“I felt a constant growth and development of my ideas, skills and taste… I gained a full pack of tips and tricks on how to unlock stories and how to make them clean and engaging… The fact that this space was specifically created to explore ideas and to play made me feel safe and willing to put my ideas out there without having fear of judgement and having other curious members as a part of it creates an even safer and familiar feeling to the whole experience because we all speak the same language…” - Student testimony
Curious 2023 ran as an eight-week intensive puppetry course from 16 January - 11 March 2023 at St Barnabas Dalston. We welcomed 17 students from 7 countries (including Singapore, South Korea and Belgium). New lecturers on the course this year included Tobi Poster Su and Andrew Kim.
2023’s international cohort was: Bright Ong, Calum Bruce, David Burchhardt, Dixie McDevitt, Fibi Cowley, Hannah White, Heather Lai, Hector Huang, Helen Foan, Hyemin Han, Iris Schmid, Julia Ghorayeb, Liza Cox, Poppy Franziska, Sara Guedes, Sean Garratt, Zhaolin Zhou.
“What Curious offers is a distinct style of teaching. It’s a highly immersive experience that doesn’t stop when class is dismissed… The course retains its unique foothold in the industry due to its unmatched variety and the experience level of the tutors, and its network of alumni who welcome students into an extended community of puppeteers.
The variety of teaching is broad-ranging, from tabletop to marionette, from shadow and light to object theatre, through eleven separate modules which are each two to four days long…
The course totally exploded my understanding of the art-form, and woke me up to what it was to be a puppeteer, beyond just the puppet. Through playing and working together, we formed a deep understanding of each other, which allowed for collaboration to flourish. I learnt that puppetry has even more to do with life experience and interpersonal skills than your understanding of movement and physics, though these technical aspects are also embedded in the teaching and feedback.”
- Excerpts from the text The Curious School of Puppetry by Fibi Cowley published on EU Contemporary Puppetry Critical Platform
“We have had the privilege of learning under some wonderful puppetry artists, and I would
have been hard pressed to find this anywhere else… I appreciated the way Curious selected
its students as it gave me a good insight into the different ways puppetry artists access the
artform. It was lovely to see so many ‘Still Curious’ coming back to help out and be involved
in the community that the school has built. Their ardent support is testament to the strength
of the ties that are formed through the course, and for the art form.
”
- Student testimony