About Us
Thingumajig Theatre
Thingumajig Theatre creates and performs innovative puppet plays and interactive giant puppet street acts. Based in West Yorkshire, their puppets have played throughout the UK and 14 other countries and have been seen on television and a major Disney film.
Thingumajig’s co-directors Kathy and Andrew Kim met while working as performers on a Horse and Bamboo production in 2002. After several years commuting across the Atlantic to visit each other, they married and settled in West Yorkshire and started Thingumajig Theatre in 2006.
Kathy’s Story
Kathy Kim (Performer, Musician, Maker and Director) was born and brought up in Bradford, England. She was awarded a Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music (flute) before going on to study Drama at Manchester University.
She has worked in theatre as an actor, musician and mask performer for the past 30 years with companies including Solent People’s Theatre, Snap, TheatreVan, Tameside, Theatre Foundry, Forest Forge, Oxford Stage Company, New Perspectives and Horse and Bamboo, touring GB and Europe.
Further afield, Kathy has worked as artist/maker in festivals and outdoor events, including Islewilde Community Arts Celebration and Oregon Country Fair (USA), Illuminares Lantern Procession (Canada), and Dream Parade (Taiwan). Kathy is a founder member of Hebden Bridge Handmade Parade.
Andrew’s Story
Andrew Kim (Puppet and Mask Maker, Performer and Director) was born in Korea, raised and educated in the USA.
Andrew has created and performed puppet and mask plays, parades and events for 30 years.
Andrew started with In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Minneapolis where he spent 10 years learning all elements of making, performing and directing puppet plays, parades and large-scale spectacles. He trained further working with Bread and Puppet Theatre and studied traditional Korean and Balinese mask theatre.
He has served as the Artistic Director of the Islewilde Community Arts Celebration (Vashon, WA), Director of the Fremont Summer Solstice Pageant (Seattle), Artistic Director of the Dream Parade (Shijr City, Taiwan), Performance Director for Liverpool Halloween Carnival, several site-specific performances by LUXe (Ireland) and directed several mask plays for Theatret Thalias Tjenere (Denmark).
He is the founder and former Artistic Director of the Hebden Bridge Handmade Parade and the Todmorden Lamplighter Festival.
Here are some videos about Andrew’s work:
