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English puppeteer with a distinguished puppetry career that spans fifty
years.
Married her puppetry tutor, Alexis Robert Philpott (a.k.a. Pantopuck the Puppetman, which was often abbreviated
to Panto. Panto was author of
several puppetry books, including Dictionary of Puppetry, 1969, McDonald, London,
from which the bulk of this information was culled).
General:
Director of the Charivari Puppets, London.
Committee member of the British Section of UNIMA (union internationale de
la marionnette).
Council member of the Educational Puppetry Association (EPA).
Instructor at the Stanhope Evening Institute (adult education).
Puppetry Instructor at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama.
Demonstrator at Colleges, schools, clubs.
Frequent guest-artiste at London's only puppet theatre, the Little Angel
Theatre (Islington, north London).
Inveterate experimenter with all types of contemporary materials (polystyrene, plastic,
foam, etc.) and techniques.
Responsible for large-scale productions at the EPA Headquarters and
the Stanhope, in group work with hand, rod, and tubular-head puppets.
Participant at the international puppetry festivals held at Colwyn Bay (1963 and
1968), Karlovy Vary (Czechoslovakia, 1964), and Bucharest
(Rumania, 1965).
German tour following appearance at the annual 'Puppet Week' at Bochum (1963).
Performances at the Arts Theatre, London, for the 'Unicorn' Children's
Theatre Club (1968).
Inimitable solo performer of original plays.
Expert photographer and re-touch artist.
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Specific Projects:
Puppeteer at Grosvenor Films for fifteen episodes of BBCtv's
puppet series, The Telegoons (1963).
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Puppet maker and puppeteer for the Zippy glove puppet used in the award-winning Thames Television pre-school series, Rainbow, during its first season (October 16th - December 29th, 1972). The puppets in the first season comprised Zippy, an oval headed, yellowish-brown, wide eyed puppet with one arm and a zipper for a mouth, who thought he knew everything (the zipper could be used to good effect when Zippy talked too much!), Curly and Straight (two lines who made themselves into different pictures), Moony (a sad looking mauve puppet) and Sunshine (a lively yellow one). The initial Rainbow puppets were made by Violet Philpott and John Thirtle, who was the other puppeteer on the show in its first season. The puppet voices during the first season were supplied by Peter Hawkins. Due to the design of the set, Violet found it impossible to operate Zippy comfortably. Zippy had to appear through a window in every show, but the window design required Violet to half-lie on the floor, and the strain on her back was considerable. She asked for the set to be changed, but nothing was done, and she sustained a severe back injury which kept her in bed for a year. Not surprisingly, the window set was dropped in the second season. In February 1975, Rainbow producer Pamela Lonsdale accepted the Society of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Children's Programme. Rainbow's Zippy puppet (and the George puppet who was introduced in the second season) are on display at London's Museum of the Moving Image.
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Publications:
The KnowHow Book of Puppets by Violet Philpott and Mary Jean
McNeil. Originally published in 1975 by Usborne Publishing Ltd. Corwin/Sterling edition
1976, ISBN 0-8069-8036-2
Eight Plays for Hand Puppets, edited by A. R. Philpott. Puppet plays by members of
the Educational Puppetry Association. The 7th play in the collection, 'The Egg',
was written by Violet M. Philpott. This book was originally published in 1968 by J. Garnet
Millers, Ltd., London. ISBN 0-85343-575-8. American edition published in 1968 by Plays,
Inc. ISBN 0-8238-0249-3. .
Contributor of technical and other articles to the Educational Puppetry
Association magazine Puppet
Post, and to The Puppet Master, the official journal of the British
Puppet and Model Theatre Guild.
Miscellaneous Achievements:
Some years ago, while making audio tape cassettes for the blind, Violet achieved an
interview with Spike Milligan!
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