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Photo: Jeff Bragg


A Conversation With Allan Stevens


By Jeff Bragg


Editor’s Note: May 2004, The Puppet Co. had a grand opening of a gorgeous gem of a 250-seat theater in Glen Echo Park, Maryland, a Washington DC suburb. Jane Henson cut the ribbon. The theater was the cover story for Puppetry Journal (Summer 2004 Vol. 55, No. 4). Sixteen years later, in 2020, the Puppet Co. founders, Allan Stevens (age 77), Christopher Piper, and MayField Piper announced that they were retiring after a long, successful partnership. The Puppet Co. hosted the 2008 Mid-Atlantic Regional Festival, and in 2009 they received a UNIMA-USA Citation of Excellence for The Wizard of Oz.


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Virginia and his first paid-for puppet show, at the age of twelve. He watched puppeteer Bernard Paul on WBAL-TV, Baltimore. He recounted his term at the University of Virginia, his theater education at Bennington College, and his early jobs in summer stock at Bar Harbor, Maine, and White Lake, Michigan. He spoke about working on a production of Carlo Gozzi’s The King Stag, presented in a very hot tent on the Mall in Washington. The following excerpt, edited for clarity and space, picks up the narrative in 1969. (https://www.nationalcapitalpuppetry.org/)


A


llan Stevens, definitely the quietest of the three partners, finally agreed to be interviewed by Puppetimes editor Jeff Bragg. Allan is especially admired for elegant, gorgeous designs and his passion for excellence. He is thoughtful, meticulous about details, pas- sionate, and opinionated (in a quiet sort of way). The interview filled 22 pages of the National Capital Puppetry Guild newslet- ter. In the first section, Allan talked about his childhood in


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