Portsmouth Puppet Lady - Rachel Goodall of Snobby Dodgems
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00:00Oh, Cinderella, you shall, of course, go to the ball.
00:08Goodbye, Cinderella.
00:09And remember, be home before midnight.
00:16So, first of all, the first thing I'm going to say is that I hate talking about me.
00:21I'm just going to put that out there, first of all.
00:24So, my name's Rachel Goodall, and I started my life, actually, as a teacher.
00:30And I was a performing arts teacher, but I also am a complete history geek.
00:37So, I love history, and I love the performing arts.
00:42So, I was a teacher for quite a few years.
00:45I went into further education, and then I went into secondary education.
00:51And I had a visit into a care home, and what really shocked me was, when I was working
01:00with the elderly people, was, if you are an artist, you can go in there and you can give
01:06them a piece of art, and they can translate.
01:10You go in as a musician and give them a piece of music, they will appreciate the music.
01:16But when I walked in, I did not know how to engage with my own craft, which I knew
01:24really, really well.
01:26So, that was how my journey really, really started.
01:31It came from a place of, how do I engage with people using just walking into a group, and
01:39how do I make a connection?
01:41And that's how I originally founded my company, which is called Red Sauce.
01:46And I called it Red Sauce because I thought, wherever you go, there's always a pot of red
01:51sauce on the table.
01:53So, I just called it Red Sauce Theatre, and it seemed to stick.
01:57And I'm really glad I called it that, because it changes, and has changed with all the different
02:02people that I've worked with.
02:04I've worked with veterans, and people who've been in dementia, and the SEND community,
02:08and refugees.
02:09I've worked with all different types of people, and just loved it.
02:13And the drama has all been about connecting with different people in different groups,
02:20storytelling, immersive storytelling, interactive, listening to their stories, getting them to
02:28open up.
02:29So, that was the founding of Red Sauce Theatre.
02:34And then, something terrible happened.
02:36COVID happened, and all of those groups just shuffled off the face of the earth.
02:44Everyone went into isolation.
02:46And I lost all my contacts, and I basically lost my job.
02:51And I started getting into puppetry, and I started making things, started doing some
02:57puppetry courses.
02:59And I started to get people contacting me about storytelling.
03:05So, I started another company called The Snobby Dodgems, and that was really all about storytelling,
03:14and creating a world.
03:20Largely, a world that reflected the world around me, and about the stories, and about
03:26the humanity within those stories, and about sharing those.
03:32And one thing led to another, and now, here I am, in a shed full of puppets.
03:40And at festivals, I'm invited along to festivals, and I perform, and I get to take these with
03:49me, and it's, yeah.
03:51I feel, when I was younger, I found it really difficult to connect.
03:58I always felt very odd in my own skin, and I found, I think it was because I've actually
04:05got ADHD, that I feel like I'm not really a human being.
04:11So, actually, when I work with puppets, it's a very intimate process of watching how people
04:21behave, how they move.
04:25And it's about looking for humanity, looking at the humanity in the way that the puppets
04:32move.
04:33There's a beauty in it, and a process in it, that is cathartic, actually, when you're
04:40a creative person.