Portsmouth Puppet Lady - Rachel Goodall of Snobby Dodgems - video Dailymotion

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Portsmouth Puppet Lady - Rachel Goodall of Snobby Dodgems

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00:00Oh, Cinderella, you shall, of course, go to the ball.

00:08Goodbye, Cinderella.

00:09And remember, be home before midnight.

00:16So, first of all, the first thing I'm going to say is that I hate talking about me.

00:21I'm just going to put that out there, first of all.

00:24So, my name's Rachel Goodall, and I started my life, actually, as a teacher.

00:30And I was a performing arts teacher, but I also am a complete history geek.

00:37So, I love history, and I love the performing arts.

00:42So, I was a teacher for quite a few years.

00:45I went into further education, and then I went into secondary education.

00:51And I had a visit into a care home, and what really shocked me was, when I was working

01:00with the elderly people, was, if you are an artist, you can go in there and you can give

01:06them a piece of art, and they can translate.

01:10You go in as a musician and give them a piece of music, they will appreciate the music.

01:16But when I walked in, I did not know how to engage with my own craft, which I knew

01:24really, really well.

01:26So, that was how my journey really, really started.

01:31It came from a place of, how do I engage with people using just walking into a group, and

01:39how do I make a connection?

01:41And that's how I originally founded my company, which is called Red Sauce.

01:46And I called it Red Sauce because I thought, wherever you go, there's always a pot of red

01:51sauce on the table.

01:53So, I just called it Red Sauce Theatre, and it seemed to stick.

01:57And I'm really glad I called it that, because it changes, and has changed with all the different

02:02people that I've worked with.

02:04I've worked with veterans, and people who've been in dementia, and the SEND community,

02:08and refugees.

02:09I've worked with all different types of people, and just loved it.

02:13And the drama has all been about connecting with different people in different groups,

02:20storytelling, immersive storytelling, interactive, listening to their stories, getting them to

02:28open up.

02:29So, that was the founding of Red Sauce Theatre.

02:34And then, something terrible happened.

02:36COVID happened, and all of those groups just shuffled off the face of the earth.

02:44Everyone went into isolation.

02:46And I lost all my contacts, and I basically lost my job.

02:51And I started getting into puppetry, and I started making things, started doing some

02:57puppetry courses.

02:59And I started to get people contacting me about storytelling.

03:05So, I started another company called The Snobby Dodgems, and that was really all about storytelling,

03:14and creating a world.

03:20Largely, a world that reflected the world around me, and about the stories, and about

03:26the humanity within those stories, and about sharing those.

03:32And one thing led to another, and now, here I am, in a shed full of puppets.

03:40And at festivals, I'm invited along to festivals, and I perform, and I get to take these with

03:49me, and it's, yeah.

03:51I feel, when I was younger, I found it really difficult to connect.

03:58I always felt very odd in my own skin, and I found, I think it was because I've actually

04:05got ADHD, that I feel like I'm not really a human being.

04:11So, actually, when I work with puppets, it's a very intimate process of watching how people

04:21behave, how they move.

04:25And it's about looking for humanity, looking at the humanity in the way that the puppets

04:32move.

04:33There's a beauty in it, and a process in it, that is cathartic, actually, when you're

04:40a creative person.

Portsmouth Puppet Lady - Rachel Goodall of Snobby Dodgems

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