Meet the Team: Chris Pirie
Artistic Director of Green Ginger and a champion of creative puppetry on stage, screen and in the classroom.
Puppetry Director | Designer | Educator | Performer | Advocate
📍 Bristol, UK
🌐 Green Ginger | IG: @greengingerpuppets
Chris Pirie is a puppetry director, teacher, designer and performer — and the Artistic Director of the acclaimed European theatre company Green Ginger. Known for his innovative and design-led productions, Chris has directed for major names including Tobacco Factory Theatres, Scamp Productions, and Travelling Light.
His creative reach spans continents, delivering puppetry magic for Coldplay’s World Tour, Cirque Bijou, Arcadia Spectacular, and a host of top opera houses and theatres including Bristol Old Vic, Kneehigh, Theatr Iolo, Royal & Derngate, and international venues from Teatro di Roma to Houston Grand Opera.
Chris’s screen work includes puppetry for Netflix, Aardman Animations, BBC, and Channels 4 and 5 — and he continues to shape the next generation of puppeteers as a dedicated educator. He teaches regularly at Bath Spa University, Curious School of Puppetry, Arts University Bournemouth, and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, among others.
A proud Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a STEM Ambassador, Chris is passionate about advocacy and mentorship in puppetry. He co-founded the Bristol Festival of Puppetry and launched Toast in the Machine, a mentorship scheme for emerging puppeteers in the UK and US.
As a Trustee of Puppet Place and Council Member of Puppeteers UK, he continues to champion puppetry as an artform that deserves its rightful place in the cultural spotlight.
Favourite puppet thing?
Mentoring bold new puppet voices through Toast in the Machine and beyond.
Why BrUNIMA?
To help keep UK puppetry globally connected, professionally supported, and brilliantly ambitious.