BIOGRAPHY

Or as they say on Strictly Come Dancing :
My "Journey"

I'm happily settled now in Staffordshire in the Midlands.

But originally grew up by the Seaside on

the North Kent coast.

Oh the allure of the coloured footlights.

Saturday morning cinema club weekly talent contest has a lot to answer for.

I used to sing 'We all live in a Yellow Submarine" with my tambourine.

The Muppet Show hit our TV screens when I was eleven.

It made a huge impact on me. I loved it. And I knew there were people 'under' the puppets: and I knew I wanted to do that.

I could never have dared hope that one day I would meet Jim Henson, work for his Company and be Directed by him on four different projects.

But long before Kermit and his fuzzy, furry gang of zany, colourful Muppets had captured my imagination, I had been enthralled by a totally different type of puppet : Mr. Punch.

When I was a child there was a Punch and Judy Show on every other beach.

And our house was only a block away from the seafront, the Pier and a red and white striped Punch and Judy Theatre.

'Uncle' Collin Bennet did the show at Herne Bay less than 80 yards from our back garden gate.

While over at Broadstairs, where my Grandparents lived, it was Peter Buchard who did the show on the golden sands.

By the time I started secondary school, I had built myself a theatre and some puppets and was doing shows at other kids parties.

The puppets were terrible - I had no idea there were people out there who made puppets to sell - and couldn't have afforded them in any case.

I just made my own, thanks to the books on Punch and Puppetry in the local library.

Every time I made a puppet it was better than the one before. Now fifty years later that's still true.

Secondary School was at Geoffrey Chaucer in Canterbury.

A happy, but uneventful five years.

School Plays aside, and getting the lead in 'Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat' - it felt like marking time.

I would probably have done A-Levels in English, History and Art there, if one of the English teachers hadn't heard an episode of "You and Yours" on BBC Radio.

Thankfully he did, and he told me and my parents about a vibrant new way to study A-Levels, on a new course at Stratford upon Avon.

RSC

Stratford Upon Avon

And I went TO the Theatre ...a LOT !

No...But I did go to the College .

DLA - "Drama & Liberal Arts" was a three A-Level module.

But back then, only a handful of Colleges around the Country could host it.

And the one at Stratford Upon Avon was the Flagship, as the Head Lecturer there was the creator behind the whole DLA format.

GORDON VALLINS.

A truly inspirational figure. A giant in the world of Theatre and Theatre Education.

And a smashing bloke who really cared about the development of the young people on his groundbreaking courses.

In an otherwise drab landscape of further eduction, "DLA" was a beacon of Fulfilment and Joy.

When Gordon retired they renamed the main Drama studio after him.

Stratford quite literally changed the course of my whole life.

Gordon approached the Kent Education Authority and asked them to fund my 6th form studies out of

my home County.

He was absolutely insistant he wanted me on his course. There was nothing at all comparable in Kent.

So they agreed.

I moved into digs aged sixteen to study A-Level 'English Literature', 'Theatre Studies' plus a third - (each students own choice)-

Mine was 'Theatre Design' and I am so glad I chose that, it's been the most used and practical bit of education throughout my adult life. It was two wonderful years.

Yet I have virtually no photos of any of it.

Two of the proudest moments I can remember were when Gordon travelled up to the Heights of Abraham to see my Punch Show.

First with Colin, another tutor from Stratford. And next here, with his daughter Rebecca.

He got to see the fruits of seeds planted when I was Student on his DLA Course.

Thank You Gordon.

After College came Drama School - 3 Years at The Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Gosh, I was young, and thin, flexible and had hair !

None of those things are true today.

Unlike my time at Stratford, there are lots of photos from Bristol.

This is all due to my classmate Liza Bowerman.

Liza was then, and still is now, a highly skilled photographer.

She is the sole reason 'C-Group" (or the 'Mickey Roonies'..) have so many palpable memories of our three wonderful years together.

We did so many productions at BOVTS.

A varied and diverse cannon of work, including 'The Jungle Book'.

We did a Schools Tour of it in our first year, then an expanded Theatre version at the Theatre Royal Studio in both our second and final years.

Audiences absolutely loved it; hence its yearly resurrection.

Purely by chance a sculpt I did a couple of years ago bore a remarkable resemblance to our Jungle Book tutor John Hartock.

I didnt see his photo until after the sculpt was dry and painted ...spooky.

Sonheims "Company" was a highlight for me. It was an extra-curricular production, meaning actors from different class groups and indeed different year groups all worked together.

Rehearsals for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with our Director

and School Principal CHRIS DENYS.

The Musical version of "Canterbury Tales".

Me with the aforementioned actress and photographer Liza Bowerman.

A restoration romp : "Mariage A La Mode"

All the photos from this were black and white.

But I had to tint one to show the full horror.

I was head to toe in pink.

Pink shoes, pink clothes, pink wig!

Like a very camp Poodle.

"Blowing The Blues Away" was a devised Musical Revue.

It was a huge highlight of our second year.

And to our great delight, It got a revival in our final year.

We would have done this show forever. Happy times.

Blues included "Iv'e been to a Marvellous Party".

Here Noel Cowards romp was split three ways with me, Ian Crowe and Susan Tordoff.

That glorious threesome taught me so much about timing a joke and hitting a punchline.

Our first year at Bristol was wonderful, but things elevated to a much higher level when NEIL RHODEN joined us as musical Director from the start of our second year.

Neil is top left in this next photo. We would never have done Sonheims "Company" without him for a start.

..."And Oh Look At The stage , No Other Age Could Have ever Designed It,

Seek This Anywhere And We Will Swear , That You Never Will Find It"...

We were lucky to have the Theatre Royal as our playground.

Happy memories indeed.

Twenty years after we graduated a few of us managed a reunion at the school.

We even tried out the new Dance Studio, built long after we left...very swanky.

At our 20 year reunion , the Dance Studio at the rear of the building was new. But in the years since then, they have managed to acquire the building next door ( a care home in our day ).

This effectively doubled the size of the school premises.

In addition they built a big glass fronted "link" between the buildings with new office space and two large Drama Studios.

We did manage another get together in the Autumn of 2022,

"John/Tom/Pirouette" Griffin even flew over from his home in Portugal.

Sadly, the get together was prompted by the sudden passing of our much loved classmate Bryan Kennedy.

Bryan was the first of our group to move on to the Big Stage in the sky.

Not without cruel irony then, that he sang "Being Alive" as Bobby in "Company".

And here we are actually back in Bristol in 2024 for our 40th Reunion Weekend.

Our Much loved singing coach and Musical Director Neil Rhoden.

On Saturday Andrew Stoker treated us to an Access-All-Areas tour of the renovated Theatre Royal. Thank you Andrew.

It was wonderful to all be on that stage again 40 years later.

On Sunday we were treated to a full tour of The Bristol Old Vic theatre School itself.

Thank you Naomi for generously showing us around.

As lovely as it was to see all the new parts of the School, we were most excited to revisit our old classrooms and studios.

They hadn't aged or changed a bit in 40 years : even if we had !

Education & Training ends and Work begins

Polka Children's Theatre in Wimbledon.

A far cry from the gilded elegance of the Theatre Royal Bristol.

However this Theatre was a magical place indeed.

Back then it was still dubbed 'The Enchanted Theatre'.

And for me it was exactly that, I was getting a pay cheque for acting and puppeteering. And also my elusive Equity Card.

There were a lot of puppets used alongside actors in the shows at POLKA.

To me it just felt like 'coming home'.

Getting the Theatre built ten years earlier, and the company and repertoire of shows established, was down to a remarkable husband and wife team.

LIZ GILL designed the productions, and RICHARD GILL was the tour de force that wrote and directed the shows.

ROMAN STEPHANSKI was one of the Artistic Directors. He directed my first show at Polka.

But our paths were destined to cross in other ways too.

Being a puppeteer himself, and also trained mime, he auditioned at Hensons Creature Shop years later for Costume work.

Roman was inside the Honeymonster for most of the time I was performing the animatronic head. It's a small world.

From Polka, I got a lucky break. I was told of upcoming auditions for the satirical adult TV puppet show Spitting Image.

Spitts had already done its first two series, some puppeteers were moving on to other things, and they were looking for two new puppet performers.

Working with the Spitting Image puppeteers, introduced me to the Hensons Creature Shop, housed in this warehouse near Camden Lock.

Oh the magical things that got built behind those unassuming walls.

But you can find out all about my Film and TV work in the other part of this website.

And also discover how Mr Punch never really let go his grip on my soul, and remains a constant in my working life.

I've been fortunate to always keep a foot in both camps - Punch & Judy and onscreen Puppetry and Animatronics.

Here I'm the one with the big Cock, and the guy with the weird Hare is Rick Lyons : co-creator of the musical "Avenue Q".

Filming has shown me the World, I've been hugely lucky with the places I have seen over the years.

America, Canada, a whole year in Australia, and oh so much of Europe.

But even more special to me than all the Countries, have been the many talented and generous people I have been fortunate enough to work with and count as friends.

Lastly in this Biography section comes the most important people of all.

My Family.

None of what I have been lucky enough to have have achieved in the mad world of Puppetry would have been possible without the constant love and support of my Parents and siblings. They never judged, or tried to make me get 'a proper job'.

I love them all so much, and thank them for letting me always do the thing I enjoyed right from early childhood. Thank You and BIG HUGS. Richard XXX