Life behind the puppeteer

Georgia Wall (BA Physical Theatre, 2017) is an actor, mover, puppeteer and theatre maker who’s spent the years after graduating touring the UK and the world. She’s currently on tour in the US with Dinosaur World Live, where a young palaeontologist takes the audience on an up-close-and-personal tour with dinosaurs.

We caught up with her between shows to chat about her career journey.

What drew you to study Physical Theatre at East 15 and how would you describe your experience?

I've always been very physical and spent a lot of my childhood dancing and doing sports alongside other performing. During my A Levels I was introduced to companies like DV8, Kneehigh and Gecko and was instantly in awe of the beautiful, physical and creative ways in which they tell/told stories, so when I saw all those weird and wonderful things offered on the Physical Theatre course at E15, I knew it was the course for me.

I want to shout out to Simon Hunt, the Course Leader for Physical Theatre at East 15! I had a wonderful 3 years. What a privilege to have the freedom to be creative all day, every day. I learnt so much and met so many incredible people and will forever be grateful. 

You graduated in 2017, tell us about your career and what you’ve been involved in.

It's certainly been a rollercoaster of a journey since graduating, a low being Covid, naturally, but otherwise I think the biggest challenge for me has been accepting that each year can look so different and that that's alright.

Highlights have included working on a show directed by Sally Cookson, getting to travel and see the world with my creative work and performing at Bristol Old Vic and Bath Theatre Royal - both bucket list venues from near to where I grew up. 

You’re currently puppeteering in the Dinosaur World Live US tour – tell us all about it.

As a puppeteer, I'd say my favourite part of the show would have to be puppeteering the head of our Segnosaurus, Juliet, or being the sassy body and wings of Orlando, our Microraptor.

As well as being a puppeteer in the show, I am also understudy to the wonderful Lizzie Burder who plays Miranda, the host of the show. This means that I have to know every track of the show, as all puppeteers rotate the puppetry tracks including a backstage track to help with getting the bigger puppets safely on and off stage.

As Miranda, my favourite bit is interacting with the children chosen to come up on stage. It's so joyous, unbelievably cute and oftentimes very funny. It certainly keeps you on your toes. 

What advice would you give to East 15 students?

I'll always remember being told to get good at, and comfortable with, failing as it's all part of the process. But also, that some of the best stuff is learnt or discovered this way, trying, failing, picking yourself up and trying again. Maybe you'll end up somewhere you didn't expect but that's the beauty of it.

Aside from this, I'd just say to stick with it, never stop learning, work hard, be nice, be yourself and don't be afraid to be different.