Meet the team
Wayward Objects brings together artists who share a love of puppetry, music and storytelling. Find out more about our main collaborators.
Photo: Pictured by Lamar, at Nottingham Puppet Festival
Michelle Reader
Artistic Director and puppet-maker
Michelle is a sculptor and puppet-maker who has been turning recycled materials into characters and environments for almost three decades. She set up Wayward Objects in 2025 as a home for her puppet theatre collaborations with other artists.
Her work includes life-size horses made from agricultural and architectural metalwork for the Harley Foundation, glittering unicorns for Wild Rumpus’s Palace of Light at Hampton Court Palace, and a Cloud-o-Matic machine for Bamboozle Theatre Company's Pulse. In 2025 a Developing Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England gave her time to focus on puppetry. Alongside a masterclass with Merlin Puppet Theatre in Berlin, she developed new ways of making puppets from found and preloved objects such as litter pickers, chip forks and plastic milk bottles.
Michelle makes the puppets and sets for Wayward Objects shows, performs in them, and leads the making workshops that go alongside them.
Steno Vitale
Musical Director and actor-musician
Steno is a composer, performer, puppeteer and facilitator, and Wayward Objects’ musical director. He plays guitar and sings live in every performance of Tales from the Wheelbarrow. He and Michelle first worked together in 2005, on Bamboozle Theatre Company’s Shoes residency at the Haymarket Theatre, Leicester.
His bands include The Carnival Band and Chanter, and he works regularly with Bamboozle Theatre Company and Handmade Theatre. He has written songs for shows including Bamboozle’s Down to Earth, Handmade’s Tell Me a Story 1 and 2, and Magical Mishaps for Royal & Derngate, Northampton.
He is currently working on Handmade Theatre’s project in care homes and community centres, bringing the power of song to older people living with dementia.
Miriam Keye
Co-creator and performer, Wading and Wandering
Miriam Keye is a sensory dance artist, specialising in bringing thoughtful, fun, inventive and accessible experiences to Early Years and other under-served groups.
Miriam’s work specifically with Early Years audiences and their bigger folk spans over 20 years with a range of commissions including Move, Make & Do (Royal & Derngate, Northampton), Silver Swimmers (Children’s Arts Festival, Trafalgar Square), Mrs Splash (Fabric, Nottingham), and Cube Girl (Corby Cube). She has also contributed to Talent 25 (talent25.org.uk), a 25-year research project between De Montfort University and Arts Council England looking at the impact of early creative experiences.
Miriam co-created Wading and Wandering with Michelle and performs in it.
Photo credit: Daniel Ackerley
Leanne Moden
Poet and dramaturgLeanne is a poet, performer, theatre-maker and educator who has performed across the UK and Europe, including at WOMAD and Sofar Sounds. She was a semi-finalist in the BBC Edinburgh Fringe Slam, took her first solo show to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2019, and published her second poetry pamphlet with Burning Eye Books in 2020.
Leanne worked with Michelle as co-artist and author in residence on Inspire's Seed project in 2025, and supported Michelle and Miriam with story development on Wading and Wandering.
Contact Us
Interested in booking one of our shows, or in contacting a member of the team? We’d love to hear from you.