family and friends, but, who knows, perhaps at some point in the future I will resume my training and public performances ;)
Courses taken
PUPPETRY
2020-2021
- Translating Live Performance to Film (Little Angel Theatre, 8h, taught by Matthew Robins)
- Sock Puppets. A Masterclass (Little Angel Theatre, 10h, taught by Oliver Smart)
- Little Angel Theatre Puppetry online Ensemble (Little Angel Theatre, 16h, taught by Oliver Hymans)
- Shadowgraphy (Little Angel Theatre, 8h, taught by Drew Colby)
- “Le figure di legno. Corso di specializzazione sulla costruzione e animazione dei burattini a guanto” (Atelier delle Figure, Faenza, 100h, taught by Gaspare Nasuto and Stefano Giunchi)
2019-2020
- Little Angel Theatre Puppetry online Ensemble (Little Angel Theatre, 16h, taught by Oliver Hymans)
- Activism through Puppetry: Using Art to Make Social Commentary and Enact Change (taught by Kate Katz, online, hosted by the Los Angeles Guild of Puppetry, 1h)
- Workshop with Marzia Gambardella (Compagnie Philippe Genty), online, 4h)
- “Il teatro di animazione in funzione terapeutica”, module of the Master in Medical Humanities at University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy, taught by Moreno Pigoni)
- Intensive Introduction to Play (Jackson Lane Theatre, 2 days, taught by Kane Husbands of The Puppyshow as part of the London Mime Festival training courses)
- Broaden your mime (Jackson Lane Theatre, 2 days, taught by Nola Rae as part of the London Mime Festival training courses)
- Full-mask masterclass (Jackson Lane Theatre, 4h, taught by Rachael Savage, Vamos Theatre’s Artistic Director, as part of the London Mime Festival training courses)
- Puppetry and Therapy (Brighton School of Puppetry, 1 day, led by Darren East and Beccy Smith of “Touched Theatre”)
- Intermediate Puppetry Course (Little Angel Theatre, 25h, taught by Oliver James Hymans)
- Shadow and Light (Little Angel Theatre, 12h, taught by Steve Tiplady)
- Puppet Lab at Little Angel Theatre (4h)
- Puppet Jam at Little Angel Theatre (2h)
2018-2019
- Brighton Summer School of Puppetry (Brighton School of Puppetry, 6 intensive days, taught by Darren East, Beccy Smith, and Isobel Smith, with final publica performance)
- Initiation au Theatre d’objet (Theatre de Cuisine, Marseille, 28-31 August 2019, 4 intensive days, taught by Katy Deville)
- Burattini all’improvviso (Workshop on improvising with glove puppets, Sorrivoli, 19-23 August 2019, 10h, taught by Elis Ferracini)
- Using Puppetry to Help Children Achieve Positive Relationships with their Peers, INSET training, CPD session (Little Angel Theatre, 2h, taught by Dinah Mason)
- Writing for Puppetry (Little Angel Theatre, 3h, taught by Rachel Warr)
- Puppetry Foundation Course (Little Angel Theatre, 20h, taught by Oliver James Hymans)
- Designing and Making a ‘Theatre for One’ (Little Angel Theatre, 10h out of 20h, taught by Judith Hope)
- Object Theatre (Little Angel Theatre, 18h, taught by “Le Théatre de la Pire Espèce”)
- Talking with Puppets (Brighton Puppetry School, 6h, taught by Darren East)
CLOWNING
2018-2019
- Clowning, “The Beauty of Mistakes” (Why Not Institute, 6h)
- Clowning: an introduction (CityLit, 10h, taught by Gerard Flanagan)