Nick Barnes

The British puppet designer and puppet maker studied at Hull University, the Slade School of Fine Art, and the International Institute of the Marionette. Barnes now runs a puppet-making studio in Hove, England. His work with Gyre & Gimble includes associate puppetry designer on Running Wild (Chichester Festival Theatre, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, U. K. tour), puppet codesigner/maker on The Lorax (Old Vic), and puppet fabrication for The Four Seasons: A Reimagining (Shakespeare’s Globe). In 1996 Barnes founded Blind Summit Theatre and for many years was the company’s coartistic director, also performing, designing, and directing. The company also created puppetry for Madame Butterfly (English National Opera, Metropolitan Opera), Shunkin, A Dog’s Heart, and The Master and Margarita (Complicité), Faeries (Royal Opera House), Kommilitonen! (Royal Academy of Music), El Gato Con Botas (Tectonic Theatre), His Dark Materials (Birmingham Rep), and directed the puppetry for the 2012 London Olympic Games opening ceremony. Other work in puppetry includes the BBC Proms’s annual Ten Pieces program, Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Kenny Wax Ltd), and Beauty and the Beast (Chichester Festival Theatre). In addition to Ariodante (Aix-en-Provence, Amsterdam, Toronto), Barnes was puppet designer for Doctor Dolittle (U. K. tour) and puppetry codesigner for Angels in America (National Theatre, Broadway).

Lyric debut: Puppetry Designer/Ariodante (2018/19)

Last updated: March 2, 2019