Promenade Promotions
Promenade Promotions specialises in the art of British popular entertainment through projects, workshops, consultancy and research. It was formed in 2003 by Tony Lidington and produces theatrical productions and large–scale community projects to broadcasts, research projects and intimate performances. Prom-Prom is a pioneering organisation exploring heritage, popular performance and contemporary contexts.
Spike Lidington
Spike Lidington is a 19 year old, Devon based freelance performer and showman. As a second generation performer, Spike was already busking in a monkey costume at four years old and has since trained on the art of becoming a true nonsense merchant. With his first professional gig at 14 and regular experience performing in festivals and events as the clown “Sergeant Spike”, Spike found his passion in puppetry, music, acting and general Tom foolery.
Tony Lidington
Tony Lidington has been a showman, researcher and teacher for over 40 years: he specialises in historical popular entertainment forms and their application to contemporary contexts. In 2017, he was awarded a doctorate by the University of Exeter for his research into itinerant British performance forms and where he is now a part-time lecturer. He regularly broadcasts for both radio & television, as well as publishing articles, chapters and his recent monograph for Routledge ‘Don’t Forget the Pierrots!’ However, he is perhaps best known by families throughout the country, as ‘Uncle Tacko!’ who is the ringmaster of an extraordinary flea circus and the founder of ‘The Pierrotters’, Britain’s last professional seaside pierrot troupe.
Naomi Paxton
Naomi Paxton is a theatre historian, performer, broadcaster, comedian, and magician.
Naomi completed her doctoral studies at the University of Manchester in 2015, researching the work of the Actresses’ Franchise League and the contribution of theatre professionals to the Votes for Women movement in the UK. In 2019 she won the Theatre and Performance Research Association (TaPRA) Early Career Research Prize for her body of work on suffrage theatre. Publications include two edited collections of suffrage plays with Bloomsbury Methuen Drama (2013 and 2018), and a monograph with Manchester University Press (2020). Naomi’s work on suffrage Punch and Judy includes a BBC Radio 3 Sunday Feature Judy Punches Up (2019), interactive workshops in collaboration with Professor Diamond as part of the National Theatre’s Courage Everywhere season (2018), and a chapter for Women and Puppetry: Critical and Historical Investigations (Routledge, 2019). Naomi is Honorary Knowledge Exchange Fellow at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London, an Associate Fellow of the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She is also a member of The Magic Circle, an Associate Artist of Scary Little Girls, and a mentor for Arts Emergency.
Naomi was an AHRC/BBC Radio 3 New Generation Thinker from 2014-15 and is now a presenter of BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking programme and the AHRC’s New Thinking podcast. Her extensive and varied public engagement profile includes curating the exhibitions Dramatic Progress: Votes for Women and the Edwardian Stage (National Theatre, 2018-9) and What Difference Did the War Make? World War One and Votes for Women (UK Parliament, 2018), and devising and creating The Race to the Equal Votes tablecloth game (UK Parliament Equaliteas project, 2018), Suffra-Greats! card game (Clavis and Claustra, 2018), and Embrace the Base! collaborative board game (Greenham Women Everywhere, 2021). As her alter ego Ada Campe, Naomi performs professionally on the cabaret, comedy, and variety circuits around the UK. Ada Campe won the 2018 Hackney Empire New Act of the Year Show (NATYS), the 2018 Leicester Square Theatre Old Comedian of the Year competition, and has been shortlisted for the BBC New Comedy Award, the Funny Women Awards, Best Variety Act at the Chortle Awards, and most recently Best Newcomer in the 2023 UK Pantomime Awards.
