Meg Amsden

Meg Amsden March 2014

(Photo by Nick Guttridge)

Artistic Director
Designer, Maker, Illustrator, Performer, Writer, Film maker, Workshop Leader

Meg grew up in Hertfordshire and graduated from Cambridge University in 1971 with a degree in Social Anthropology. Working freelance as an illustrator, comic-strip artist and film maker, she moved to Suffolk in 1973.

From 1975 she worked in educational theatre and dance, and trained as a puppeteer and workshop leader with Guy Richardson.

Meg set up Nutmeg in 1979 with a friend, creating original shows to perform on Southwold beach, in schools and at festivals, and run puppet and mask-making workshops. Since then she has created 53 productions. She has worked with Charivari, Welfare State, Company of Imagination,Suffolk Artlink, Waveney & Blyth Arts, Signals Art and Media, East Feast, Creative Partnerships, the Hawk and Owl Trust, Suffolk and Norfolk Wildlife trusts, Natural England etc. as performer, workshop leader, designer, and maker of masks, puppets, and textile hangings.

She lectured on the Open University TAD Summer School 1985; taught art, drama and film in Lowestoft College Special Needs Department in the 1980s, and courses for Sorgente workshops in Tuscany. She joined Equity in 1983 and trained as a Laban Guild Recreational Dance Leader in 1986.

She set up and ran the Sound of Wangford arts project for rural children from 1986 – 98.

From 1985 – 2006 she worked with the Broads Authority (National Park) in the Broads. She ran the “Ecopuppets” project in the Danube Delta, Romania with a group of teachers, artists and environmentalists from 1995 – 1998, returning in 1999 on a British Council sponsored visit with Dr Sandra Bell of Durham University Anthropology Department, to study the effects of the project.

She was a founder member of Puppeteers East regional puppeteers network. From 2000 – 2013, Meg was Chair of British UNIMA (Union International de la Marionnette); Councillor for Puppeteers U.K. national network, and a UNIMA Councillor; 2004-2008 a member of UNIMA Education Commission, and since 2010 has been a member of UNIMA Education, Therapy and Development Commission.

She also plays the accordion and sings in an acapella group for fun.

Colleagues and collaborators

Over the course of 40 years Meg has worked with the following artists in particular:

Jane Wells

Jane pic 1 Composer/musician. https://www.janewellsoccasionalmusic.co.uk
Studied music at Durham University and composition as a postgraduate with Jonathan Harvey. In 1987 she moved to Norfolk to become one of several Arts Council-supported regional music ‘animateurs’. Since then she has combined composing with leading community music projects for many and varied organisations. She has particularly enjoyed collaborating with Meg to compose and record music for five Nutmeg shows.

Molly Barrett

Maker/designer/puppeteer/actor

Steve Peck

Steve pic Actor/puppeteer and Human Givens therapist.

Jayne Ivimey

Environmental artist, set designer https://www.jayneivimey.com

Julie Carpenter

Studied photography, performance art, costume and film at Dartington and Sheffield. Community artist and artistic director for Village Stage WOMAD. Puppet maker for Luton Carnival. Co-director of Craftco Southwold.

Tim Hunkin

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Engineer/cartoonist https://www.timhunkin.com

Nicky Rowbottom

Environmental education/eco-puppeteer
Nicky’s background is in education and nature conservation and she has worked in the private, public and charity sectors. Her main areas of expertise are wildlife and conservation. She researches and writes for websites, exhibitions, panels and leaflets, and edits newsletters.

Joy Haynes

Theatre director/puppeteer https://www.puppettheatre.co.uk

Debra Hyatt

Film maker and organic horticulturalist https://www.debrahyatt.com

Nico Brown

Nico pic Musician/composer https://www.nicoandmartin.com
Now based jointly in Wales and Ireland, Nico Brown continues to write, perform and tour original music and theatre for people of all ages. He has been musician in residence at Kilruddery House, Co. Wicklow.

Paul Preston Mills

Knowlittle Actor/puppeteer etc.

https:// www.stuffandthings.co.uk

Paul has been performing professionally for 17 years. Prior to that he fixed ship engines and forklift trucks on the East Anglian coast. He works as a sound installation artist and street performer with Stuff and Things, including being one half of comic human puppetry act ‘The Thinker’. He spent many years working as a classical actor with Mad Dogs and Englishmen, and as an actor and deviser with Norwich-based Spin Off Theatre. He DJs for Rotterdam based Silent Disco, and is a regular on the East Anglian cabaret scene, both as a solo performer/compere and with Natalya Umanska, in their double act El Carton Del Muerte.

Nathan Williamson

Nathan pic

Nathan has written music for orchestras, instrumentalists and singers from all over the world, as well as works for the stage and theatre in various forms. He also performs regular piano recitals and concertos internationally. He lives in Southwold. https://www.nathanwilliamson.co.uk

Frances Kay

Fan pic 1

Playwright/Theatre Director/Novelist

Jessie Glover Gillilan

Jessie 2

Designer and Maker https://www.jessieglovergillilan.co.uk

Ellie Horry

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Maker/embroiderer/artist #elliemadethis on Instagram
As one of Nutmeg’s first ‘junior interns’, Ellie has been part of the team as long as she can remember. A childhood spent pootling in the workshop, joining in shows and going on tour in the school holidays evolved into making puppets and props and even co-performing the show one summer. Since completing a textiles degree she has gone on to other ventures, including embroidery design and children’s-wear retail. She will always be a little bit Nutmeg.

Iain Halket

Iain pic Puppeteer/maker https://www.foldingtheatre.co.uk
Artistic Director and main performer of the Folding Theatre Puppet Company. Studied set and costume design at West Sussex College of Design. He has worked extensively within theatre for the past 30 years as a set and costume designer, prop maker, production manager and performer, with a wide variety of theatre and puppet companies including Norwich Puppet Theatre, Clydebuilt Theatre Co, Garidge Theatre Co, Plutot La Vie, Puppet Lab, the Lemon Tree, Garlic Theatre and Benchtours Productions. Now living in Berger Norway, Iain is the Producer at the Fossekleiva Kultursenter. http://www.figurifossekleiva.no/

Mark Pitman and Iklooshar Malara

Theatre directors and co-devisers https://www.garlictheatre.org.uk

mark Mark worked as a model maker before training in mime and movement with Desmond Jones and attending Jacques Lecoq’s school in Paris. Mark was part-time tutor for puppetry and manipulation and construction at the Central School for Speech and Drama in London 1995-2001. He joined Garlic in 1997 as co-director. Mark works as a free-lance director with U.K. companies that tour nationally

Iklooshar studied English Literature at Oxford University before co-founding Big Wheel Theatre Company in 1986. A fully qualified teacher, Iklooshar has trained with Philippe Genty, Theatre de Complicite, Philippe Gaulier , Enno Podehl and Jan Feng and for ten years worked as a freelance actress, puppeteer and musician with U.K. In 1997 she founded the Garlic Theatre which has toured nationally and internationally with nine productions;