Team Biographies

Richard Medrington, writer, performer and storyteller found his calling as a puppeteer in 1983. His one-man shows include The Spider of Spindle Wood, The Interrogation, The Adventures of Ivan the Slug and AA Milne’s Winnie the Pooh, which toured the UK for five years to packed houses, culminating in a sell-out run at the Royal National Theatre in London. He moved to Edinburgh in 1992 and is a veteran of 23 Edinburgh Festival Fringes. In 2016 he adapted for the stage and toured JJR Tolkien’s Leaf by Niggle. His first novel Sea Above, Sky Below was pulbished in 2017. He founded Puppet State Theatre Company in 2003 and his collaboration with Rick Conte began in 2005.

Rick Conte is from Georgia, USA. He moved to Scotland on a whim in 1989. He has been lucky enough to have worked with many of Scotland’s finest theatre companies including: National Theatre of Scotland, Catherine Wheels and Puppet State Theatre Company. Rick has performed with the international hit show White on Broadway and Shona Reppe’s much-loved Cinderella. In 2018 Rick headed up The Scientific Romance Theatre Company with an adaptation of HG Wells’ The Time Machine at the Edinburgh Fringe with plans for touring the show into the future of the future. As Puppet Consultant, Rick has advised on productions by Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre, the Royal Scottish Conservatoire and Solar Bear Theatre Company. Rick has performed in Puppet State Theatre Company’s The Man Who Planted Trees with Richard Medrington over 1,500 times since 2006. They plan to continue doing so until everyone has seen it.

Ailie Cohen went to Moscow to study acting, busked and starved her way round Europe with a street theatre troupe, then discovered she could combine visual art and theatre by becoming a puppeteer. Ailie has worked with The National Theatre of Scotland, Grid Iron, TAG, The Citizens, Puppet Lab, Vanishing Point, Leicester Haymarket Theatre, and her own shows include Rumpelstiltskin at the Fairytale Laundry, Jazz Mouse, The New Not New and Cloud Man which featured in the prestigous ‘Made in Scotland’ showcase at the Edinburgh Fringe in August, 2011 and The Secret Life of Suitcases which has been all over the world and continues to tour.www.ailiecohen.com