16 Mar 2025
When you think of puppets you might think of Spitting Image or The Muppets but did you know that the power of positive puppetry is making an impact with children right on our doorstep?
A St Albans daughter and dad duo has been providing a platform for change through their extraordinary puppet theatre for the last decade.
Run by Jeremy and Caitlin Duschenes, Young People’s Puppet Theatre is celebrating its 10th birthday this month.
The arts education charity aims to boost children’s confidence, resilience and creativity through large-scale puppetry projects.
They have run 150 projects with more than 4,500 children involved, mostly in primary schools and an annual summer camp in St Albans.
In a project, each child designs and makes their own complex marionette, collaborates with others on set design and building, and then takes a role in rehearsals and performances of their group’s show, which is then presented on a high-tech stage.
The productions are entirely child-led, with all puppets and sets created by the children. All roles in rehearsals and performances, from voice acting and puppetry to lighting, sound and stage management are taken up by youngsters.
The learning opportunities are vast. Participants are given the chance to consider creative careers, as well as gaining a range of practical, technical, social and life skills as they exceed everyone’s expectations about what they can achieve, especially their own. The projects are a hit with children, parents and teachers alike.
Morgan, a young voice actor said: “The puppet project helped me realise that just because we are young doesn’t mean we can’t do difficult work. We can do anything we want now and in the future.”
Nine-year-old Kyle said: “Puppets helped my mental health because of my brain being quiet.”
Ayaan who did the lighting design, also nine, said: “I can do things that older groups can do. I’ve learned that if I work hard it will be worth it at the end.”
Jannah said: she was “so proud” of herself for being brave and facing her fear of speaking in front of other people.
Jeremy and Caitlin recently made the phenomenal discovery that their family has been puppeteering for a century.
They had always known that the family was keen on puppets but found out recently that some of their older puppets had survived the family’s flight from Nazi persecution, as had one of their old scripts dated from 1931.
Jeremy’s father Mario was a small child when he helped with the family’s productions in Hamburg. He later produced amateur puppetry productions in Switzerland and Canada, where he settled after the war, and passed on the puppetry passion to Jeremy, who ran projects in the 1990s and early 2000s in the UK, in turn passing on the puppetry bug to Caitlin.
Jeremy said: “When I first started running puppetry projects in the UK, it was just me volunteering at a local primary school, cutting wooden parts for puppet bodies in my
workshop at home.
“It’s absolutely incredible that the YPPT is now working with more than 800 children each year, bringing the benefits of those projects to so many children who need it.
“We’re very grateful to our project leaders, volunteers, supporters and donors – we wouldn’t be here without them!”
Caitlin added: “It’s amazing being part of this charity that brings so much joy to so many people! I’ve been doing some digging into our family history recently and love being part of that long tradition.”
To celebrate their anniversary, the YPPT is hosting the Great Puppet Catwalk on Saturday April 5 at St Albans Museum + Gallery from 11 until 3.30pm where more than 350 puppets
will take to the catwalk. You can bring your own puppet, make one on the day or borrow one of theirs. All ages welcome, no previous puppeting experience required
For more information visits www.yppt.org.uk
