Of all the essays I wrote in elementary school, the one that sticks in my memory is one in which I hilariously describe myself as “puppet crazy”! And indeed, I went through a phase where I seemed to be collecting a lot of hand puppets and marionettes, which I used to put on various shows for my family and classmates.
I think in one instance my mother was drafted into sewing a hand puppet for me, but I cannot recall the puppet’s features. Most of the hand puppets were store-bought ones straight out of the Sesame Street universe. (The show debuted in Fall 1969, shortly after I began kindergarten.) If I remember correctly, I had an Ernie and Bert set, with latex heads that made your hands sweat when you operated them. And there was a shaggy blue Cookie Monster puppet. The marionettes varied greatly, and I still have five of them. I’ve been threatening to display them for years, if I can figure out the right way to keep them dust-free and not creep out our guests.
Among my parents’ personal effects, my brother found the photo I’m sharing today. It depicts me and my first-grade classmate, Michelle, putting on a play in our classroom. All the puppets you see, including the one operated by our fellow unseen puppeteer, came from the generosity of Michelle’s Mom.
If I’m not mistaken, Miriam’s family hailed from Mexico, and she brought back a bunch of these marionettes after a trip. I received two, which I treasure to this day. My Mom sewed special bags for them, with drawstring tops, that allowed me to keep them safe for storage. (Both puppets and bags hang in our guest room closet today, terrifying visitors who stay in that room and begin opening doors, looking for a place to stow a sweater, dress, or jacket.)
It wasn’t until second grade that I met a real Muppeteer, Richard Hunt, who grew up in our hometown and talked Jim Henson into giving him a job.
Read my remembrance of Richard Hunt here.
To my wife’s great relief, I’m no longer that into puppets. But in recent years I’ve grown to appreciate the debt all performance owes to puppetry.
I long to visit the puppetry museum in Atlanta—and I’ll get my way one of these days, Denise! One of my favorite SFF writers and voice performers, Mary Robinette Kowal, is an accomplished puppeteer. When she did a book event at Malaprop’s some years ago, I was delighted to see her do a quick performance with shadow puppets. The whole way home after the event, I kept thinking, well, gee, it can’t be that hard to build my own stage and shadow puppets…
Maybe I am still puppet crazy.