Jessica Parker Hewitt
Jess trained at ArtsEd, graduating with 1st Class BA (Hons) in Musical Theatre. As a performer, her credits cover numerous West End, UK and International tours including Kiss Me Kate, Evita, Seussical and Avenue Q. Her journey with Avenue Q and puppetry began in 2014, when she was trained and mentored by Nigel Plaskitt. She also played the roles of Second Arm/Bad Idea Bear/Mrs T, Kate Monster/Lucy, and understudied. She became on-stage Resident Director of the show in 2015-2017, and Associate Director for the 2019/2020 UK & Ireland Tour. Jess worked as a Resident Director, Associate Director and Associate Choreographer on shows such as Six, Jersey Boys, 20th Century Boy, Wizard of Oz, and was Puppet Director and Consultant for other productions. She is the creator and founder of Parker Puppetry, founded during the lockdown of 2020. It was born from a passion led from being so heavily involved in Avenue Q for many years, and seeing how important learning basic skills of hand & rod puppetry can be, both from a creative point of view and for mental health and motor-skills, especially for children.
Parker Puppetry is the first international collective to specialise in teaching syllabus hand & rod puppetry. It offers puppetry training workshops and classes for groups, theatre schools, production companies, puppet performance classes and one-on-one private sessions. They additionally offer puppet ‘meet & greets’, puppetry consulting, directing, puppeteers for productions Parker Puppetry have worked on projects for clients such as The Backyard Cinema, BBC, Hartbeeps, and The Birmingham Royal Ballet. With her experience of puppeteering and drawing from her many years teaching, directing, and performing, Jess has created her own syllabus for the art form and with Parker Puppetry’s expertly trained puppetry teachers, is proud to be spreading the joy of hand & rod puppetry in the UK and globally. Parker Puppetry is passionate and dedicated to being an advocate in creating a wholly inclusive and diverse sector within the puppeteering and performance world.