CactusHead Puppets in the News!

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Our show at the Danbury Library got a nice write up in the local Danbury Patch! Here is a link to the article and photos by Christine Rose. This is what she had to say about the show:

"The mini set enjoyed a puppet show from University of Connecticut Puppetry grads, John and Megan Regan. The story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin was adapted from the original fairytale, though here with a much happier ending. There was a lot of laughter from parents as well as the kids, and many were inspired to go off afterwards and host a puppet show of their own."


Here are a couple of the pictures she took after the show during our workshop, and you can see more in the article's photo gallery.
Photos by Christine Rose

Wolf Costumes Sneak Peak

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Pictures of the Beauty and the Beast puppets and costumes in action are coming soon, but I wanted to share this close up of the wolf heads from the construction process. The heads are masks that cover the performers entire head, and then the performer sees out of a mesh panel inside the wolf mouth.

Puppets and Costumes for Beauty and The Beast

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For the past several weeks we have been hard at work making shadow puppets and wolf costumes for the upcoming production of Beauty and the Beast at OH Platt High School in Meriden, CT. The students have also been hard at work rehearsing the show to get ready for their performances on 3/24-3/26 at 7 pm each day. It should be a great show, and if you are close enough to see it, you really should. More information about tickets is at the school's website. We will be posting pictures of the shadow puppets and wolves in action soon too, so if you can't make it to the show you can still get a little sneak peak.

Pied Piper Performance this Saturday!

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Sorry for the short notice, but this coming Saturday, 3/19/11, we will be performing The Pied Piper at the Danbury Library in Danbury CT and offering a puppet making workshop afterward! The show at 11 am, and it is free but registration is required. More information and details on how to register can be found here. If you are in the area we would love to see you there!

Just So Stories

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We are pleased to announce we have started working on our new show, Just So Stories! We have selected three of the classic Rudyard Kipling stories for the show, and will be performing How the Camel Got His Hump, The Beginning of the Armadillos, and How the Rhino Got His Skin. Shows will be April 18th- 22nd at the Eric Carle Museum. Mark your calendars and look for more posts about the making of the show!

Workshops & Classes

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CactusHead Puppets offers workshops as well as shows. We have taught workshops for many different groups, and can tailor them so you get a fun and educational workshop that fits your needs. We offer:

-Classes for all ages- We have taught workshops for ages 4- adult!
-Workshops ranging in length from1 hour to classes that meet multiple times over several weeks
-Workshops in hand, shadow, or rod puppets about puppet making or performance or both!
-Classes tailored to fit the theme your group is studying



Email cactusheadpuppets@gmail.com for more information about workshops and performances!

Pied Piper Performance Pictures

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These are a few photos from our performances of The Pied Piper at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art. We had a blast performing, and the audiences really loved the show too. The show itself was half an hour, and then we did about 10 minutes of Q & A and demonstrating how the puppets work. The photographer said she was laughing too hard during the show to take clear pictures, but these came out very well.
Enjoy the peek at the show!



The rats and the banana slide.

Rats are tempted by the cheese costume.


The Mayor unveils his moon ladder plan.


Photos by Kristin Angel

The Making of The Pied Piper of Hamelin

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We had our first performances of our show The Pied Piper of Hamelin at the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art a few weeks ago. It was a lot of fun to perform, and we had great audiences all week! For this post, we are going to share some behind the scenes pictures of how we made the puppets and built the stage.


The first step in making the puppets is to sculpt the heads out of clay, and then papier mache over the clay to make a hard shell. Here are some of the heads during the papier mache process.

The next step is to sand and paint the papier mache so they are very smooth.

Here are some of the heads before the hair is added, and a pair of hands carved out of foam.

We made all the hands out of foam, and then papier mached them to add strength. Here they are all ready to be sanded smooth and then painted.


The puppets' bodies are cloth sleeves which you can see here, and the costumes are sewn and then attached to the sleeves. Here is Sally getting her costume fitted!


Here is the whole cast costumed and ready to go!



Our stage is made of hinged wooden frames that we put a curtain around. Here you can see the frames that will become the front of the stage, and in the bottom corner are the frames that will become the sides of the stage.

A shot of the stage from the side with the curtain.


This is a view from backstage as we set up for rehearsal.


We also use shadow puppets in this show, and this is our shadow screen lit up in the backdrop of the stage.

Here is another picture from the side of the stage so you can see the shadow screen, curtains and down into the stage a little bit.

Hope you enjoyed the peek into how we made everything for the show. Our next post will have pictures from the performances!

CactusHead Puppets also now has a page on facebook. You can check it out here, and be sure to "like" the page for news and updates about upcoming shows.