About
Bronia is a storyteller, designer, maker and puppeteer.
Her practice combines spoken word storytelling with hand crafted performing objects, sets and puppets. Her current work focusses on creating moving panoramas - a pre-cinematic form of moving image (also known as crankies), and embedding these in live and digital performances.
Bronia is also a passionate educator and has taught workshops nationally and internationally for people of all ages and abilities.
All of Bronia’s stories are told from the heart rather than learned by heart. The dance between words and images is an ongoing research question that she continues to explore with curiosity throughout her practice.
A short interview with Bronia at The Little Angel Theatre’s workshop in London.
I was interviewed for the Little Angel Theatre’s People Behind The Puppets Youtube series.
In this interview I talk about how I started working as a visual storyteller, making puppets, props and storytelling devices such as crankies.
Near the end of the interview, I demonstrate a mini matchbox crankie that you can make at home. I made a full set of instructions which are available online via the Little Angel Theatre’s website.
More about Bronia
Bronia co-founded puppetry and storytelling company One Moment In Time with Gerry Spiller. Their first show The Bird Book toured widely to theatres and schools around the UK.
Bronia went on to create the shows Mary’s Monsters, The Enormous Turnip, A Necklace of Raindrops and The Patchwork Quilt for One Moment In Time, in collaboration with a range of artists and musicians. She currently designs, directs, and performs solo and with collaborators on these shows, and also takes commissions for bespoke design, performance and education projects for other organisations.
Bronia is a graduate of the School of Storytelling in Sussex and also trained in puppetry at the Little Angel Theatre in London, after studying Art and Design at Middlesex University and Theatre and English Literature at the University of Warwick.
Primarily inspired by the natural world, Bronia’s work weaves a curious path amongst the dandelions sprouting between city pavement cracks, all the way to the wilds of the moor and the ocean. Other inspirations include Celtic myths, Eastern European folk art, Waldorf education, and the works of John Fox, Sue Gill and Welfare State International.
Bronia’s work has appeared at venues including The Little Angel Theatre, The Lyric, The Historic Royal Palaces, Manchester Literature Festival, The Story Museum, The Egg in Bath, The Junction, The Marlowe Theatre, The Kommedia Brighton, Half Moon Young People’s Theatre, and The Horniman Museum.