MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee has a robust live theater scene from musicals to plays to opera. Now, one woman wants to revive another style and make it just as popular - puppetry.
Julia Teeguarden owns Puppetry in Motion, a puppet production company. She recently became the head puppet master also known as the owner. The company has been around for more than 40 years. She rebranded it to Puppetry in Motion; however, before it was called Milwaukee Mask and Puppet and then Arcadia Productions.
“I took it over to keep the puppetry alive," Teeguarden said.
She has been in the industry for about 12 years. Always an artist, she was drawn to this style of theater and then got hooked.
“It’s actually just a labor of love. I fell in love with the puppets, and I want to have them in my life and share them with other people," she said.
She hires actors and rents out puppets to various clients like Summerfest or the upcoming Argen Faire. Her puppets include marionettes, bunraku, parade puppets, and more.
“I just think that they bring a level of creativity and production value to a piece that an actor can’t do on its own," she said.
Even though puppets only have one facial expression, they have a surreal quality that humans can't express. Puppets can have bulging eyes, elongated faces, or other distorted features.
See what these puppets look like in action...
She isn't the only person working with puppets in the city. Other puppet companies include Angry Young Men and Little Puppet Company. However, those groups tend to use smaller puppets than the life-sized or larger-than-life puppets of Puppetry in Motion.
Among those people dabbling with puppets is Joshua Bryan. He is the creative director of Cabaret Milwaukee.
“Yoda was a far better puppet than he was a CG character," he said.
Bryan has been working on the puppets Teeguarden owns to make them ready for Cabaret Milwaukee and is using these puppets for an October Show at Turner Hall about the history of the Milwaukee Turners. Go to Cabaret Milwaukee on Facebook for tickets.
“They do something that I think actors have a difficult time (doing) and that is suspending people's disbelief," Bryan said.
There’s a weirdness and a whimsy to these puppets. That's exactly what inspired Julia Teeguaden to continue Milwaukee’s puppet tradition.
“Just to bring puppets to the masses and put smiles on faces," she said.
For those counting, the word puppet or puppetry has been said 28 times in this story.
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
