Who we are
The Puppeteers' Cooperative is a group of artists and
puppeteers working in cities around the nation to create giant
puppet parades, pageants, and ceremonies of celebration and
complaint, using simple materials and movements to build
community cardboard extravaganzas. We have worked with
groups around the US and Canada, from Nova Scotia in the
North to Florida in the South, and with festivals including
the Atlanta Arts Festival and the Bumbershoot Festival of
Seattle, creating semi-instantaneous pageants, art installations,
and parades. Our massive pageants at the Lincoln Center
Out-of-Doors Festival in New York have explored neurosis
and traffic jams in "Romeo and Juliet in New York City",
space and parrots in "The Tempest on Mars", the highway
system from Troy to Ithaca in "The Odyssey" fear
of Da Mayor in "Metropopolis", and city as circus in
"Grand Meg-o-lopolis Circus". Our 'Triumph of the Arts"
parades with the Governor's Institute on the Arts of Vermont
have become a beloved tradition. Puppeteers from the
Puppeteers' Cooperative have worked with First Night of
Boston and First Night International and with First Night
celebrations around the country since their inception,
creating both experimental commissioned parade works and
sections, and sprited and colorful community group
parade pieces.
The Puppeteers' Cooperative is also involved with a
number of interrelated groups: Hi-Art videos, which
makes videos of giant puppet pageants and miniature tabletop productions;
News of the Week, for mini street shows; the Back Alley
Puppet Theater, which creates parades and parade puppets
in the Boston area; the Puppet Free Library, which lends
puppets, banners, and masks to people and institutions in
the Boston area; and the Construction Section, puppet
makers.
Home Page