Students learn from professional puppeteers

One of the few remaining professional marionette theaters in Europe performed this evening at Brigham Young University – Idaho. Before the performance BYUI theater students got a chance to learn from the puppeteers at a workshop.

The puppeteers from this 100 year-old theater company explained how puppets have been around for thousands of years. They told the students it takes six to eight years to become an accomplished professional puppeteer.

“You’re actually not an actor yourself, but you have to know everything an actor has to know,” puppeteer Phillippe Brunner said.

For the students it was a fun and educational experience.

“It’s incredible to look at all the features on the puppets and all the detail that goes into it,” Sheldon Bladh said.

“What impressed me is how dedicated they are to this and how long they have to practice for it,” Kylie McDonald said.

For the puppeteers, the rewards of this profession come when they see the audience’s reaction to their work.

“You have to put the emotion through your fingers through the strings into the puppet, and then when the audience thinks it’s a human being on stage, it works,” Brunner said.