I spent the last week with about 50 other puppet aficionados, making puppets, talking puppets, laughing, and watching shows! Puppetfest Midwest is an intensive workshop oriented festival in Trenton, Missouri. Under the direction of Peter Allen and Debbie Lutzky Allen, puppeteers and potential puppeteers of all experience levels gather to teach and learn. Participants choose [...]
Patti Smithsonian was here (from Manitou Springs, Colorado) last week with Coyote’s Eyeball and Other Stories of the Constellations. A merging of hand puppets, shadow puppets on the overhead projector, and lots of rowdy fun! We traveled to Columbus Junction and Mason City in addition to the four shows at The New Strand Theatre in [...]
During March, the puppets did two very different residencies. March 9-11, Pam and I spent in Elkader, Iowa, rehearsing and performing THE FLEA with a class of fabulous fourth graders. We were supposed to spend half of Days 1 and 2 rehearsing with one class and half making puppets with the other fourth grade. The [...]
We had a wonderful event last weekend: our 13th annual Puppets and Pastries, Dessert Theatre for Adults. We started this event in the fall of 1998, when we had the opportunity to present Shona Reppe, an extremely inventive puppeteer from Scotland. We’d asked her to perform at the West Liberty Children’s Festival when she told [...]
We had a wonderful community show Jan. 22! Our 3rd-5th grade puppeteers collaborated with several area adults to perform Immigrant Stew at the Chat ‘n’ Chew, by Mary Swander, a light-hearted look at the history of immigration to the Midwest. Ron Hillis and Dave Moore played live music for the show, and 12 of Nicole [...]
Ben has been working hard to put up a new, user-friendly website for the puppets! This one is so simple that even I can figure out how to navigate it. See it sooner than soon!