Blue Sky Theatre is one of the two branches of Punchinello’s Puppets Ltd - a company with a over twenty five years experience in creating a variety of work for young people and families. Blue Sky Theatre is dedicated exclusively to producing original quality theatre for the under fives. The company mixes puppetry, music, movement, storytelling and audience involvement to create imaginative new work intended for the very very young. The Artistic Directors - Mary and Glyn Edwards - both have extensive track records in puppet theatre, young people's TV and education. Blue Sky Theatre gratefully acknowledges funding assistance from Arts Council England and several local authorities. Mary Edwards is the niece of John Wright - founder of London’s world famous Little Angel Marionette Theatre. She toured extensively with her uncle’s company in the UK, Europe and in Africa. Upon leaving the company to work as a solo puppeteer when her own daughter was born she concentrated on performing for under fives throughout the Greater London area and worked in community settings for many of the london borough councils as well as at private functions. She also presented the Tyne Tees television series Toycraft which was based upon her toy and puppet designs and which led to her forming The Puppet Factory as a company specialising in making puppets for TV and theatre. Her puppets for the ITV series Orm and Cheep are still requested for exhibitions on the history of TV puppetry. Mary also created ’Crow’ for the long running BBC Saturday morning series Saturday Superstore hosted by Mike Reid and Sarah Greene and additionally made numerous puppets for BBC and ITV schools programmes including the BBC’s Look and Read series. Mary’s theatre credits include puppets for the Theatre Royal Stratford East, Teatr Clywd, Wales and for the Oily Cart Childrens Theatre Company. She is also celebrated for her traditonal carved wooden Punch and Judy figures - one of which was commissioned as a gift for the Russian puppet master Sergei Obrastsov. Since 1995 Mary has returned to live performance and is a director of PuppetLink Ltd and of her own company. Glyn Edwards trained as a teacher before making schools TV programmes on behalf of the Inner London Education Authority and later joining ATV Network where his most celebrated activities were as producer/director of the cult Saturday morning series Tiswas. He also wrote two series of schools text books and the scripts for many ITV schools programmes. A former member of the The Little Angel Theatre glove and rod-puppet team, Glyn is also a key performer of traditional Punch and Judy (and was described by The Times as “among today’s leading exponents”). He has performed throughout Britain as well as in France, Spain, Greece, Italy, Russia, Dubai, the USA and Japan. His book Successful Punch and Judy is considered the standard modern handbook on performing the show. As well as directing for TV, Glyn has also written and directed work for other puppet companies. He directed a recent revival of The Little Angel Theatre’s Cindermouse and wrote Millennium Mischief for Movingstage Marionettes on the Puppet Theatre Barge. He has also directed student work for Central School of Speech and Drama and for the Scuola di Guarratelle in Naples. Since 1995 he has joined Mary in creating new work for their own company. Associate artists: Blue Sky Theatre undertakes its projects with help from a team of associate artists connected with the PuppetLink consortium. These include musician Rocky Amoo, stage designer Craig Denston and costume designer Kay Wilton. Animated and projected sequences are created with assistance from Arnim Freiss of Pixelbox Ltd. The company also work closely with London based Tickety Boo Arts who also specialise in working with early years.