Details & Registration
Apr 3, 10, 24 (Thurs) 2025 | 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Location: Puppet Showplace Theater
Early Bird Special: save $20 when you register by March 13!
$200 Regular
$10 materials fee
Members receive 15% off classes, discount tickets, priority seating, and more! Become a Member →
Early Bird Deadline: March 13
Registration Deadline: March 20
Register early — if minimum enrollment is not met by March 20 the class will be cancelled.
About the Class
Want to build your own rod or tabletop puppets, but don’t know where to start? Are you unsure about what size your final puppet needs to be? Wondering where the mechanism should be located or how the handle should be angled? Are you attempting a new technique, but are worried about using up all your fancy materials in the testing phase? These answers — and more! — can be found through puppet prototyping! Think of it as the “sketching” phase of puppet building, a way to test out your ideas before you have to commit to them.
Puppet builder Amanda Gibson — who most recently designed puppets for Wheelock Family Theatre’s Flora & Ulysses — will guide students through the process of designing a puppet, from starting point all the way to creating a fully articulated, actual-size test puppet. Using easily found materials, such as paper, cardboard, masking tape, and yarn, students will leave this class prepared to continue testing their future puppet ideas at home — and will take home a finished prototype of a rod or tabletop puppet!
This class is great for anyone who has ideas for a puppet, but is unsure how to execute it!
Recommended for adults 18+
About the Instructor
Amanda at Puppet Showplace’s 49th anniversary celebration.
Amanda Gibson is an artist and craftsperson living and working in Worcester, Massachusetts. She received a BFA in Illustration from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She has been working as a puppet maker and scenic builder in the world of theater. Most recently, she designed puppets for Wheelock Family Theatre’s Flora & Ulysses. She was also a puppet wrangler and on the scenic build team of Harvard University’s production of The Poacher, a puppeteer and wrangler in White Snake Projects’s Monkey: A Kung Fu Puppet Parable, and the prop master and scenic builder for University of Connecticut’s award-winning show, Feel Your Best Self.
Storytelling has always been a driving force in Amanda’s work and a major reason for her study of illustration and later pursuit of the field of puppet building, puppetry, and miniature environment design. Outside of theater, she creates cosplays, portraiture, and miniature illustrative dioramas.
