In comparison to other art forms, the puppetry world is quite small. There aren’t hundreds of museums devoted to it, or dozens of performance spaces presenting it nearly every week of the year. Many puppeteers work solo, and only see their fellow puppet artists at festivals–when they have the resources and time to travel.

In an effort to foster community and knowledge, we have decided to try and create a regular space for puppeteers to gather and learn from each other in Washington, DC. We are calling this series of conversations The Puppet Lobby, as they will take place in the Selman Gallery that is the lobby of the Brookland Artspace Lofts. Our first conversation will be Monday, September 18 at 7pm and we hope you will join us for what is sure to be a fun, informative evening.

We have two great speakers for this first edition of The Puppet Lobby; master puppeteer Ingrid Crepeau and our own Genna Beth Davidson. Ingrid is a longtime resident of the Washington area and has built puppets for a wide variety of theaters including her own children’s theater company DinoRock. On Monday she will speak about building body puppets and mascots, an expertise she provides to just about every professional DC sports team. For more about Ingrid Crepeau, this Washington Post article is a great read. Genna Beth will be talking about Selkie, the main puppet in the second part of our work-in-progress show Malevolent Creatures. Selkie is a character who has to change between being human and being a seal, and Genna Beth is in the midst of figuring out how to make that happen.