Learn Mouth and Rod Puppetry at Puppet Showplace!

Furry Monsters 101 with Jonathan Little, Little's Creatures

4 sessions, February 25 - March 18

Tuesdays, 6:30-9:00pm
Members save 10% on registration!

MORE INFO/ REGISTER ONLINE

Some characters are too good to keep bottled up. Let out your inner monster with the "Furry Monsters 101" class at Puppet Showplace Theatre taught by master puppeteer Jonathan Little of Little's Creatures. This class is for adults and mature teens ages 16 and up.

Students practicing with puppets made by Little's Creatures at Puppet Showplace.

Take a page of the Muppet, Sesame Street, or saucy Avenue Q handbook and create your own character through the use of a professional hand and rod puppet. Work with “Little Creatures” puppet company founder Jonathan Little, and give life to your inner characters. Will your puppet character be sassy? Meek? A childhood hero or an inner demon? Explore an exciting, visual storytelling medium in a supportive classroom environment with fellow adventurers.

Jon Little of Little's Creatures, Fury Monsters 101 instructor at Puppet Showplace

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR:

Jonathan Little is the founder of Little’s Creatures, a full service puppet company based in Medford, MA. Little’s Creatures has built puppets and performed for individuals and companies across the United States and abroad. Current puppetry projects include the Time Machine Guitar TV series and the National Fire Prevention Association’s “Sparky the Fire Dog” fire safety videos. Jon has been a Puppet Showplace teaching artist since 2011.

Jon and Chris Little, Little's Creatures performing Sparky the Fire Dog.

He received his own puppetry training from some of the nation’s best television puppeteers including Muppeteers Martin P. Robinson, Leslie Carrara-Rudolph, Tyler Bunch, Tim Lagasse, and Jim Kroupa. For the past four years, Jon has worked as the teaching assistant in Jim Kroupa’s mechanism workshop at the Eugene O’Neill National Puppetry Conference. In addition to performing, Jonathan is skilled in the fine arts, including sculpture, film, video, drawing, and painting. He holds a degree from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. He is a skilled dancer, with over 14 years of ballet training (Red Shoes Ballet, South Shore Dance, and Boston Ballet). He has also trained in comedy improv with ImprovBoston.

ABOUT THE CLASS:

In Furry Monsters 101, participants will learn the proper technique of hand and rod puppetry. Professional puppeteers know how to make these characters appear as living, breathing beings with their own thoughts, desires, and motivations. After learning the basics (breathing, lip-synch, focus, and body position), participants will also be able to bring their own characters to life too. Their hands will start to have minds of their own!

For samples of last year’s students’ creations in the Furry Monsters class checkout Little’s youtube page:



Participants will also cover essentials such as character interpretation, rhythm and timing, storytelling, puppet-assisting , working with props, creating a puppet film, improv and comedy, television monitor technique, and puppet/actor interactions. This is an ideal class for actors, comedians, die-hard Muppet fans, dancers, animators, or anyone interested in learning puppetry.



For those ready to embark on the hilarious, rewarding adventure of bringing your own puppet character to life, “Furry Monsters 101” is the perfect opportunity!

You can find more info about upcoming classes at Puppet Showplace online. CICK HERE.

Bella Monster and Friends are Back!

Your favorite furry monster is back with new adventures!

Puppet Playtime with Bella
and Friends!
by Brenda Huggins and Phil Berman
Wednesdays at 10:30am

WINTER: Jan 8-Feb 12
SPRING: Mar 5 - April 16 

(No session Apr 23) April 30 - May 14

LEARN MORE/ MAKE RESERVATION

After a short winter break, Puppet Playtime is back for new weekly performances staring Brookline's favorite pink monster, Bella! These weekly interactive performances for the very young (children 3 and below) feature live music, imaginary play, and short puppet vignettes.  Each week is a new adventure! Ride a rocket ship to outer space, have a teddy bear picnic, make friends with bugs in the garden, or go on a camping trip!

5 Session passes available: Adult/ child pairs are invited to drop-in for just one interactive-performance, or you can purchase a flexible 5 session pass for the price of 4! PASS INFO

Phil Berman, Bella Monster, and Brenda Huggins

About the performers: For the past year, Puppet Playtime has delighted very young audiences at Puppet Showplace Theatre in Brookline as well as many other venues in the Greater Boston Area including the Cambridge River Fest, Duckling Day on the Boston Common, First Night Boston, the Boston Children's Museum, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and many pre-schools and libraries.

Phil Berman, Puppet Playtime creator and performer

Phil Berman is a Boston-based actor, guitarist, and dramaturg. He loves writing original music for kids, and is thrilled to be performing at Puppet Showplace Theatre. Phil is a member of the puppet company Free Hands Productions, with whom he created "The First Person to Consider the Sun" and "Three Blessed Brothers." Phil has a BFA from Boston University.

Bella with Brenda Huggins, Puppet Playtime creator and performer

Brenda Huggins is an educator and theatre artist who has taught puppetry classes to students of all ages throughout greater Boston area. She received her MA in theatre Education at Emerson college after studying vocal performance at Western Connecticut State University. Her work as a director, costume designer, and solo performer has been seen throughout the New England region.

Bella goes on an outer space adventure!

Bella Monster was created by Jonathan Little of Little's Creatures and has been Puppet Showplace Theatre's "monster in residence" since 2011. She enjoys puppet shows, singing, dancing, and the color pink (of coarse!) Oh, and she also loves giving MONSTER KISSES!

Behind-the-Scenes of Furry Monsters 101

Adventures in Puppetry: Part One

by Guest Blogger Holly Hartman

Holly Hartman

I’m a few minutes early for class, and instructor Jonathan Little, the puppeteer and fabricator behind Little’s Creatures, is chatting with students about puppetry. He tells us where he buys the fur he uses in building his own monster puppets, why medical-grade foam is a good choice for puppet hands, how he fixes a puppet’s eyes and arms in place. I learn why all the Muppets are a bit cross-eyed and what makes Kermit’s head especially difficult to construct.

This serendipitous conversation (among others) is one of the pleasures of a class I’m taking at Puppet Showplace Theatre: “Furry Monsters 101,” an introduction to Muppet-style hand-and-rod puppets. One of the things that impresses me about Puppet Showplace is how it supports puppetry not just as a theater venue but also with workshops and courses like this, offering the public a chance to work with seasoned teaching artists.

I’m a longtime fan of Puppet Showplace and a current volunteer, but this is my first class. Seeing puppet shows here has gotten me curious about what it would be like to try my own hand (literally) at puppetry. It’s an art with many forms, but all, in my view, seem to involve some alchemy by which a puppeteer brings an object to life. How does this happen?

Class One: Inhale, Exhale

In our first class, Jonathan tells us that one of the surest ways to hook an audience is by letting them see your puppet breathe. He demonstrates with a lifted hand: an inhale, wrist shifting upward; an exhale, fingers subtly releasing the puppet’s breath. I am transfixed—it’s a creature! But no—it’s a hand.

Jon Little hand makes all of the puppets for Furry Monsters 101

 This suspension of disbelief is part of what fascinates me about puppetry. Jonathan’s brother Chris, also a puppeteer, is helping out with this class, and during our introductions he describes watching Puppet Showplace artist emeritus Paul Vincent Davis animate a milk carton—it became “the happiest milk carton in the world,” then the saddest. Puppetry, Chris says, involves the ability to imbue objects with energy.

We make our hands into puppet mouth shapes and practice making them breathe, sigh, sneeze, sniff, snore. Like infants, our hands then progress from sounds to words. The technique involves one precise flap of the thumb per syllable—downward, the way the human jaw moves in speech. We sing the alphabet, slowly. My thumb sags in confusion when we reach the impossibly multisyllabic letter W.

Finally, we try lip-synching to music. Time flies when your puppet hands are having fun. Suddenly it’s 9:00 p.m., class is over, and around the room students’ hands are rocking out to “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Practice Makes Puppetry

For homework, I practice lip-synching with my hand. It’s hard. It’s fun. The occasional moment of fluidity is a thrill. My puppet hand has an affinity for the songs of Leonard Cohen—slow, simple lyrics punctuated by danceable instrumentals and the odd long word. Hal-le-lu-jah.

Class Two: Hands in Puppets

In the second class, when we start using hand-and-rod puppets, lip-synching feels different, strange. Each puppet is a new experience. I feel awkward maneuvering the tiny mouth of the first one I try, and enjoy posing the jointed neck of the second. Each student performs a scripted monologue, and when my turn comes I keep flapping my hand upward, causing what Jonathan calls, during the critique, “a bit of flip-top head.” Whoops.

Like everything else we’ve done in this very immersive class, the critique is fun and illuminating. I like seeing what qualities each person brings to their puppet performance. Some puppet characters are kinetic, others droll. Talking about what we saw that worked—and what didn’t—is invaluable.

Lights, Camera…

Next, we take our first steps—or, rather, make our puppets take their first steps—in front of the camera and video monitor. It’s harder than I would’ve guessed, both because it’s tricky to keep your puppet moseying along on its fictional floor level without slumping, and because on a video monitor, left and right are reversed. When you stroll your puppet onscreen from stage right, its furry face appears on the monitor at stage left. Surprise!

Also surprising: I love working with the monitor. It’s magic to see the puppet isolated in the world of the television screen, moving within its own reality, the puppeteer nowhere seen. I think I could watch that furry monster explore its onscreen world for hours, or at least until my arm went numb from holding it overhead. I feel like the kid who does not want to stop playing with a new toy.

As I leave the theatre, I am a little stunned at how much I’ve gotten to try in the last two hours. For someone who grew up with Sesame Street, it’s a heady feeling. And we have two more classes to go… I’ll be back in a couple weeks with a final report!

Monster Mondays are Moving In

Summer 2013 Adult Class

By: Joanna McDonough, Deitch Leadership Intern 

We have all heard it, that familiar falsetto voice that can usually be heard talking to a pet goldfish, or a man named Mr. Noodles, or Mr. Noodle's brother, coincidentally also named Mr. Noodles. Some of us were even lucky enough to take part in many giggles with this furry red friend in childhood, when he exclaimed "That tickles!" every time he was hugged. Yes, I am talking about Elmo my favorite Muppet character from Sesame Street and yes, my Tickle Me Elmo still has batteries in it.

Hello! My name is Joanna. I am 18 years old and an intern at the Puppet Showplace Theatre in Brookline, and I am proud to say that like many of you, I love Elmo. Interestingly enough however, until today I did not know anything about the mechanics behind the puppet that resides on Sesame Street.

It is sad to think that despite my knowledge of every song composed by him, I had no idea who the puppeteers who made Elmo come alive were, or who even created the character. As it turns out, the character was created in the 1970s and first performed by Caroll Spinney and Jerry Nelson then later by Kevin Clash. These puppeteers were responsible for Elmo's portrayal, providing his audience with the lifelike movements of the puppet's arms and legs.

How do they do it, you ask?

The techniques used by artists and performers such as Kevin Clash to create believable puppet characters may seem out of reach to master, but there is good news for aspiring performers and Muppet fans alike.

The Puppet Showplace Theatre is bringing back a class due to popular demand called Furry Monsters 101 which will be starting up in July.

REGISTER ONLINE

'Furry Monsters 101' spring class 2012 show off Little Creature monsters

 What happens in the class?   

The class, taught by Jonathan Little of Little's Creatures, will focus on the proper manipulation of Muppet-style hand and rod puppets featured on Sesame Street, The Muppet Show, and Avenue Q. Jonathan will teach the class how to make these puppet characters appear as living, breathing beings with their own thoughts, desires, and motivations; some of the basics he will include are breathing, lip-synch, focus, and body positioning.

The sessions for Furry Monsters 101 run July 15 - Aug 5 on Monday nights from 6:30 to 9:00 pm. The registration price by July 1st is $150 and after July 1st it will be  $175.
And don't forget PST members save 10% on registration! CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Even though it is only my third day here at the Puppet Showplace Theatre, I can already tell that the programs this organization has planned for the summer will be great ways to beat the heat and enjoy the arts, for both children and adults. I hope to see you this summer in the theatre!

Puppets At Night: PUPPET IMPROV!

Puppet Showplace Slam: Improv Edition!
Saturday, March 9 | 8 PM ONE NIGHT ONLY!

BUY TICKETS


Now is your chance to be part of a show like never before! For the very first time, we present the “Puppet Improv” edition of The Puppet Slam. PST challenges its best performers in multiple puppetry disciplines to conceive, construct, and carry out live performances on the spot. The night concludes with an adults-only shadow puppetry set by slam favorite "Uncle Nappy," AKA Jim Napolitano of Nappy's Puppets.

What is a Puppet Slam? It's an evening of varied theatrical mini-plays for adults that use (or sometimes abuse) puppets for all or part of the drama. Each piece is performed by a different artist or artists, and the content can be wide-ranging; some are elegant or poignant, others are satiric, irreverent, or humorous, and still others can be passionate, political, or spiritual in nature. The performers range from the seasoned professional to the nascent puppeteer, and often include musicians, dancers, mimes, actors, and other sundry affiliated artists.

CASH BAR! What is better than puppets on a Saturday night? How about puppets and BEER. We will be serving white and red wine as well, if that better suits your taste.

FEATURED PERFORMERS:

Jim Napolitano, or "Uncle Nappy" to his fans, is a native of Milford, Connecticut, and a graduate of the University of Connecticut's Puppet Arts Program. Jim worked with Bits 'N' Pieces Puppet Theatre of Tampa Bay, Florida and has performed around the country and around the world, including The National Culture Center in Japan and The National Theater in Taiwan.

"Uncle Nappy" Little's Creatures, owned by Jonathan Little, is comprised of himself, Stephen Bailey and Christopher Little. From the strange to REALLY strange: all their puppets perform, everything from telling jokes to magic!

Brad Shur with Puppet Master Jake. Brad is PST’s Artist in Residence and has designed and fabricated puppets for American Idol, Dollywood, and other theaters and performers from Austin, Texas to Boston, Massachusetts. Puppet Master Jake, when he’s not puppeteering, works as a professional zookeeper.  

Brad Shur

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Puppet improv is quickly becoming an entertainment sensation!  Not sure what to expect at a puppet improv show? Let's take a look at Puppet Up, a live show produced by the Jim Henson Company which blends improvisational comedy and puppetry, since making its debut in 2006 at the HBO Comedy Festival. Puppet Up uncensored has toured world-wide in places such as Scotland and Australia. After monthly performances at Avalon Hollywood the project evolved in STUFFED AND UNSTRUNG which made its New York premiere on April 1, 2010.

   

Boston's other Green Monster

Our buddy, Jon Little, takes his friend out for a day on the town. Check out Jon at littlescreatures.com.

PuppetSLAM is coming... Saturday May 22nd at 8pm!

Our 4th and final PuppetSLAM of the 2009/2010 season is coming this Saturday night at 8pm! And what a show we have planned for you: Jon Little is set to host, plus there will be at least 22 performers making up nine performance troupes, including...

- Brodrick Jones of Virginia, with his "Piece of Dirt"

- Little's Creatures

- Lesley Smith, the talented ventriloquist behind Sammy Snail and the Theater of Life Puppets

- Evan O'Television and his televised self

- Puppetmaster Jake

- Michelle Finston making her debut performance!

- Elephant Tango Ensemble, an eight-member troupe consisting of puppeteers, actors, musicians, designers and dancers

- a short stop-animation film from Brittanie Marques

- The Puppet Showplace Incubator Hatchlings, a group of individual performers including Jim Sedgwick, Gary Pappas, Michelle Finston, and John Lechner, plus Puppet Showplace Theatre Artistic Director Roxie Myhrum, Artist in Residence Brad Shur, and Artist in Residence Emeritus Paul Vincent Davis

Tickets are still available but going fast. Get yours before we sell out! BUY TICKETS

Check out video of a piece from our previous PuppetSLAM in March 2010...
"The Conductor" by Little's Creatures

PuppetSLAM is this Saturday night at 8pm!

You know what makes PuppetSLAM so much fun? It's different from any other live theater you're likely to find. And the Slam we're cooking up for this Saturday night promises to be equally unique!

Diane Allison will be here, performing a segment of her show "Miriam," the story of a prophetess who finds herself on the wrong side of God (as told with humor, pathos, and one life-size puppet).

ALSO— Behind the Mask Theatre will be here with a excerpt of "The Masks of Odysseus", their original production of Greek mythology featuring fine acting, costumes, and hand-made masks!

Other performers include Little's Creatures and many others, including two brave audience volunteers!

You definitely don't want to miss this show!

TICKETS NOW ON SALE
CALL 617-731-6400 OR CLICK HERE