I am making new puppets so I can add new shows. Here is fox. He stars in “The Fox and the Grapes” from Aesop’s fables. He is eager to expand his repertoire. This is a versatile fox with a moveable mouth as well as head and paws.
I am working on collecting one person shows. However, it would be exciting to have other puppeteers involved. Ultimately I want to start a puppet theater with children and adults making puppets, creating plays and performing for the community.
HummingbirdPlay Puppet Theater gives performances, puts on puppet making events and is available for special occasions.
Bear puppet for “Oak Tree House”
Bear paw from “Oak Tree House”
Bear is one of the characters in Oak Tree House, the life and times of Quercus Agrifolia, featuring Coast Live Oak, blue jay, squirrel, deer and bear. Oak Tree House shows that many creatures, insects, and even people are supported by acorns and oak trees.
Cook creates yummy meals
This is Cook, one of the six professions represented in the show Creative People. This play depicts different ways in which a person can be creative.
Busy creating!
Puppet making in the park was a big success during the Farmers’ Market at Grover Beach.
Children pay close attention to their creations and know exactly what they want to do.
Superhero
This guy is a superhero. Notice the cape.
Add a stick and you have a yarn doll stick puppet!
Yarn puppet with a sequin mouth and pom-pom eyes!
Special occasions could be birthdays, baby showers, fund raisers, you name it. Caution – we are puppeteers, not baby sitters!
Hummingbirdplaypuppets will explore the myriad tangible and intangible opportunities inherent in puppetry – the art of bringing an inanimate object to life. The foremost of these opportunities is creativity, making something that did not exist before. Creativity is at the heart of life.
Creating a puppet takes place on many levels. There is the art and craft level of using paper, glue, fabric, paint, wood, string – whatever strikes your fancy – to shape the form of a character. There is the imaginative level of giving the character a personality and a story. There is the interactive level of presenting the story to an audience.
The whole process is totally engrossing. I have seen children completely intent on deciding which button would be the best and what color hair the emerging puppet should have. This immersion in the creative act is transformational.
On this site we will delve into everything from techniques and puppet patterns to the mystery and magic of puppetry.
As Alan Cook from the International Puppetry Museum says:
“Puppetry is an art form communicating beyond age, culture, ethnicity, language and education. It opens possibilities that affect the head, heart and soul, communicating on many levels at once, often without words. Adults, through puppetry, experience the mysteries of life and understand how possibility can become reality. Children, through puppetry, nurture their imagination, receiving the gift of inspiration.”
hummingbirdplaypuppets 