"King of Dinotopia"Thistle Theatre over 30 years of quality puppet theatre
Founded by Jean Enticknap Thistle Theatre has been creating original puppet shows for families since 1992.
Mission
Thistle Theatre enriches and engages audiences by performing professional puppet theatre with social, cultural, and educational significance.
Goals
- To create original, professional puppet productions that extol the art of storytelling through puppet theatre.
- To serve the community as a cultural performing arts resource for puppetry.
- To train and provide resources for puppeteers, artists, and technicians in the art of puppetry.
- To support audience learning goals by conducting educational workshops and creating accompanying materials that are aligned to state standards.
- To offer underprivileged children and underserved communities the opportunity to experience live puppet theatre.
- To commemorate the creative contribution and legacy of Thistle Theatre founder, Jean Enticknap.
- To collaborate with diverse communities to develop culturally relevant productions that celebrate a variety of experiences and traditions.
History
Jean Enticknap founded Thistle Theatre as a 'puppet theatre for families' to introduce children and adults to the magic of puppetry. Starting with a single production as a guest company at the Northwest Puppet Center in 1992. Thistle Theatre soon began producing a 4 show season, performing at various venues throughout King County.
Committed to providing a range of social and cultural works that both educate and entertain, Jean created a repertoire of shows from Africa, Denmark, Japan, Korea, Mexi
"Frog Lake"co, Norway, Russia, England, and the United States. Along with our original productions, Thistle Theatre collaborated with other groups, such as the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, Seattle Japanese Garden, Tears of Joy, and "Looking, Listen and Learn". Created with careful attention to historical accuracy, each show features hand-built puppets, props, scenery, and original music. Jean built Thistle Theatre up to have a fully stocked studio and productions serve as resources for puppeteers/actors, designers, choreographers, musicians, and playwrights to ply their trade, hone their skills, and continue their appreciation for the art of puppetry.
"Little Red-Riding Hood"Thistle Theatre has had the honor of being guest artists for companies on the West and East Coast. Jean brought performances to the Northwest Puppet Center in Seattle, Evergreen Children’s Theatre, Bellevue Youth Theatre, the Admiral Theatre in Bremerton along with countless schools and community centers. Recently we have been guest artists for five seasons in Atlanta, GA at the Center for Puppetry Arts (the largest puppet center in the United States). We have had the honor of performing at two Puppeteers of America National Festivals. Little Red Riding Hood in Seattle at the 1999 Festival of the Millennium and Brother Coyote and Sister Fox at the 75th Puppeteers of America Festival in Atlanta.
Jean Enticknap in the studio with her puppetsSadly, Jean passed away unexpectedly on December 31st, 2021. Thistle Theatre was just beginning to come out of hibernation from the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving its future in question. The Board of Directors brought in former Thistle Theatre puppeteer, Gavin Cummins, to guide Thistle Theatre into the future. Gavin began his puppetry journey at Thistle Theatre under Jean. He founded the Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam in Seattle before getting an MFA in Puppet Arts from the University of Connecticut.
In the last year and a half, Thistle Theatre has been busy. We produced 3 shows, Winnie the Pooh, Brother Coyote and Sister Fox, and Momotaro. The latter was produced in collaboration with the Seattle Japanese Garden and presented in Japanese and English. Thistle Theatre a smaller-scale classroom show, The Bremen Town Musicians, to help support science lesson plans. We launched a series of workshops that complement Washington learning standards. Thistle has continued its collaborative efforts working with Seattle Shakespeare Company, Youth Theatre Northwest, and Village Theatre. Thistle also elected a new Board of Directors to guide it into the future.
We could not have done this without the help of organizations supporting arts and culture throughout the region.
The Future
The landscape for arts and culture has changed and Thistle Theatre is changing with it. We believe that everyone deserves access to the arts and puppet theatre is a uniquely flexible art form to provide that access. We plan to do this by:
- Partnering with community sponsors
- Touring to underserved communities
- Developing Live-stream programming
- Utilizing a repertory model to make more shows available to our audience
Your support can help keep Thistle Theatre viable now and into the future.