Students participate in puppeteering workshop

Thanks to the likes of "Sesame Street," "The Muppets" and "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," puppets have been character staples in the worlds of television, film and theater for many years.

During a week-long workshop, which began February 13, Grand Valley students have been learning how to perform with puppets, and have even been creating their own. 

The puppetry workshop will conclude Saturday, February 20, with a performance at 7:30 p.m. in Louis Armstrong Theatre. The performance will be free and open to the public.

During the intensive workshop, students have been experimenting with puppet manipulation techniques, exploring the features and capabilities of a custom puppetry stage, working in small groups to develop a short play, and developing character voicing and movements.

The workshop is being facilitated by Jason Yancey, assistant professor of Spanish at Grand Valley, who has more than 15 years of puppeteering experience. While these types of workshops are rare for Yancey to facilitate, he regularly teaches an upper-level Spanish course during which his students write and produce puppet shows that they later perform in local Spanish-speaking elementary schools. For example, in 2013, Yancey wrote and produced a bilingual puppet adaptation for "Don Quixote," which he performed with four of his students across several states in the U.S.

Yancey said the natural abilities of theater students to create and portray characters on stage easily translates to puppetry — although this workshop is open to all Grand Valley students.

"I find that working with puppets causes me to focus even more intently on every tiny aspect of what my voice and body are doing at every moment," Yancey said. "The puppet itself is really just a prop and a skilled puppeteer almost magically breathes life into its limbs, arms, body and soul. That process, I believe, makes actors better performers in every way."

Yancey added that there is also a humanistic benefit to working and performing with puppets.

"You learn how to work very intimately with your fellow performers, in close physical proximity with puppets that require multiple operators, as well as close proximity during complicated behind-the-scenes action," Yancey said. "Diving into the experience and succeeding supplies confidence to actors, especially student actors still learning and growing."

James Bell, associate professor of theater and the department's faculty facilitator for the workshop, said every year workshops are provided for students to give them opportunities to expand their theatrical training.

"Puppeteering is not an area that we have in our curriculum, nor is it an area that we have had previously as a workshop," Bell said. "But, this type of theater performance dates back centuries and is currently used in contemporary theater."

For more information about the workshop and performance, contact Yancey at [email protected] or contact the Louis Armstrong Theatre Box Office at (616) 331-2300.