John E. Kennedy is Guest of Honor for First Bloomin' Puppetfest

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The first ever Bloomin' Puppetfest will be held on 4/30/2004 and 5/1/2004 in Bloomington IN. We are proud to announce that John E. Kennedy author and puppeteer with Disney and Henson will be our guest of honor. Particularly of interest to this forum is a Puppetside Chat where John will informally talk about his life with puppets and answer questions. There are also plans for a booksigning. Please visit our website at http://www.freewebs.com/bloomin_puppetfest for details.

Biography

At age three, John started building puppets in his hometown of Plainfield,
Indiana. His audiences at local libraries cheered him on when he was
thirteen and led John to consider puppetry as a possible career choice. By
the time he had graduated high school, John had honed his skills in music,
dance, drama, and art in an effort to improve his puppetry, and landed a job
at the Indianapolis Union Station Festival Marketplace. Performing there as
a singing, dancing, banjo-playing puppeteer, while also working on a
bachelors degree in theater at Indiana University Purdue University at
Indianapolis (IUPUI), John built up his confidence to write the Jim Henson
Company. As a result, he was invited to several performer workshops in New
York City. Coincidentally, in 1990, John auditioned in Indianapolis as a
dancer in a Muppet revue for Walt Disney World. He got the job, was
relocated to Orlando, Florida, and in a few weeks was working beside Jim
Henson himself. John has now been working for the Jim Henson Company for
more than thirteen years. Some of his many credits include Dinosaurs, Sesame
Street, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, Muppets Tonight, Muppets From
Space, Cats and Dogs, and The Country Bears.

Currently John has chronicled some of his building and performing
experiences in his new book Puppet Mania which is available at all major
book stores. In this book John shows how to make thirteen puppet projects,
many he created when he was just a kid.

To find out what John is up to next visit his web site at www.puppetkit.com.

VITA
Film

A Very Muppet Christmas (NBC prime time movie) - Performed main Muppet
characters for this feature length holiday special.

The Country Bears (Disney feature) - Puppeteered the animatronic bear Zeb
Zoober.

Kermit's Swamp Years (Jim Henson Home Entertainment) - Principal puppeteer
of Blotch the Bullfrog and Arnie the Alligator and puppet captain.

Muppets From Space (Sony feature) - Assisted all main characters. *Performed
animatronic Gonzos.

Television

Dinosaurs (ABC Sitcom) - *Performed the animatronic expressions of Baby
Sinclair, Sid, and Spike on the Henson Performance Control System. *Also
radio control for many others. *Coordinated performances with body
performers to create each character.

Animal Jam (The Learning Channel) - Puppet captain and performer of DJ One,
the Disc Jockey Panda.

Telling Stories with Tomie DePaola - *Coordinator in charge of casting
puppeteers and choreographing each puppet segment. *Also performer and voice
talent for Gabe the Squirrel, Big Anthony, and Lungs the Racoon

Aliens in the Family (ABC Sitcom) - Performed the animatronic expressions of
Bobut. Coordinated blue screen sequences and lead the radio control unit for
specific characters.

Muppetoons (muppetworld.com) - *Trained on the Henson Digital Performance
System, performing Fozzie Bear, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, and Kermit in this
real-time, motion-capture puppeteer rig.

The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss (Nickelodeon) - *Principal performer for
Horton, Sam-I-Am, Norval, and more than 30 others. *Coordinator of
performers and mechanical rigs.

Other credits include - *Muppets Tonight, Sesame Street, Elmo's World, Bear
in the Big Blue House, Allegra's Window, Dog City, and *Eureeka's Castle