Teeny Tiny Toon

Teeny Tiny Toon is a celebration of Newcastle and its people, told through puppetry.

Teeny Tiny Toon Commission by Judith Hope Puppet Maker

toon

Geordie: 'town', specifically Newcastle

Teeny Tiny Toon is a celebration of Newcastle and the people who live here, told through puppetry.

The 2025/2026 edition of Teeny Tiny Toon brings together 500 people aged 5 to 80+ living in the West End of Newcastle to take part in storytelling/puppetry workshops with local artists during 2025-2026. The result will be a co-created film, telling residents’ stories, shown at 5 pop-up celebratory screenings and a community exhibition. This is the second time we have delivered Teeny Tiny Toon, following a successful pilot in 2021 in Benwell & Scotswood which reached 188 people.

"an afternoon of joy which was really lovely to see and experience."

– Teeny Tiny Toon workshop participant

Postcard Stories

A key part of the workshops is exploring stories of where participants live on our specially designed postcards. Stories can be anything from how long residents have lived in the area, to favourite places in the neighbourhood. The postcards have been specially illustrated by Becky Musgrove. You can flick through the story archive from 2021-2022 below...

"This is wonderful! I laughed and cried reading the postcards. It is clear how important the parks are to young and old. It looks like the project has been a lot of fun. Thank you for sharing this."

– Exhibition visitor feedback

Community Exhibition

All of the incredible stories told by workshop participants and photos of their puppet creations were collated during 2021-2022 into a touring community exhibition. The exhibition toured around the West End of the city, with its final stop at Newcastle Puppetry Festival 2023. The exhibition also featured puppets and automatas made by project artists Alison McGowan, Chloe Rodham and Will Steele, inspired by participant's work.

Commission

We commissioned Judith Hope Puppet Maker to create a working box theatre featuring a city scape of Newcastle and some puppet residents who live in this teeny tiny toon world. We then turned this into a short film, featuring resident stories and voice recordings. You can watch the results below.

Puppet theatre commission created by Judith Hope Puppet Maker

Animations and edit by Chloe Rodham

Sound design by Chloe Rodham

Filmed by Kraken Cinematic

Puppeteers: Calum Bruce and Chloe Rodham

Directed by Kerrin Tatman