The Memorable 1980 World Puppetry Festival

                          

Why I attended the impressionable conference held at Georgetown, Univ.,and the Kennedy Center for Perfoming Arts, Washington DC

An Inspirational Experience

The conference was a joint venture of the Union Internationale (UNIMA) and the Puppeteers of America, of which I was a member. Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets, helped organize the event.

To promote the festival, Statler and Waldof (his cranky, human, muppets) appeared in a series of Muppet TV advertising spots.  This resulted in 2000 eager attendees and performers from around the world.

Continuous, assorted, puppet show performances were featured at Georgetown University theaters and the Kennedy Center's seven theaters for the performing arts. The eclectic conference gained attention to puppetry, as an art form, to the National Endowment for the Arts, a govt agency.

Thereby, puppeteers could be funded through grants, to perform and teach puppetry classroom skills at colleges throughout the United States. I eagerly attended professional’s touring classes, and soon learned puppetry skills to instruct Kansas City workshops for teachers, to engage students in the creative arts.

Earlier, as a vital member and article submitter in the 1970s for “The Puppeteers of America” organization, I had created my own family Voco Poco Puppets show that toured Kansas City and Topeka. 

Our unique stage show featured ventriloquist puppets that interacted with a hand puppet theatre. Electric piano music embellished the comedic acts, providing sound coherence for multiple puppet vocals.

             

Subsequently, I was desirous to see the creative performances of world-renown entertainers on various stages of Georgetown University and Kennedy Center.

Multiple Georgetown and Kennedy Center theaters ran shows simultaneously for the entrants. Various types of puppets engaged.  (Ventriloquist figures, marionette, shadow, rod, and hand puppets).

The esteemed Kennedy Center featured celebrity film and TV puppeteers

The celebrity, Edgar Bergen, with his witty Charlie McCarthy sidekick, did not perform as Edgar had recently passed in 1978.

 Yet, Buffalo Bob Smith performed with his marionette Howdy Doody, of the 1960s TV show, “It’s Howdy Doody Time”, as did the Jim Henson’s Muppets.

Bill Baird’s marionette presentations were engaging at Kennedy Center, as he is best known for his work in the film “Sound of Music” where Julie Andrews and the children sang for the dancing marionettes. Baird was a protégée of the early 20^th century celebrated puppeteer, Tony Sarg. They designed the Macy’s balloons for the annual Macy’s Christmas parade.

The Smithsonian's Natural Museum of History and Technology's long-term exhibit displayed three celebrity, puppet characters together; Charlie McCarthy (Bergen’s ventriloquist figure), Howdy Doody (Buffalo Bob’s marionette), with Kermit the Frog (Henson’s hand and rod puppet).

Preferably, hand puppets (like the themed Muppets and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood) and ventriloquists’ acts are best suited for film (television shows and movies mediums), rather than performing on large stages with large audiences. These performers obviously had production challenges adapting to a live stage performance with a vast audience.

Sitting in stage left box at the Kennedy Center's concert hall

Viewing actual live Muppets, Baird’s marionettes, Mr. Rogers work, and Buffalo Bob with Howdy Doody, in close proximity overlooking the stage, was joyful, astounding.

As a Kansas City performing artist, I found my self sitting next to, and chatting with the noted Hazel Rollins (Hazel’s marionettes) of Kansas City.

Key take away of our chat was: “be careful how you plan the puppet’s posterity. The worst thing you can do is bequeath them to a museum that will store them on a numbered shelf, stored in a box.” She now has her varied marionettes distributed online for mass market purchase.

But, the greatest experience was meeting several of them personally, and obtaining their autographs.

My greatest surprise was bumping into Jim Henson while I ran up the back stairwell of the Georgetown University’s “Old Main” building. Recognizing him immediately, he offered his autograph on my notepad.

Inspired and motivated, two months later, in August, 1980, I created the nonprofit, Educational Media Therapy Consultants, Inc, aimed to research puppets’ effects on listening sequencing memory, and learning.