To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Date: Fri, 05 Dec 2008 16:48:48 -0500
Subject: [Puptcrit] Born puppeteers


I humbly submit that I was a ... you know ... what you said ... about  
a certain direction? Born?
by 5 yrs old I had the nickname of "puppet-boy" in a busy household,  
the middle child of 7 with a couple of dogs, and usually an additional  
foster child staying with us.
A built in audience and angry mob. We each took turns, and you had to  
get onto a roll, or the next eager performer moved in.
Before that and ever since, no matter what else I was doing, and as  
you say there are several directions in life, I have been involved in  
one or another aspect of puppetry,
No-one tells us that the things that we learn will lead us one way or  
another, we cannot see that far down the road.
I understand that there are people who decide to become puppeteers ...  
or very late in life something switches on and then they are  
puppeteers from then on, and still others who WERE
puppeteers but for some reason, are no longer, as if it was a change  
of profession.
I can not remember  ever NOT being a puppeteer.
I did not know about guilds organizations, or other puppeteers except  
on the Tele', until meeting Peter Lewis while performing at the Grand  
Re-opening of The Puppet Playhouse NY in March 02.
Puppetry for me is an intersection of many things both learned and  
experienced, but there was certainly something going on before I even  
knew it.
I cannot think of puppetry as a job, although it is a very difficult  
and demanding occupation.
I do not think in terms of money, so that eases the Art, and although  
it developed very early and stuck, I think it comes down to a question  
of Nature vs. Nurture,
and I have always thought it must be a combination of the two.

are there any other born puppeteers ... i am sure that there must  
be ... right? ... is there anybody out there??
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