Bio

Saskia Thijs :Biography

After studying Fine Art at the Antwerp Academy Saskia Thijs founded her own puppet theatre company Pili-Pili in 1998. As the company’s principal play-write and puppet builder, over the next 7 years she performed in schools and cultural centers all over Belgium and Holland, playing about 150 shows a year. Over the same period she followed workshops and master classes with, amongst others, Bert Plagman (Sesame Street), Onni Huisink (Speeltheater Holland), Karel Van Ransbeek (De Spiegel), Ludo Van Passel (improvisation theatre) , Franki Anderson (fools workshop), Neville Tranter (Stuffed puppet Theatre) and Gavin Glover (Faulty Optic).

In 2003 she created Bus-a-Nova with her partner Ben Zuddhist and since then has performed in several shows such as MobilAirco’s circus show “Foor U” and the “Big Las Vegas Bang Cabaret”. In 2007 she created her solo street show “Jonny & Sybil” which has played all over Europe. In 2008 she created “Madame Rosa’s incredible Flea Circus” and in 2009 she co-created and played in the hugely successful childrens’ theatre show “Saluut!”, for which she also built the puppets.

In 2010 she co-create “The Fenomenarium”, a ground breaking freak inspired theatre show which premiered in the spring of  2011.​Her most recent creation is the brand new puppet show “The Extraordinary Children” (2016) and will  be preformed  with co performer and musician Janine Hornett at many festivals this summer.