Puppetry

Do you think of children's TV, such as Sesame Street, when someone mentions puppets?

When you think about puppets and theatre, does the Tony-winning musical, Avenue Q pop into your head?

Puppets have actually been around for almost 5000 years.

They come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and from every spot on earth.

CAMP DAZE, one of Drama Jr.'s "franchise" shows (Camp Daze - spring 2012- set in 1977; Camp Daze 2: The New Batch - fall 2018 - set in 1985; Camp Daze 3: Smells Like Camper Spirit - fall 2025- which is being set in 1992,) is a Junior favorite. We started with 10 and now have 13 adorable and diverse puppets who play the campers off to summer camp at the Ida, Wanda, and Bea Hare Camp for Boys and Girls (lovelingly known as Camp Idontwannabehere. Here are the original 10 - (from l to r) Michelle, Jennifer, Heidi, Virginia, Tris, Alice, Sam, Billy, Davy, and Clark - with all their camp gear, as they prepare to leave Shorewood and head to the Great Outdoors  c. 1977. 

Another show in which we used a number of more "famous" puppets was our virtual show Coming Attractions (spring 2021,) created during Covid-19 lockdown. We made a number of videos that replicated some of our favorite movies' trailers from across 16 genres. We also created homages to some of our favorite films: Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz and some of Hollywood's giants like the Marx Brothers and Alfred Hitchcock. That last video, honoring the The Master of Susupence, is below. Puppets were used to, well, I'll let the Frog explain. 

No Muppets were (seriously) harmed in the making of this video. 

Using puppets in drama have a number of wonderful results on budding actors.

• They see what it is like to play a role outside their own perspective

• The must concentrate on what is taking place on stage in order for their puppet to have honest reactions to things

• An actor can/may manipulate their voice to create that of their puppet, especially if they interact with that puppet as themselves, they need a different voice to differentiate the two characters

• Can get a shyer actor out of their shell or pull back a extroverted actor whose puppet might be a different personality than themselves

• Make a new friend. Each time we have done a Camp Daze show it is remarkable to watch the conncections made between the puppeteer and their puppet. When the show is over, its heartwarming to watch these actor say a final "good-bye" to their puppet friend. It shows how the actor has built respect and care for what is essentially an inanimate object, but to them has become a friend.