The thing about insisting on doing a real-life puppet show is that everything you see has to be designed, crafted, sewn, and put together by hand. Across a production that included 10 puppets and 8 set builds, the fuzzy feel of THE NEW NORM&AL SHOW played an essential role in inviting people into a world that wasn’t always what it seems.

Creating a whole new world out of felt and cardboard and floppy wigs was an overwhelming creative dream. We wanted THE NEW NORM&AL SHOW to look like a puppet show, but not necessarily act like one. That meant marrying a fuzzy approachable style with drama and acting that felt closer to a docu-series. The ambition was to create something that people would ask, “What did I just watch?” Starting with voice performances from the likes of Ethan Lawrence (Al) from After Life and Alex Perkins (Norm) from The Office, our puppeteers created bespoke movements and mannerisms that felt more real than Muppet Show. The production team sourced cruelty-free materials for the sets and characters wherever possible and the 60+ crew even adopted a vegetarian diet during the 12 days it took to shoot all 5 episodes. And did we mention all this was accomplished under covid conditions?