Local creatives, Kerrin Tatman and Will Steele, are bringing big names in puppetry to the north-east for the very first ‘Moving Parts: Newcastle Puppetry Festival’, a week-long event spread over five venues.

I’m a sucker for a new festival and this one looks particularly good. It’s geared towards adults, teenagers, emerging artists and professional practitioners – but also extends to children and the wider community – and aims to further enrich the north-east visual arts scene offering six days of events including large-scale productions at Northern Stage, cabaret and fringe shows at Cobalt Studios, four diverse performance masterclasses at Space Six, a six-day puppet making residency course, and children’s puppetry events at Ouseburn Farm.

There will also be talks with practitioners, puppetry and stop-animation films, networking events, a visual theatre research conference, competitions, and a closing party featuring Newcastle’s exuberant party-starters Holy Moly & the Crackers.

Highlights of the programme include Death Puppet Klezma Jam by Mirth & Misery (a dark comic infusion of gothic marionettes and live Eastern European music); The Marked by Theatre Temoin (where mask and physical theatre combine to tackle homelessness); and The Sea of Organillo by Stephen Mottram’s Animata (an entrancing exploration into the realms of unconsciousness). The full, packed programme, is available from the website, below.

Moving Parts: Newcastle Puppetry Festival, Monday 27 March-Saturday 1 April. newcastlepuppetryfestival.co.uk