Designed and fabricated a puppet from the ether and had my 1st live performance as the puppet act in the August 2025 edition of the six act variety show curated and hosted by Sam J. Hodge and "Sweet" Pete Akeley at Dynamic El Dorado - Atlanta's comedy incubator for improv, stand-up, and sketch comedy. I shared a story from the perspective of this ancient butterfly. It's a fable based on the Cherokee origin story of disease and medicine as told in the 19th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Here's a fun clip from pups pre-show test flight along with some pictures from the show and the full performance stream from YouTube.
My love for puppetry took flight in 2023 as one of the 100 butterfly puppeteers walking with Little Amal along the Atlanta Beltline with the KREWE of the Grateful Gluttons led by Chantelle Rytter. It made me so happy to see the smiles of little ones as we flew butterflies around them in awe.
Another super fun experience was helping puppeteer Julia Hill's Giant Killer Tomato Puppets at their debut at the Heirloom Tomatoes Are Killer! event put on by Slow Food ATL & Georgia Organics.
In 2024 I had the opportunity to complete a series of masterclasses at The Object Groups's annual Vital puppetry workshops for BIPOC performers, presented in partnership with the Center for Puppetry Arts and funded by the Bright Wings Foundation. Learning puppet manipulation skills from experts was such a wonderful experience. I met so many awesome humans, developed my performance techniques, and widened my perspectives on fabrication.
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Little Amal: Walking with Monarchs media courtesy of Chantelle Rytter + Krewe, Steve Eberhardt & Christina Ward, 2023
