GUILD CONNECTION KURT HUNTER
FILM REVIEW KEITH SHUBERT
Guilds: Preserving Puppet History T
he special collaboration of issues between the Puppetry Journal and Puppetry International about collections got me thinking about how some puppetry guilds have fallen into the role of accidental collector. When a puppeteer passes away, the family often struggles with what to do with collections of puppets, books, and other memorabilia. The Twin Cities Puppeteers has been called on many times to help find homes for such treasures. We have a small collection of puppets from prominent local puppeteers, including Lem Williams, Jean Jeffers, Deborah Meader, and Virginia Upson Houghtaling, that we occasionally display. The guild also has a large puppetry library.
The Puppet Guild of Greater St. Louis has a particularly impressive collection, with over 200 puppets from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. The oldest is from the 1800s, and the newest was built in 2020. There are also posters from puppet festivals around the world. Since its founding in 1939, St. Louis guild members and others have generously made donations. The collection has been exhibited at local and
regional libraries, museums, and regional and national Puppeteers of America (PofA) festivals.
Linda Mason of the Cincinnati Puppetry Guild reports that efforts to preserve local puppet history sometimes involved finding homes for historic puppets and papers. The husband of the late Sally Sellers donated her puppets and scrapbooks to the guild, and when Gus and Carolyn Schmidt and James Norman passed away, their families also donated their collections to the guild.
Alice Schaefer started the library of the Boston Area Guild of Puppetry shortly after the Puppet Showplace Theater was founded in 1974. She began by providing a shelf of books at the theater. Others added books, copies of Puppetry Journal, and festival booklets to the collection, and when Lanelle Rice moved away, she donated her rich collection of puppetry books. For a time, the collection was a lending library; however, books were not always returned, so in 2010 the lending stopped. The guild is considering donating the books to a library, but for now people can still visit the library when the Puppet Showplace Theater is open.
The Willamette Valley Puppeteers is another guild that has an active lending library of Puppetry Journal issues.
Several guilds had to assemble an online version of their annual holiday party, including the San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild, the Connecticut Guild of Puppetry, and the Twin Cities Puppeteers. At Twin Cities, we expected to have to skip our popular white elephant gift exchange. However, thanks to the heroic efforts of guild president Ben Peterson, who gathered the actual gifts, and the technical wizardry of Bil Delong, we managed a virtual gift exchange.
The January meeting via Zoom of the Puppeteers of Puget Sound was their best-attended in years. The meeting featured Val Thomas-Matson, a Seattle- based community activist, who talked about developing her award-winning children’s show that Thistle Theatre helped bring to life. In response to the pandemic, the Detroit Puppeteers Guild has decided to dispense with dues until the end of their fiscal year.
The Atlanta Puppetry Guild also had a very special guest for their February meeting—“Decatur native who hit the big
time” Peter Linz of the Muppets. Nancy Riggs, who toured with Peter, led the discussion.
In early December, Leslie Gray treated the Orange County Puppetry Guild to a lecture on shadow puppets. In January, the Greater Houston Puppetry Guild welcomed Karen Konnerth of Calliope Puppets, who presented a recorded adaptation of The City Mouse and the Country Mouse, featuring hand-carved Czech- style marionettes.
The Puppetry Guild of Greater New York featured Brad Brewer of the Brewery Puppet Troupe at their February meeting. The troupe’s soul music–singing four Crowtations have performed around the world. The Brewery Troupe is the only African American puppet company to appear on Broadway, in a major motion picture, and on network television.
One of our newest guilds, the Rocky Mountain Puppetry
Guild, was founded in 2019 by guild president and PofA board member Katy Williams to serve Colorado and Wyoming. In 2020, the guild partnered with the Rocky Mountain Puppet Slam for an event held at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in Denver. Through the pandemic, the guild has kept the momentum going with several virtual workshops.
When puppeteers pass away, they usually leave a collection of puppets, books and videos, among other things. Where do they go?
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