Puppets will be popping up in some unexpected places as part of a number of new features included in Ripon Theatre Festival’s expanded programme.

Organisers have added a series of pop-up mini events throughout Ripon, working with shops, cafés and city attractions to bring puppet shows and storytelling to unusual and intimate surroundings.

This includes Puppets for Breakfast at Wetherspoon’s Unicorn Hotel, a suitcase puppet show The Hare and the Moon in the Cabmen’s shelter in the Market Place and the GreenHouse shop on North Street, and Beached, an immersive puppet show at Ripon Cathedral, where performers and audience members wear headphones for the experience.

St Wilfrid’s Crypt in the Cathedral will see Fell-Foss Theatre’s rolling performance of The Wanderer and expert storyteller Gav Cross will bring Twisted Tales for Terrible Children to the somewhat spooky Curzon Cinema Cellar and the Courthouse Museum.

The second Ripon Theatre Festival will take place from Wednesday, June 7 to Sunday, June 11, featuring four days and five nights crammed with performances and activity.

Drama highlights include visits from up-and-coming theatre companies performing in Ripon Arts Hub, a return visit from open-air specialists Illyria with their family show Robin Hood at Fountains Abbey, and a production of Sense and Sensibility in the garden at The Old Deanery.

The festival will also be welcoming BBC Radio 4 favourite and gentle Northern activist Kate Fox, and Liz Grand with her one-woman show Where’s Mrs Christie?.

Rhubarb Theatre’s A Wonderland of Games will feature as part of the free family fun in Spa Gardens on Sunday June 11.

There are many festival events for children and families. In addition to shows at Ripon Library on Thursday and Friday , there will be street theatre, walkabout acts and pop-up performances throughout the weekend.

Circus, street theatre and community combine on Saturday at two performance zones, the Market Place and Minster Gardens (adjacent to Ripon Cathedral). Featured entertainment includes a comic escapology show from The Maniax and Dizzy O’Dare’s award-winning Giant Balloon Show.

Spa Gardens will be the focus of free family-friendly theatre and puppetry on Sunday June 11. The festival promises a “boredom-free zone” with visits from Hoglets Theatre, Rhubarb Theatre, Frolicked and Strange-Twig Theatre, alongside music and dance from community performers. A highlight of day will be performances of A La Puppet Carte when three electric tricycles open up to reveal three heart-warming puppet shows from Thingumajig Theatre.

Festival characters and performers will also visit Sunday’s Little Bird Artisan Market, adding additional colour and fun in the Market Place.

Thanks to the support of local businesses and key funders, much of the Festival is totally free to enjoy and ticketed events are low-cost.

Festival director Katie Scott said:

“We are delighted that this year we are offering many performances as ‘pay what you can’ events. We know that families in particular are feeling the financial crunch and this allows ticket purchasers to select their chosen amount or to opt for a free ticket. This is also a way of encouraging people to come to multiple performances by spreading their budget and trying different shows in different venues.”

The Ripon Theatre Festival programme also includes Overblown! a community-led evening of sketches and music, a premiere performance of work by local poet Ian Gouge, a musical travelogue for Sunday brunch from Steve Bonham, and Bread is Life – a lunchtime meze event where both Syrian stories and food will be shared. The festival opens on Wednesday, June 7 with dystopian comedy Happy Place at Ripon Arts Hub.

Red Ladder’s production of The Damned United, about Brian Clough’s tempestuous time at Leeds United – made famous by the 2009 film starring Michael Sheen – is among the highlights at the first Ripon Theatre Festival.

The radical Leeds-based theatre company captures the feeling of incredulity, dismay, anger and disgust felt in 1974 and beyond, by Leeds fans and players alike, after Clough – who described the team as cheats – was surprisingly appointed manager.

He only lasted 44 days at Elland Road, but went on to greater things at Nottingham Forest, winning the European Cup in 1979 and 1980.

Tickets for a number of events at the festival, which takes place at indoor and outdoor venues around the city from June 23 to 26, are now on sale.

Lempen Puppet Theatre are among the family-friendly performers at the festival.

Other highlights include open-air theatre specialists Illyria, whose production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, will be staged in the cloisters at Fountains Abbey.

Ripon’s refurbished Arts Hub, with its newly-installed wheelchair lift, will play host to visits from two North Yorkshire-based touring companies, Fell-Foss Theatre and Pyramus & Thisbe Productions.

Fell-Foss will present Crusoe’s Island – described as “one man’s story of shipwreck, solitude and salvation”  as the festival’s opening night show.

A scene from Fell Foss Theatre’s production of Crusoe’s Island

Pyramus and Thisbe will be reviving their Holmes and Watson The Farewell Tour as a comic Sunday lunchtime treat.

Family-focused entertainment

Children and families will be spoilt for choice across the whole weekend.

Ripon Library will welcome back Hoglets Theatre with a twilight show for children, who are invited to come dressed for bed and to enjoy a gentle bed-time adventure with The Sleep Pirates show.

Story Craft Theatre from York also take over the library for an afternoon of crafty tales around the Heading into Space theme.

Puppetry and theatre for families feature heavily on Festival Saturday with back-to-back entertainment both indoors and outdoors across the city.

Skipton-based and internationally-respected Lempen Puppet Theatre take part in an entire day of indoor and outdoor shows and workshops in the Arts Hub, Library and at pop-up open-air locations.

Two more theatre companies with family-focused productions will be in residence in Ripon Spa Gardens for Festival Saturday – Badapple Theatre Company present their Tales from the Great Wood, followed by Strange Twig Theatre Company with Winnie and Warwick’s Magical Menagerie,

These shows sit alongside Punch and Judy puppet shows from Richmond-based Ron Wood and the day kicks off in Spa Gardens with an interactive Musical Bear Hunt for young children.

Festival director Ian Holloway said:

“We are delighted that businesses, local councils and trusts have got behind the festival to a degree that has enabled us to book a wide range of street theatre and “walkabout” acts, helping create a vibe throughout the day.”

Sunday events include pop-up dance theatre from Leeds-based ACCA ColLab to be performed in two café locations and the culmination of a Jubilee-themed living history project at the Ripon Workhouse Museum, before the Festival Finale at Fountains Abbey.

The Ripon Theatre Festival programme also includes pop-up indoor drama, spoken-word and illustrated talk events at the Curzon Cinema, The Little Ripon Bookshop and Ripon Library.

There’s also a puppet-led family trail game around the city centre and on Saturday night, a community revue of sketches and music from local writers and musicians.

The Festival opens on Thursday morning, June 23, with folk fables for grown-ups from “a unique force in storytelling”, Leeds-based Ursula Holden Gill.

A programme of free and affordable events

Sponsorship and local support means that many festival performances are free to watch and prices for ticketed shows have been kept low to encourage residents and visitors to attend multiple events across the weekend.

Ripon Theatre Festival is being organised by a team of community volunteers under its parent charity, The Ripon City Festival Trust.

In addition to main sponsor Wolseley, financial support has been provided by the Ripon BID, Specsavers, Ripon, Elstob & Elstob, MKM, F E Metcalfe along with North Yorkshire County Council, Ripon City Council and the Liz & Terry Bramall Foundation.

Support has also been provided by community groups, including  Ripon Rowels Rotary Club, the Charity Pantomime Group and the Ripon Recycling Fund.

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Arts and community groups from across the city, are coming together to play a role in the new Ripon Theatre Festival

Taking place from June 23 to 26, the festival aims to brighten the open spaces and venues in the city with professional and community performances.

Plans include puppetry, dance, drama, street theatre, storytelling, children’s activities and family shows.

Festival director Ian Holloway and representatives from the organisations that make up the festival team, introduced themselves to an audience of 40 potential participants, volunteers and supporters at a meeting held in Ripon Arts Hub last week.

Festival team members, from the left: Ian Holloway, Tina Salden, Simon Hewitt, Katie Scott and Julia Whitham

The event is being made possible with funding from a growing number of businesses and organisations, including main sponsor Wolseley, which has been a leading employer in the Ripon area for more than half a century.

Family shows are planned for Ripon’s Spa Gardens

Volunteer Co-ordinator, Tina Salden, said:

“There are many roles for volunteers to help out as stewards and marshals or to serve refreshments, look after visiting artists or direct visitors and audiences.

Help is also needed ahead of the Festival with publicity around the region to ensure that the events are enjoyed by as many people as possible.” Anyone who missed the meeting, but who wants to get involved can contact info@ripontheatrefestival.org.

Ripon Amateur Operatic Society will stage its first major production since covid tomorrow when it performs Jesus Christ Superstar.

The award-winning musical will be performed at various days over the next two weeks in the newly-refurbished theatre at Ripon Arts Hub on Allhallowgate.

The 120-seater theatre underwent a major refurbishment when it was forced to shut last year.

It has a new ventilation system, new seating, improved sound and lighting and a modernised bar.

The newly-refurbished Ripon Arts Hub.

Shows will be held on selected days over two weeks  — October 7 to 9 and October 14 to 16 — with evening performances at 7.30pm and additional 2.30pm matinee shows on Saturday 9 and Saturday 16 October.

The rock opera, which follows Jesus’ last two days through the eyes of Judas Iscariot, is set to music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Tim Rice.

It includes songs such as “I Don’t Know How to Love Him”, “Superstar” and “Heaven on Their Minds”.

Ripon Arts Hub re-opened in September after 18 months of fundraising by volunteers behind the scenes,

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The upgrade of the premises, which are owned by the society, was partly funded by a £54,339 grant from the government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, launched to help cultural organisations and heritage sites to recover from covid.

As well as being the setting for the society’s own productions and rehearsals, the re-vamped venue provides Ripon’s first community arts space.

Tickets are available at https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/riponoperatics

Ripon Arts Hub has opened its doors to the public after 18 months of fundraising by volunteers behind the scenes,

The premises on Allhallowgate, owned by Ripon Amateur Operatic Society  were refurbished during lockdown.

The upgrade was partly funded by a £54,339 grant from the government’s £1.57 billion Culture Recovery Fund, which helps cultural organisations and heritage sites recover from covid.

It has enabled the society’s Operatic Hall to be transformed into a modern, fully ventilated theatre for live performances and events.

As well as being the setting for the society’s own productions and rehearsals, the re-vamped venue provides Ripon’s first community arts space.

It is also available for private hire.

The first in a series of live performances was held yesterday evening, with the Hilarity Bites Comedy Club, hosted by Lou Conran and featuring Steve Shanyaski and Stephen Bailey.

Hilarity Bites returns on 5 October with another evening of stand-up comedy, this time featuring Danny Deegan, Paul F. Taylor and Martin Mor.

Tomorrow (Thursday) the hub stages the drama Mrs Beeton, My Sister

The one-woman show by award-winning playwright Alison Neil (pictured above) focuses on the extraordinary life of Britain’s first domestic goddess.

The play focuses on Bessie Mayson’s view of her older sister Isabella, who married publisher Sam Beeton – a union that culminated in her writing the world-famous Beeton’s Book of Household Management.

The society will take centre stage from 7 to 16 October, with performances of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar.  Tickets for the 10-day run of shows are now on sale.

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The score by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice includes numbers such as I Don’t Know How to Love Him and Superstar.

Other upcoming events this autumn include the Same Same but Different family dance show and Cilla and the Swinging 60s, in which West End singer Sandy Smith celebrates the life of the late pop icon.

Ripon’s Workhouse Museum Garden will be the setting for The Merry Wives of Windsor.

The Three Inch Fools, will give their musically-driven take on Shakespeare’s raucous comedy.

The touring troupe of five actors, will perform on the evening of Friday 25 June.

The performance will be staged in the Ripon Workhouse Museum Garden

Known for their fast-paced approach to Shakespeare’s works, The Three Inch Fools are a touring company.

They have built a reputation for staging productions, using many different instruments.

This is combined with rapid costume changes.

Collaborating with composer Stephen Hyde, for each production, they create a completely original musical soundtrack.

Following the easing of the covid lockdown the touring  company has a summer traveling the length and breadth of the UK

They are in their seventh year of touring, having so far performed at more than 150 venues to almost 60,000 people.

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Organisers suggest that audience members come prepared with blankets, cushions and camping-chairs.

The Workhouse, Prison & Police and Old Courthouse museums reopened to visitors on 17 May.

Ripon Museum Trust, which maintains the heritage attractions, received two grants totalling £186,850 from the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund.

The funding is designed to help cultural organisations to get back on their feet following the coronavirus crisis.

A grant of £69,350, announced in April, will help the trust  to develop digital learning for schools and reconnect with tour groups, older learners and communities.

Bookings can be made via riponmuseums.co.uk or by telephone on 01765 690799.