Biography of Miaow Productions

In the summer of 1999 Ben Zuddhist headed to the Avignon Festival to try out his new street show “Le Funambule Striptease”. There he bumped into a beautiful Belgian girl who was dressed as an ostrich.

And so Miaow Productions was born.

Biography of Saskia Thijs

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 2006 she created her solo street show “Jonny & Sybil” which has played all over Europe, and will play at the international puppet festival in Izmir, Turkey this year . In 2007 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.

Her most recent co-creation is “The Phenomenarium”, a ground breaking freak inspired theatre show which will premiere in spring 2011.

Biography of Ben Zuddhist

Aged 25 Ben Zuddhist was traveling the world. In the spring of 1993 he found himself on a bridge in Osaka, Japan entertaining a bunch of Japanese late nighters who then proceeded to give him their money.

It was an utter “eureka” moment and he has not looked back since. He went back to Europe and studied impro / clown / comedy / circus skills with, amongst others, Phillipe Gaulier, Gerry Flanagan, Franki Anderson, Keith Johnstone, Micheline Vandepoel and Carina Bonan.

In 1998 he created his show ” Le Funambule Striptease” . In 2002 with his partner Saskia Thijs he purchased a London Double Decker bus and converted it into a mobile theater space. He created “Versilli and the Smallest Animal Circus in the World” in 2003. With Manoe Frateur he created “Abu and Habib” in 2005. In 2006 he created “Benny Formaggio the Sicilian Magician”. He is presently working on the show “The Phenomenarium” with Saskia Thijs, directed by Kevin Brooking. This show will premiere in spring 2011. Also for 2011 he will present his first solo walkabout number “Shady Dopperfield”

Ben Zuddhist performs in English, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese. Since 1999 he has performed at more than 300 street theatre events worldwide.