Helen Tatlow holding a jefllyfish puppet from the Festival launch. The jellyfish was created by Nottingham Trent University’s theatre-design students.
Pictured: Helen Tatlow holding a jellyfish puppet from the Festival launch. The jellyfish was created by Nottingham Trent University’s theatre-design students.

Helen Tatlow, PhD student in German Studies at the University of Birmingham, has been awarded a 2018 Cultural Engagement Award by the Midlands3Cities Doctoral Training Partnership, for her work as a Festival Coordinator for the 2018 Nottingham Puppet Festival.

Helen’s PhD research, funded by M3C and the AHRC, analyses translations and adaptations of the works of the German author Heinrich von Kleist, with a particular focus on his plays, and it was this interest in theatre that led her to get involved with the Puppet Festival.

The Festival took place in March and was a huge success, attracting thousands of attendees. Helen’s role was to manage the team of roughly 50 volunteers that helped to run the Festival. M3C recognised Helen’s achievement with the award at the M3C Research Festival in May.