Art of Puppetry

The Art of Puppetry is designed for children aged 10 -to 14 years of age. Classes will focus on both the skills of puppeteering and the art of puppet building.

In this 10 week course, students will explore the art of puppetry, from the intricacies of animal puppets, to the mechanics of talking hand puppets, culminating in the participants building a professional hand puppet of their own and using it in a performance of their own design.

They will learn puppeteering skills such as conveying emotion, keeping the puppet alive, lip syncing, eye focus, and “spitting out” the words. They will also learn specific puppet building skills such as how to hide seams, effective eye placement, working with puppet materials, incorporating secondary movement, and developing an original character. 

Students will get to keep the puppet they built after the program so they can continue practising their new puppetry skills at home.

Classes are designed and delivered by professional puppeteer, and Child Players alumnus and director, Jamie. She is a professional puppeteer and puppet builder whose experience extends from science shows at Questacon, to a puppet short film that was shortlisted in a national film festival, to building puppets for her successful YouTube channel Myth Made. She also has extensive performance experience in community theatre and professional performance at Questacon, but it all started at Child Players when she was a kid! She is so excited to get more kids excited about puppetry!