Each year, Puppet Showplace honors the work of a local puppeteer at our annual spring gala event. This lifetime achievement award, named after Puppet Showplace Resident Artist Emeritus Paul Vincent Davis, recognizes New England-based puppeteers for artistic excellence, mentorship, and service to the puppetry community--all traits inspired by Paul himself. Past Award Recipients
Paul Vincent Davis, Artist in Resident Emeritus
Puppet Showplace Theater Gala
Encounter the Extraordinary
June 7 from 6:00 - 9:00pm
Wightman Mansion, 43 Hawes Street, Brookline
At the Puppet Showplace Theater Gala, you and your guests will have a chance to encounter Sara's giant puppet characters, brought to life by professional puppeteers...and by YOU! Our family-friendly event will also feature a giant puppet dance party, dozens of mini-performances and hands-on activities, live music, culinary delights, a benefit auction and more. All proceeds help us bring world class puppetry to Greater Boston and subsidize tickets for children from Boston's neediest communities. MORE INFO
2016 Paul Vincent Davis Award Recipient: Sara Peattie, The Puppeteer's Cooperative
Sara Peattie is the director of Puppeteers Cooperative, which specializes in community workshops, giant puppets, pageants, and parades. It inculdes The Back Alley Puppet Theater, which operates the Puppet Free Library, Puppaganda, which works in toy theater and video, and The Construction Section, which builds puppets and masks.
She also runs an informational website about making giant puppets: http://puppetco-op.org/. Sara joined Bread and Puppet Theater in 1969 and toured internationally with the company before co-founding the Puppeteers Cooperative in San Francisco in 1976. For 40 years, the Puppeteer's Cooperative has created iconic parades and pageants for Boston's First Night celebrations, and has participated in hundreds of political rallies and cultural celebrations throughout greater Boston, New York City, and throughout New England.
Master Puppeteer Paul Vincent Davis is widely recognized as one of America's foremost glove puppeteers. For over 30 years he served as Artist in Residence at Puppet Showplace Theater where he and founder Mary Churchill worked tirelessly to establish a home for puppetry in New England. Throughout his career, Paul was a dedicated member of the Puppeteers of America and the Boston Area Guild of Puppetry.
Davis created over a dozen full-length puppetry productions and received five prestigious UNIMA Citations of Excellence for his work. He was honored with the President's Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Puppeteers of America. Now retired from performing, Davis remains active as a teacher and mentor in the New England puppetry community. He is the subject of the book Puppeteer by Kathryn Lasky and is currently writing his own book about the art and philosophy of glove puppetry. MORE INFO
