After a performance of Magic Pearl by Pinwheel, February 2023.
Can I tell you a little story?
It’s February, and Magic Pearl is making its full-length debut — a debut that never would have been possible without Puppet Showplace’s Incubator program, and I am welcoming our audience.
Amy West shows a young audience member how to manipulate the dragon puppet from Magic Pearl, February 2023.
“Who here has never seen a puppet show before?” Many hands shoot into the air, including a little girl in the front row. She’s wearing her “puppet show best”— pink barrettes in her hair and everything — and she is almost vibrating with excitement.
“Today’s story is originally from China—” I say.
“Me, too!” exclaims the girl, grinning from ear to ear.
It is essential that all children (and adults!) have access to stories that make them feel that they belong, because stories are important. They teach us how to face difficulty, how to find courage, how to choose love “even when you think it’s the end of everything,” as one young audience member put it.
Showing off finger puppets at the Theater’s 49th Birthday Party, June 2023.
Puppets especially have a unique power — they help us practice how to be human. With a few bits of fabric or wood or fake fur, puppetry lets us see ourselves in the other, find universal meaning in new stories, and helps us feel big and feel small all at the same time.
Here at our cozy storefront theater, we see a big impact:
Brave Bucket interacts with a field trip audience, April 2023.
More than 600 children came to see puppet shows without the barrier of cost through our free and reduced-cost field trip program.
Nearly 100 artists worked with us last year — performing, teaching, and and moving audiences through puppetry of the highest caliber.
Superhero puppets made at the Member Workshop and Party in October 2023.
450 people joined us for intergenerational puppet-making activities, presented by our talented teaching artists! In the words of one parent who joyfully crafted a paper superhero alongside her child, “Creative expression is such a great pathway to emotional healing for me.”
This summer and fall, nearly 8,000 of you joined us to experience joy through puppetry — through our indoor and outdoor shows, educational programs, and more!
Work-in-Progress Presentations & Artist Talk for the Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers, October 2023.
50 artists applied for our fourth Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers — so many that we expanded the number of fellows accepted. Supporters tuned in online and at our theater to celebrate the new works of puppetry that are being developed by our nationwide cohort of artists.
Over the past 10 years, 18 new shows were “born” at Puppet Showplace through our Incubator program. These exceptional works of puppetry have gone on to reach tens of thousands of audience members in half a dozen countries, and have made a huge contribution to the world of high-quality artistic works for family audiences.
When you make a gift to Puppet Showplace theater, your support plays a pivotal role in the future of puppetry. As we move into our 50th anniversary year, Puppet Showplace is dedicated to expanding the impact of our programs — investing in new works of puppetry that uplift diverse artists and stories, so that every child (and every grownup) can encounter a fictional world that is as rich as the world we live in.
Will you support Puppet Showplace Theater with a gift to our annual fund before the end of the year?
Next year begins our 50th anniversary year and we need your help to meet our end-of-year fundraising goal of $50,000. Every gift, no matter the size goes a long way in helping to meet our goals.
Please make your gift online or send your gift at 32 Station St. in Brookline. We are so grateful for your support – as you know, there is no Puppet without U!
Sincerely,
Veronica Barron
Executive Artistic Director
P.S. I’ll give the last word to Sophia, a first grader who attended a field trip free of charge (thanks to donations that provide financial aid): “Thank you leding us come to the puppet show,” she wrote in her thank you card. “Love you sow much 💜”
Trying out shadow puppetry at Puppet Adventure Program, August 2023.
