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Puppets Together Class at Arlington Center for the Arts

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I will be teaching a 5-session workshop at Arlington Center for the Arts, once a week from January 18 to February 15, from 3 to 4:30.
We will create puppet characters — with felt, socks, paper plates and fabric — and have a lot of fun teaching them to walk, run, dance, fly, talk and sing. Each class will include time to explore and play with puppets and props.
I hope your 5 to 8-year old will join me!
To see the course catalog and registration:
The fee is $100 for ACA members; $120 for non-members
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“Cow and Mouse’s Picnic” ON at ACA, Today at 2 pm

I’ll perform “Cow and Mouse’s Picnic” at Arlington Center for the Arts today at 2 as planned. Please join me if the weather doesn’t get in your way. Safety first, always. Stay to play with puppets and have some coffee or tea! Tickets $7 at the door.smcow

Arlington Center for the Arts is at 41 Foster Street in Arlington and has ample parking.

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Families and their puppets at ACA, 12/3

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makingpuppetsdogAt “Making Puppets Together” on December 3 I had the fun of watching parents make puppets along with their children. Lots of look-alike puppets, a family dog, and some robots, too.  When I asked to take photos of puppets only for privacy reasons, the kids, moms and dads immediately dropped to the floor and held their puppets up high. They’ve drilled a “best practice” for photo privacy.

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Making Puppets Together

Saturday, December 3, 2016 at 2 pm

Make your own puppet character and start expressing its personality in this 1 1/2 hour workshop at Arlington Center for the Arts.  We’ll use prepared felt puppets and then add paper and cloth features to make lively, sweet, snarky, amazing characters. Children 5 and under should be accompanied by a parent, who is welcome to make a puppet too. Best for ages 4 and up.

Tickets are $5.

This workshop is limited to 25 people. Please reserve your spot through Eventbrite.

Directions: http://www.acarts.org/hours-directions

 

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Summer Camp with Puppets

Join me and other artists and some really fun kids at Arts at the Armory’s Arts Discovery Week for ages 5 to 10.  Classes in sculpting, drawing, acting and two puppetry workshops:

Puppets Together, August 2, 9:30 – 12 — create a felt hand puppet, then make it move, dance, wiggle and talk.

Animal Superheroes, August 3, 930 – 12 — create a magical animal puppet whose powers and failing are both super-sized.

Arts at the Armory has fun classes at good rates. $200 for five full-days, $100 for five mornings or afternoons!

MORE: http://artsatthearmory.org/learn/summer-camps-2016/

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“Leopard Learns a Lesson” at ACA on March 5

Mama Leopard gets what she wants by frightening smaller animals — until Rabbit turns the tables on her with the help of her son and the jungle’s two largest beasts, Elephant and Rhinoceros. Leopard learns that cooperating with friends works better than bullying. Maggie Whalen performs this story with stunning puppets she built of fabric and paper mache. “Leopard Learns a Lesson” is based on a Malawi folktale and features original music by Alison Plante. Come for the show, stay to make your own animal puppet and enjoy puppet-play. Best for ages 4 and up.

Maggie Whalen is the creator of Magpie Puppets, a one-woman puppet theater based in Stoneham, Massachusetts. She has been creating and performing puppet shows for children since 1969. In addition to performing, Maggie builds customized puppets for theater and film and has taught puppet-making workshops at schools, community centers, and at Club Med Mini-Clubs in the Caribbean. She is featured on the PBS Curious George show in the Sock Monkey Opera episode.

 

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“Badger Meets the Fairies” at Goat on a Boat, 1/2/16

Flit to Sag Harbor with a kindly badger and four fairy friends on Saturday, January 2 at 11am at the new Goat on a Boat in the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, Long Island.

Mr. Badger is thrilled to meet Blossom, a flower fairy, in his garden, and agrees to help the fairies build a playground. And then it gets complicated: the fairies won’t use cement, and Mr. Badger wants to learn to fly. This gentle tale based on European fairy lore and features beautiful puppets by Sandra Pastrana as well as lyrical music created by Alison Plante. “Badger Meets the Fairies” is best for ages 4 to 10, and lasts 40 minutes.

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Squeaky Clean Piglet at Arlington Center for the Arts

“Mathilda’s Bath,” Saturday, January 9 at 11am & 2pm

Arlington Center for the Arts, 41 Foster Street

Only Mrs. Piggle Wiggle’s magic can convince the grimy Mathilda to take a bath in this light-hearted adaptation of a Betty MacDonald story. The story features needle-felted pig puppets created by Sandra Pastrana and me,  and lots of gentle humor. Come for the show; stay to make a simple sock puppet and play with puppets afterward! Best for ages 3 to 7.

Mathilda’s Bath is the second show in this season’s Saturdays with Puppets series at Arlington Center for the Arts. The series, which began in 2009, presents lively puppet shows for families on fall and winter Saturdays. Tickets are $7; 3 for $20. To reserve tickets email me at [email protected] or call (781)643-1228.

News & Events, Saturdays with Puppets

“Turtle’s New Home” opens Saturdays with Puppets

“Turtle’s New Home” by Deborah Costine Nature Puppets

Saturday, December 5, 2015, 11am & 2pm, tickets $7

Arlington Center for the Arts, 41 Foster Street

Blanding the turtle searches for a new home in Deborah Costine’s moving story of animals living in a wetland environment. The turtle can’t cross the new road built between her pond and the place she goes to lay her eggs so she sets off on a quest that brings new friends and solutions. Deborah designed and built the animal puppets in “Turtle’s New Home”with accuracy to help children identify animals of wetlands in Massachusetts. The show is best for ages four and up and will be followed by a play time with animal puppets and homes they might live in.

Deborah Costine is an artist, author, naturalist and puppeteer who has been presenting school and public performances throughout New England for over thirty years. She is a winner of the U.N.I.M.A. USA Citation for Excellence. “Turtle’s New Home” was produced with the aid of a grant from the Jim Henson Foundation.

This year Saturdays with Puppets will have four days of fine puppetry at Arlington Center for the Arts, with two shows each, at 11am and 2pm. Hope to see you there!

 

 

 

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Visiting Puppeteers in Taiwan

Tsai Su-jen is the troupe leader for the I Wan Jan Traditional Hand Puppet Troupe based in Sanchih, Taiwan.  She and her family also operate the Li Tien-lu Puppetry Museum, which I was very happy to visit in August. Su-jen is the daughter-in-law of Li Tien-lu and puts a lot of warm energy into burnishing his legacy.

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I also had the chance to see a performance by Chen Hsi-huang, who has been designated a “National Treasure” in Taiwan for puppet performance and puppet-making. Funny and beautiful!

Here is the view on a foggy morning from Yangmingshan, where I stayed with my father-in-law.

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