Open Door Designs is a centre for puppetry in the Toronto area offering a wide selection of puppets, new, used and antique for sale alongside beautiful doorway and free-standing theatres that are now being used by performers in libraries, schools and homes around the world. Open Door Designs is now offering a variety of Workshops in the newly renovated Studio including marionette making, papier mache, fur and foam, performance, history and application for educators, a quick primer for puppetry in the classroom.

History
An accomplished painter, sculptor and printmaker, Joanne Bigham entered the world of puppet theatre by chance. She spent six years on the road with children’s entertainers Sharon, Lois and Bram as an “elephant keeper", props person and designer and later wrangled Ella and CC Copy Cat for Skinnamarink TV, wildly popular with the under-six TV crowd. Open Door Designs was born when a friend asked Joanne to make a puppet theatre that could be taken to libraries and schools. Since then the business has continued to thrive and grow with the introduction of several free standing portable puppet theatres and a variety of puppets. In 2007 Joanne opened the Open Door Designs' retail store, located on Dupont Street in Toronto, which features her own designs alongside other Canadian puppet builders as well as a comprehensive vintage collection, all for sale.