Christopher Gadd
Christopher Gadd is a puppet maker, puppeteer, and creature maker. His interest in puppetry was sparked when he was five years old and saw a puppet show at Butlin's. Since that time, he has been hooked and always wanted to be a puppeteer.
During his teenage years, he was focused on becoming a set designer as he was sure that being a puppeteer wasn’t a “real job”.
However, later he was able to explore for himself while doing his art foundation course.
It was during that foundation year that he found a puppetry course at Central, and he knew he owed it to his younger self to go for it and try and get a place. And, he got in!
Christopher’s time at Central taught him so much and really exposed him to just how big the world of puppetry is. While there he took part in many types of workshops and started to find the areas of puppetry that he really thrived in and loved, from performance through to the making and design process of each puppet and character.
He was incredibly fortunate to be able to make and design some of the characters for a show called A Message from the Sea, which he created with his fellow puppetry students and was lucky enough to perform at The Little Angel Theatre in Islington. Christopher's studies really pushed the boundaries of everything he thought he could do, and he achieved much more.
However, when he graduated in 2020, it wasn’t easy to find his feet in the puppetry or theatre world as there was so much post-pandemic uncertainty.
Christopher spent a lot of time at home during lockdown trying to continue learning.
Additionally, he participated in several online puppet film challenges. In his first one (LA Puppet Guild 48-hour Puppet Film Challenge) his film Trench was even placed in the top ten films.
Since then he has been lucky enough to work on a TV pilot as a puppeteer for a science fiction show called Rogue Element, which is definitely a project to watch out for!
Christopher was fortunate to also work with Judith Hope as a puppet maker for three productions over 2021: The Smartest Giant in Town (Little Angel Theatre), Cinderella - The Awesome Truth (Polka Theatre), and There May Be a Castle (Little Angel Theatre). The Smartest Giant in Town marked his first professional puppet making job. He now also works part-time as a prop and costume technician at The London Dungeons.
As well as his freelance work he has challenged himself to re-create film and TV characters in puppet or figure form.
This project has pushed him more than he could ever have expected, and really let him explore what makes each character so iconic. They include Mrs Doubtfire, Mary Poppins and Captain Barbossa.
Across the years Christopher’s love for puppetry has only become stronger. Every puppet that he makes or operates, has a part of him inside them; his creativity, his passion, his love, and a part of his soul.
You can see more of Christopher Gadds’ work at here or on his website www.cgpuppetry.com