Frank’s Fantastic Fairy Tale Theatre is a portable community puppet theatre established in Maitland, NSW, Australia in 2017. Frank’s tells traditional fairy tales in new ways for modern kids. We are available for hire at community events, festivals and other functions: please see our contact page for more details.
Frank’s vision is to celebrate puppetry as an expressive and experimental art form in Maitland and the Hunter Valley. The Theatre is loosely based on the Queen’s Theatre at Versailles, and the eighteenth-century style costumes are all designed and constructed by Kadisha Patterson.
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The Theatre was started by Helen Hopcroft and Frank Oakes with friends from Maitland Repertory Theatre and Reamus Youth Theatre- Kadisha Patterson, Alastair Anderberg, Vic Thompson, Millie Chorlton, Col Kirkman, Simona Graham with Dave Marley, Libby Arnold and Lizz Mackenzie.
Various other people helped establish Frank’s, including Alex Simpson, Ian Robinson, Robert Comber, Richard Hershman, and Caelli Jo Brooker, who designed our fabulous logo! Frank’s was started with a grant from the University of Newcastle’s Centre for 21st Century Humanities.