Puppeteers in Kitchener/Waterloo?

[mrhogg]

Hi all,

I'm teaching myself puppeteering/puppet-making (with the help of some reference books, and the excellent tutorials/wisdom of the folks on this forum) and I'm curious to know if there are others in my area who are prone to building puppets. I'm making a videocast/web television show, so eventually I'll be hoping to find people to help during the filming, but initially I'm interested to find out about any existing puppet community in KW.

Is there anyone out there?

 

[Buck-Beaver]

There is a decent, but very unconnected puppetry community in KW, relative to the size of the population.

I used to know a very nice lady in KW who builds very affordable puppets primarily for Christian ministry. I first met her about 12, 13 years ago at a puppet festival a mall staged in Oakville. I don't remember her name and don't have access to my files with her contact info but she often exhibits work at local craft fairs and malls if you keep an eye out for her.

I'm not familiar with his work, but a puppeteer named Jeff Beckner operates a company called Dilly Doodles in KW, you'd have to look up his contact info.

You might want to get in touch with the Waterloo-Wellington chapter of Epilepsy Ontario. They operate a "Kids on the Block" puppet troupe in the area.

 

[faze]

I found a website for other puppetry groups in Ontario

http://www.onpuppet.org/page3.html

DILLY DOODLES - 323 Clifton Road Kitchener ON N2H 4W4 519 749 1901 (JeffBeckner

 

[mrhogg]

Thanks for the info, buck-beaver. They have puppet festivals in Oakville? I lived there for years, and I didn't know they did that. How often do they have them?

Thanks for the link, faze.

I'm not looking for a mentoring kind of thing, or really to be taught puppetry -- I'm big on figuring it all out myself -- but it would be great to check out someone's studio.

Thanks!

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I think the festival in Oakville was a one-off kind of thing the mall did.

You should think about checking out the Toronto School of Puppetry.