Designed and built these puppets, which were intended to look like they were made by teenagers.
Kitchen Theater Company
Director: Rachel Lampert
Puppet Director: Scott Hitz
Kitchen Theater Company
Director: Rachel Lampert
Puppet Director: Scott Hitz
Constructed floating hand puppet. Worn by actor, with right arm inside puppet's middle finger
Williamstown Theater Festival
Director: Dustin Wills
Scenic Designer: Alexander Woodward
Constructed floating hand puppet. Worn by actor, with right arm inside puppet's middle finger
Williamstown Theater Festival
Director: Dustin Wills
Scenic Designer: Alexander Woodward
Hand Puppet in Progress
Middle finger was left open to accommodate the performer's arm. Hand was inserted into strap on the puppet's middle finger tip. When the performer moved his elbow or wrist, he was able to control the knuckles and finger tips.
Hand in Progress, ready for white spandex draping.
I designed and built this puppet for my monthly volunteer show at Mt. Sinai Children’s Hospital. She is an alien from the planet Ziggaboopbop and she is made out of a sweater!
This was a build for Eric Wright/ The Puppet Kitchen. I built the puppet from provided materials and a pattern. The actor manipulates the mouth (made from 1/8" plywood and red velvet, with an elastic strap on the top plate) with one hand, and either of the furry hands with his other hand. The hands are worn like gloves, with an opening at the back of the wrist. I built everything except the clothes and facial features, which were added by Eric.
'Paw' Puppet
The Puppet Kitchen
Designer: Eric Wright
This is how I like to communicate early designs. You can see the finished rendering in the next photo - and the finished product soon!
James and the Giant Peach
The Hewitt School
Director: Colleen Britt
Puppet Designer: Katie McGeorge
Scenic Designer: Tyler Perry
These are concept rendering for a project I'm currently building. The show is 'James and the Giant Peach.' The director's concept is that these puppets are made out of grungy 'garbage' and found objects. They will be operated by young high schoolers so ease of manipulation is key! This spider is built off an umbrella and the 'face tentacles' are live hand manipulation with a gardening glove.
James and the Giant Peach
The Hewitt School
Director: Colleen Britt
Puppet Designer: Katie McGeorge
Scenic Designer: Tyler Perry
This puppet will be made of dryer hose and a funnel for a face. It's simple and easy to manipulate for young puppeteers. More to come!
James and the Giant Peach
The Hewitt School
Director: Colleen Britt
Puppet Designer: Katie McGeorge
Scenic Designer: Tyler Perry
This puppet has a cheese-grater-head, spoon eyes, and kitchen-tong legs, connected and attached to a dowel to facilitate a hopping motion.
James and the Giant Peach
The Hewitt School
Director: Colleen Britt
Puppet Designer: Katie McGeorge
Scenic Designer: Tyler Perry
James and the Giant Peach
The Hewitt School
Director: Colleen Britt
Puppet Designer: Katie McGeorge
Scenic Designer: Tyler Perry
This puppet is made of plastic flower pots, aged and strung together with an elastic cord. The performer controls the puppet by holding each wooden dowel in each hand.
James and the Giant Peach
The Hewitt School
Director: Colleen Britt
Puppet Designer: Katie McGeorge
Scenic Designer: Tyler Perry
Constructed puppets and trunk theater
Williamstown Theater Festival
Director: Dustin Wills
Scenic Designer: Alexander Woodward
Carved body shape with upholstery foam surrounding a wooden dowel to create the shoulders. Arms cut filed down from common pine. The actor controlled with rods connected statically to the hands. Straps came out of the back of the puppet to wear like a backpack (nothing could affix to the performers' necks because they were singing.) Left hand had a magnet so the puppet could 'pluck' a flower from its crown.
Williamstown Theater Festival
Director: Dustin Wills
Scenic Designer: Alexander Woodward
Carved body with upholstery foam - with rope running through the arms to create simple joints. Draped fur over the body, which started white, and spray painted to achieve the gray cat color and stripes, plus bloody wounds. The tail was able to articulate fully with small chunks of wood threaded onto a piece of tie line - wrapped in batting to create a 'mange' look.
Williamstown Theater Festival
Director: Dustin Wills
Scenic Designer: Alexander Woodward
Oversized jacket constructed from foam, texture applied with black garbage bags, finished with spray paints.
HERE Arts Center
Director: Lucia Bellini
Puppet Designer: James Or
Build Assistant: Katie McGeorge
We chose to start with a high quality doll and simply create our own joints, rather than trying to make an accurate child from scratch. This was my first pass at the joints, which are cut from poplar and hinged on a small metal rod. They provided realistic, floppy movement, and I designed them in such a way that they stop realistically at the knees and elbows.
Trojan Women
The Juilliard School
Director: Ellen Lauren
Properties Supervisor: Kate Dale
Our production of Trojan Women required a very life-like child prop/dummy/puppet, who also appears as dead later in the show. It was an evolutionary process, wherein we adapted the piece based on what the actors were learning in the room.
Trojan Women
The Juilliard School
Director: Ellen Lauren
Properties Supervisor: Kate Dale
The actress manipulating the doll discovered what she actually wanted were opposable joints - ones she could bend and have them hold their shape. I replaced the wooden joints, which were more traditionally puppet-like with these, which are actually made from flexible air hose. In this photo, the baby's arm is able to hold a pose.
Trojan Women
The Juilliard School
Director: Ellen Lauren
Properties Supervisor: Kate Dale
The creative team decided the eyes on the child should be closed. I carefully removed the lashes on the doll and set them aside, then sculpted the lids out of Apoxy.
Trojan Women
The Juilliard School
Director: Ellen Lauren
Properties Supervisor: Kate Dale
I painted the eyes to blend into the skin and very, very, carefully re-attached the lashes.
Trojan Women
The Juilliard School
Director: Ellen Lauren
Properties Supervisor: Kate Dale
I stuffed the arms with ethafoam to tighten everything up and add stability to the joint.
Trojan Women
The Juilliard School
Director: Ellen Lauren
Properties Supervisor: Kate Dale
For the same show, the baby is supposed to later appear dead after being thrown off a wall (yikes!). So, this baby wanted to have non-realistic movement, with its limbs moving in impossible directions, implying that its body was broken from the fall. Rather than creating realistic, controlled hinge-joints like I used for the live baby, I just jointed this one with rope to create disturbingly un-constrained movements.
Trojan Women
The Juilliard School
Director: Ellen Lauren
Properties Supervisor: Kate Dale
These ‘found object’ puppets had to be easy to manipulate for young performers. I took advantage of the intrinsic dexterity of the human hand in order to create a puppet which was intuitive to operate.
James and the Giant Peach
Barrington Stage Company
Director: Sara Schostack
Puppet Designer: Katie McGeorge
These ‘found object’ puppets had to be easy to manipulate for young performers. I took advantage of the intrinsic dexterity of the human hand in order to create a puppet which was intuitive to operate.
James and the Giant Peach
Barrington Stage Company
Director: Sara Schostack
Puppet Designer: Katie McGeorge
