Residencies
Available locally or on the road.
Residencies can last anywhere from 2-5 days and can include performances as well as workshops in the creation and manipulation of hand puppets, shadow puppets, rod puppets, or simple marionettes. The puppeteers draw on their 40 plus years of experience to teach puppet-making and performance techniques that are accessible, cost-effective, fun and foolproof.
Here's what you can get out of a residency:
- Be part of a professional puppet performance!
- Learn how to make and manipulate your own puppet!
- Learn how to write an effective puppet script!
- Learn how to add music and sound effects to a show!
- Learn history through puppetry!
- Build excitement, build community, have fun while learning!
Currently, grant funding is available to cut the price of Don Quixote, Immigrant Stew at the Chat 'n'Chew, John Brown's Journey, Escape to Freedom, and Portraits of the Prairie!
Participatory Puppet Residencies
Remembering Buxton
Remembering Buxton is the story of Buxton, Iowa, a coal mining town in southern Iowa in existence from about 1900 to 1925. The town was half Black and half white. A total anomaly for its time, it was 100% egalitarian, with Blacks in mine management, city government, and professional life. Its neighborhoods and facilities were integrated.
Don Quixote
Don Quixote, featuring a cast of beautifully crafted rod puppets and shadow puppets, is adapted from a book written by Miguel Cervantes in the 1600’s and considered to be the first modern novel.
Curriculum Connections:
- World Literature
- History
- Music
- Art
- Drama
Immigrant Stew at the Chat 'n' Chew
IMMIGRANT STEW AT THE CHAT ‘n’ CHEW is humorous, touching, and quite timely as we welcome immigrants into the rural Midwest. Cathy Schmidt-McGillicutty, played by Monica Leo, is the proprietress of the local cafe, the Chat ‘N’ Chew. She’s upset because her daughter wants to marry a member of a Mexican immigrant family.
Curriculum Connections:
- Social Studies
- History
- Art
- Drama
- Music
John Brown's Journey
JOHN BROWNʼS JOURNEY is a dramatic retelling of actual events that happened in the southern half of Iowa and in Kansas in 1858 and 1859. Hannah Miller, played by Monica Leo, is the fictional owner of the local cafe, the Travelerʼs Rest, a cafe that actually existed in Springdale and was frequented by John Brown.
Age group: 9 through 90
Curriculum Connections:
- Social Studies
- History
- Art
- Drama
- Music
The Flea
The Flea is a melding of two Spanish-American folktales, one about a race between a donkey and a family of frogs and one about a goat herder named Pedro who enlists the help of an ant, a cockroach and a mouse to win a contest and achieve his dream of joining a band.
Curriculum Connections:
- Latino culture
- World literature
- Spanish language
- Folklore
- Art
- Music
- Drama
Portraits of the Prairie
PORTRAITS OF THE PRAIRIE, written by Iowa Poet Laureate Mary Swander, is a series of tableaus showing the history of the land from native prairie through early settlers and small farms, through large agriculture, and back to reconstructed prairie. They’re presented through the eyes of Pierre, a wacky painter and his friend, a sassy Iowa squirrel.
Curriculum Connections:
- Prairie history
- Ecology
- Art history
- Art
- Music
- Drama
Escape to Freedom: Underground Railroad History Through Shadow Puppets
This 5 day curriculum infused residency teaches Iowa Underground Railroad History through shadow puppetry. Each of four classes develops two scenes, making their own puppets to depict incidents that occurred in Iowa between 1856 and 1859. At the end of the week, the eight scenes are performed chronologically, giving the audience a nutshell history of the period.
Curriculum Connections:
- Iowa history
- African American studies
- Art
- Drama
Giant Parade Puppets
Giant puppets can make a big splash in your local parade or festival. Creating them is a fun, community-building activity for all ages.
Design Your Own Residency
Typical residencies last from 2 to 5 days and can include 1 or 2 puppeteers and/or a musician! You can choose from the following activities to design the perfect residency for your school or organization:
Performances
Puppet making workshops
Performance workshops
Music workshops
Script writing workshops
Workshops for teachers, librarians, and other interested adults
Hand puppets, rod puppets, shadow puppets, marionettes!
Each residency is individually designed to…