This last weekend, Maxed Out Puppetry participated in the 2010 Utah PuppetFest, hosted by the SCERA Center for the Arts in Orem and the Puppetry Arts Guild of Utah.  We taught two classes on introductory puppet performance, and performed in the Great Puppet Follies, a puppet variety show featuring various puppeteers from all over Utah.  It was a ton of fun.

The Festival was covered by the local paper, the Daily Herald,  including a video about the festival in which you can see our own J. Max teaching the class.

Video: SCERA hosts puppetry festival

We’re looking forward to seeing even more people at Utah PuppetFest 2011!

Caitlin Shirts joined Maxed Out Puppetry over six years ago and has had a huge influence on the troupe.  We’ve appreciated her hard work, her creativity, her wit, and her large collection of puppets.  She has been accepted to the famous Masters program in Puppetry at the University of Connecticut . Ain’t that not the what? (Congratulations Caitlin!)  She leaves Utah for Connecticut this week.

We’re all very excited for her, but also sad to see her go.  Fortunately, in these last few weeks before her departure, we’ve been able to film a handful of new puppet videos which she has furiously edited in her last few days here and which will appear here on the website throughout the next few months.

Thanks Caitlin!

On Saturday August 8th Maxed Out Puppetry participated in the annual “Teddy Bear Picnic” at Utah’s Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City.  This is our second year at the zoo and we had a great time modifying some of our stories and songs to include Teddy Bears.

The children enjoyed a live performance of our adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s “The Elephant’s Child” with a teddy bear, as well as a version of the Hardware Store, with an ice cream loving Teddy Bear.

After the show, Ollie stuck around to chat with the kids for a little while and we all had a lot of fun.  We also got to see some of the new babies at the zoo, including the baby orangutan, the snow leopard cub, and the baby giraffe.

We are sad to say, however, that this was the final performance of Maxed Out Puppeteer Caitlin Shirts.  Caitlin is moving to Connecticut to enter a Masters Program studying Puppetry.  Thanks Caitlin for all your huge contribution to our troupe!

Thanks to Cagney Smullin for inviting us to return for the Teddy Bear Picnic again this year and we look forward to additional performances at the zoo in the future.

Thanks to Librarian Charlotte Hurley and the Grand County Library, Maxed Out Puppetry had a wonderful time among the stunning scenery of Moab Utah during the first weekend of August.  Despite the blazing summer sun, we were able to visit the natural wonder of Arches National Park.  In addition to the natural formations, thousands of years before puppetry there were Petroglyphs and on Charlotte’s recommendation we went to check out the ancient rock drawings of the Fremont culture as well as even more ancient dinosaur footprints preserved in the rocks nearby.

On Saturday the 1st we performed at the historic Star Hall on Center Street. Star Hall was constructed in 1905 and has served the community for over 100 years. The show went splendidly. We had a great audience and we introduced some great new material. We danced like puppets, Tyson tried to do a magic trick with unexpected results, we got attacked by a giant man-eating snake, and everyone had a blast.

This is the second time we have visited Moab to perform and we look forward to going again. Another big thanks to our favorite Grand Country Librarian, Charlotte Hurley for having us!

The website has been reorganized to make it easier to find and watch videos for kids separately from other videos that may not appeal to children.

Here on the blog we will be posting reports and pictures from shows and workshops, as well as links to other puppetry resources on the Internet.

You can also find more extensive information about the history of Maxed Out Puppetry as well as information about booking us to perform a puppet show or teach a puppetry workshop.