Annie Brooks is a performer, puppeteer and theatre maker based in Brighton. She works freelance making puppets for theatre and is a resident performer with Foul Play Productions, Inconvenient Spoof and Colossal Crumbs. She is currently developing a puppet based theatre show, Carp Blanche.

Annie is a recent graduate of Brighton University, studying Theatre and Visual Art. She has had a life long commitment to theatre, art and dance and merged these interests during her degree experimenting with visual arts based performances. Her interest in sculptural set and costume was prominent in her degree show, Colossal Crumbs, which incorporated these ideas with puppetry and dance. She works on a large scale (her biggest puppet towering at 10ft) whilst also altering perspective through the use of tiny puppets. Annie likes to make puppets that are beautiful and intriguing, as well as playful, entertaining and often edible. She uses recurrent themes in her work, most significantly food, often using edible puppets and dressing up as large vegetables.

In 2006, Annie worked in an Arts Council funded project, Swishy – a theatre company based in Cambridge, specialising in butoh based movement and dance. This involved six weeks preliminary production work, culminating in two invited performances.

Annie has been a key member of Foul Play Productions since 2006. The company specializes in physical theatre and dance in a promenade style. Foul Play toured The Devil, Chess, A Burlesque! at Brighton festival in May 2007 and Edinburgh festival, August 2007, where it was well received by critics. In 2008, the company produced The Office of Correspondence, a 1930s interactive office. It showed at The Shunt Lounge in London August 2008, and at Komedia in the Brighton festival in May 2008. Their most current production, Epoch! was performed at the Marlborough Theatre, for the Brighton festival, May 2009. For more information about upcoming performances, go to www.foulplayproductions.co.uk.

Annie has been working for Inconvenient Spoof since September 2008. Their current production, ‘Sitting Bear and the Man in the Moon’s Reflection’ was developed as a series based puppet show for The Flophouse at Komedia. It has been reworked into a full-length show and was performed at The Basement in Brighton, in November 2009. Annie puppeteers and assists with production and puppet making for the company. www.inconvenientspoof.co.uk.
 

In her spare time, Annie practises RAD Ballet at Intermediate level and enjoys yoga and knitting. She also makes stuffed toys and cushions from old jumpers.