He is the man who has pulled the strings at Norwich Puppet Theatre for the last 18 years. Emma Knights talks to the city venue's operations manager, Ian Woods.
'Watching an audience is as much fun sometimes as watching a show,' said Ian Woods, operations manager at Norwich Puppet Theatre.
'It's wonderful to see an audience, especially an audience of very young children, who are excited, intrigued, and who become absorbed into the make-believe world of the show.'
Mr Woods has been involved with the city venue for more than 30 years, first as a volunteer and then as a paid member of staff, and he said seeing the joy people got from the world of theatre and puppetry was one of the reasons he loved his job.
However, Mr Woods, 59, was not always destined to work in theatre. Although he enjoyed watching shows with his family while growing up in Leeds, he first came to Norwich to study for a BSc at the University of East Anglia.
'I came to UEA in 1975 and didn't really escape,' said Mr Woods, who lives in Eaton.
'I did environmental sciences at the UEA. I started working pretty much straight afterwards with a small academic publishers which was called Geo Abstracts which was owned by Keith Clayton who was one of the professors at UEA.'
The company was later sold to Dutch-based academic publishers Elsevier Science Publishing, and then merged with Reed International. Mr Woods became the publishing and database manager in the Norwich office.
His move into the arts world began in 1982 when his friend, Andrew Knowles Harrison, was working at Norwich Puppet Theatre and was in need of a helping hand.
'Andrew phoned up one night to say his volunteer barman was ill and could I give a hand. I came in as a volunteer and so the story goes on,' said Mr Woods.
'I hadn't been a particular puppet fan or anything before then, but it was just good to be involved in an arts organisation.
'At the same time Norwich Arts Centre was opening – there was a lot going on in the city at that time, the early 1980s, so it was good to be a part of it.'
Mr Woods carried on being a volunteer, helping out with the bar and with stewarding for shows, and thanks to his management experience he was also invited to join the board of trustees. After being made redundant from his publishing job in 1998, Mr Woods stepped in temporarily to help run the theatre when the then manager decided to leave.
At the time he thought it would only be for six weeks until a new manger was appointed, but 18 years on he continues to be at the helm of the unique city theatre which is one of only three building-based puppet theatres in England.
His job title has changed over time from manager to general manager to now operations manager – but ultimately his role has always been about overseeing the business side of the organisation.
It has not always been an easy task, especially when the theatre lost its core Arts Council funding about eight years ago, but despite the challenging financial times that all arts organisations are facing, the puppet theatre continues to delight audiences with its array of shows and events.
Mr Woods said its success was due to the 'small and very great team here' and the support of the trustees and the volunteers.
When asked what his highlights were over the years, Mr Woods said: 'The highlights are that we are still here, that's the major highlight – and that over that time puppetry in general has become a lot more accepted and acknowledged in all cultural forms, be it film, theatre, television....there's the meerkats in the adverts, there's War Horse that's raised everyone's awareness, the new Star Wars films are using puppets again rather than CGI because puppets do a better job. That's a global highlight, highlights about here have been our festivals we've done, when we've been able to bring international companies here which have brought different styles of puppetry and bigger scale work.
'There is also the development of our early years work – we used to work from age five upwards, we now work from pretty well zero upwards, and there is the legacy some of our shows have, like Three Colours, which we created in 2013 in partnership with Polka Theatre in London, and which is going to be this Christmas and New Year out in Hong Kong and Macao.'
Among his favourite shows created by Norwich Puppet Theatre have been George's Marvellous Medicine and the Pied Piper, as well as the show Oddly which was developed by the theatre's apprentice Gretchen Maynard-Hahn.
And, on a personal level, Mr Woods also had one of the most special days of his life at the theatre – his wedding day.
He married his partner, 55-year-old Trevor Child, at the theatre on December 23, 2012.
'It was a really lovely day. It was a bit strange being on the stage and being the focus of attention rather than being in the audience, but it was just a really happy time,' said Mr Woods, who celebrates his fourth wedding anniversary this Friday.
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