If you’ve ever seen a Gottabees show or any work that puppeteer Bonnie Duncan has made solo, there is often a balloon involved --- whether the balloon helps a character escape, transports them to magical lands, or is a merely a form of transportation. 

For Bonnie, balloons are magical, beautiful, and mysterious. They were also an important part of her childhood.

Read on to learn more about her real-life hot air balloon adventures, and sign up for ScreenPLAY! Episode 4, Look Up: A Hot Air Balloon Adventure on August 26-29 to join Bonnie and the Gottabees on an imaginary flight into the clouds. Learn More / Reserve Tickets.

Bonnie and her balloons…

Q: Bonnie, what’s your connection to hot air ballooning?

When I was four years old, my family started hot air ballooning.  This became our family’s hobby for 15+ years --- my grandparents, my parents, and my aunt and uncle all had balloons.  Most weekends, we would pack up the van and head to a balloon rally in a neighboring state or fly with other ballooning friends at dawn and then again at dusk.”  

Q: What do you remember from the experience of flying with your family?

You cannot control exactly where a balloon goes or lands. Radio communication was limited at the time (there was no GPS readily available), and the chase crew depended on maps, a good sense of direction, and continual attempts at keeping sight of the 7-story high balloon flying overhead in order to meet the balloon when it landed. 

The landowners of wherever we landed were always amazed and overwhelmingly wonderful. For them, a colorful gentle giant that sounded like a dragon had just floated down from the sky and landed in their yard or field at 8:00 am on a Saturday.  

Each flight was a new adventure, filled with characters and experiences that we still recount to this day as a family.  

Q: Do you have any other fun stories to share?

One story that I so love sharing with my own children is that Reading Rainbow was filmed during a balloon rally that my father organized.  LeVar Burton flew in our balloon and was part of our weekend.  I was eight at the time and this was really special because I was a BIG FAN of the show.  But don’t just take my word for it…

The closing credits to Season 2, Episode 1 feature a beautiful sequence that gives you a sense of what it’s like to be in a balloon. You can see all of my family’s and friends’ balloons!! 

By the way, not all of this week’s ScreenPLAY! story will be true.

There might be a long-horned cow.... 
There might be a baby dragon...

There might even be a...
JOIN US TO FIND OUT!

Learn More about Bonnie Duncan and The Gottabees at
www.thegottabees.com