Thomas Daniel Byrne

Performer / Musician / Puppeteer based in North West England

Thomas Daniel Byrne is a performer, musician, and puppeteer based in Manchester. For over a decade he has worked as a freelancer for companies such as Horse and Bamboo, Thingumajig Theatre, A Bird in the Hand Theatre, Dizzy O’ Dare, and Handmade Theatre among many others. He also creates work independently aimed at children and family audiences, largely performing in non-theatre spaces such as outdoor arts events, festivals, museums, and libraries. Tom’s style of work is rooted in play and connecting with a sense of childhood adventure. It is often devised and has an emphasis on limited text to ensure the work can be universally understood and enjoyed by as many people as possible.

Alongside his performance work Tom also facilitates workshops in devised theatre as well as various styles of puppetry. Tom’s session experience ranges from running sensory sessions with early years groups, to teaching university students different aspects of puppetry through a series of masterclasses. He has worked alongside various organisations such as The Lowry, Z-arts, HOME, Contact Theatre, The Dukes, and Burnley Youth Theatre to name a few, delivering to participants of all age ranges and abilities.

Tom also has experience of producing/managing large scale arts projects on behalf of organisations such as Tameside MBC, HOME Theatre, Touchstones, and The National Trust’s Castlefield Viaduct. These projects have ranged from producing events, summer festival programming, developing school workshop programmes, and installing temporary artworks in public spaces. Tom is an artist who loves coming up with new ideas and enjoys working in various different capacities within projects focused on delivering arts and culture to people. The thing that makes him happiest is seeing people who usually don’t get the opportunity to engage with art/performance have the work brought to them, for free, in a public place that they feel a sense of ownership over.