Five kids participated in HMTC’s Puppetry Making Class recently. What they created is adorable. HMTC will organize a puppetry event to exhibit their work with a puppetry showcase.
Puppetry has been around for thousands of years. Even today, it is a fun activity for all ages. In fact, during the pandemic international puppeteers had to film their puppet shows. We certainly did. This opened a new avenue for HMTC. It is now part of our programming.
With the pandemic, the play PEDRO THE PUPPETRY had to be filmed. Something that was quite new to our theater. This director discovered it to be an enormous time involvement in film editing and quite a learning curve. However, it is done and will be presented on July 16 at 7pm at the theater.
PEDRO THE PUPPETEER is a story about a puppeteer who is having a career crisis due to parental pressures. Suddenly, puppets he has not seen before appear to taunt him. The puppet-play-film is PG-13 due to puppets using the F-bomb a few times, and the Chucky-like puppet.
CHOLA INTERVIEW PODCAST, is a split screen podcast interviewing one of the characters from the play PEDRO THE PUPPETEER. Chola, a two-foot puppet from Hanford, discusses her anger management class she is doing by Zoom. This was a mistake. She was supposed to be in an anger management class
DON’T JUST LOOK, is a complete puppet show on video. It received an Arts and Accessibility Grant from the California Arts Council. The grant was to allow people with disabilities to enjoy all aspects of the puppet theater experience, including performance with sign language and closed caption. The story discusses citizen responsibility when eye-witnessing societal issues. The main characters are Huey, and his friend Louee who uses a wheelchair. This show was filmed instead of presented live during state restrictions.
SOARING HIGH (a Korean story) is an adaptation of a book by Grace Cha. This project is still in pre-production. This will be presented live.
Reina the Dragon is a large shoulder-held puppet. Her introduction to the community will be at this event. She is still on the craft table with just final touches needed to be completed.
MACHO AND BIG MOUTH, is developing on the stage for a live performance. The actors are participating in the script writing. The characters in this play are partially human and ventriloquist. Truly an unusual and experimental piece.
The five children who participated in the recent puppetry making class will exhibit their puppets at this event. As well, we would enjoy any community members to bring their puppets. More information later on this event.
Call us at 559-997-3838 or contact us through our website www.HanfordMTC.com
