“At the age of eight, Ginny bedecked in her Mother’s clothes descended the staircase at her homestead in Richmond, London. This was just the first of many descents over the years, not unusual for any child to play dressing up but in the case of this young girl it was the fully formed personalities, complete with voices and idiosyncratic personality traits matching the outfits that were the surprising thing.
“Born into a creative household, both her Mum and Dad were members of a theatre group (Theatre West 4) in Ealing when they first met. In later life her Father moved to Amsterdam where he had plans to transform into a Drag Queen called Mary Poppers, a metamorphosis that never quite happened as he sadly passed away when Ginny was 27 years old.
“Ginny was immersed in a world of colourful, eccentric and entertaining individuals. Not one to watch from the sidelines she mucked in from an early age and had created 100s of alter egos for herself before she left home.
“The family moved near Frome when she was a teenager, stunned into a silence that moving to the countryside can inflict on a city girl of a tender age. Ginny gravitated towards the most colourful bunch of people she could find at the time. This is how her 25 year career with The Natural Theatre Company began.
“She regales with stories of being fed bamboo by school children whilst dressed as the rare British Panda on a visit to Shanghai Expo, being pushed in a wheelbarrow through the streets of Niger dressed as an eccentric British character, stopping traffic in Australia and climbing in the back of pick up trucks to make a dramatic entrance at their designated street theatre location, nothing was too absurd, nothing a step too far.
“Her brand of comedy is fearless and uncompromising, interacting on the frontlines amongst the real people on the streets. Nothing is scripted, she has relied on her quick wits and trust in the people encountered along the way. With 42 countries visited in total, she has had much time to build her repertoire and nerve. This was all too evident when she and her partner Nelly debuted their new company Rare Species on Catherine Hill’s Queen’s day. The pair wowed (and shocked in some cases) the people of Frome dressed as the Queen and Prince Charles. twerking in the middle of the street and knighting the great unwashed as they moved through the town’s streets, a video of them in action has gone viral with numerous fan made videos already well over 20k plays each on Facebook.
“Ginny is a part of the creative collective at Poot Emporium where her love of costume design filters through to her collection of vintage clothing that she sells under her fashion moniker ‘Gin & It Girl’. Now the proud Mother of Buddy who just turned 1, she and partner Nelly, (who plays zoo keeper to her panda, Prince Charles to her Queen) have taken the inevitable step to establish their own entertainment company called ‘Rare Species’ a fitting name for the weird and wonderful characters who populate their world.
“On 7th July at the Silk Mill, Ginny hosted the Time Machine Fashion Show, you wouldn’t have known it was her of course, she made her entrance down the gallery steps, much like the nightly descent in the house of her youth. Armistice Moped joined us that night, a fully-formed hilarious character who delivered up a universe of laughs that only a lifetime of quick wit could muster.
Check out what Rare Species are up to here www.facebook.com/rarespeciesuk/
