Fergus J Walsh is a puppet designer, builder and performer from Ireland, currently working in New York City. He creates puppets from many materials, matching the material to the requirements of each particular project e.g. birds from paper and reed, a police dog from an old bicycle, lizard-like creatures from silicone rubber.

He has MFA candidacy in Puppetry from the University of Connecticut and a BA in Psychology from Trinity College Dublin. In the past his work has been supported by the Arts Council of Ireland, the Liz Marek and Bill Mack Award and the Connecticut Guild of Puppetry.

His latest production Hy-Brazal, a web-series about creatures in a parallel world, will be released online in the coming months (www.hy-brazal.com). Fergus will be the lead puppeteer at the world premiere of The Wind Up Bird Chronicle at the Edinburgh International Theatre Festival in August 2011.

Fergus recently built puppets for The Ohmies at the Playwrights Horizons Theatre on 42nd Street and for The Indelible Mark on Edward Barron at the Jim Henson Carriage House. For the last year he has performed with Crabgrass Puppet Theatre, touring to theatres throughout the United States. Last year he created and performed the puppets for Bated Breath Theatre Company’s production of The Parkville Project at the Playhouse on Park in Hartford. In 2009 he was the assistant director and lead puppeteer on the U.S. team that won the World Stage Design Competition in South Korea. Other recent theatre credits include Icarus (Daedalus), The Skin of our Teeth (Assistant Director) and Meet the Samsas (Mr Samsa), all with Connecticut Repertory Theatre; Peter and the Wolf (The Bird) with The Hartford Symphony Orchestra; and Idol (Joe) with Spotlight Theatre.

For more information please visit www.fergusjwalsh.com