History

Who we are, and what we are about?

The Puppet Co. is a non-profit organization, founded in 1983, which creates puppet theatre, especially for children, as an art form synthesizing the visual and performing arts. Hand Puppets, rod puppets, body puppets, marionettes and shadow puppets are used in the fully staged productions of the stories, traditional and original, which comprise our ever-growing repertory.

Allan Stevens, Christopher and MayField Piper, and now Eric Brooks combine their varied sculptural, mechanical, costuming, scenic and administrative talents to form the artistic and managerial core of The Puppet Co. Together, their training amounts to over 150 years of hands-on puppet experience. The Puppet Co operates in cooperation with the National Park Service, Montgomery County and the Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture which administers Glen Echo Park.

The Puppet Co Playhouse is a 250-seat theater which opened in May of 2004, and was designed and built from the ground up exclusively for the exploration of the Art of Puppetry. This resource to the Washington, DC area brings great music and literature to life for students, teachers and parents with live, fully-staged productions of some of the finest children’s theater in the country.

The Puppet Co has about 20 productions in repertory. Productions change approximately every six weeks with 8 – 12 performances each week, totaling about 475 performances each year. Besides our own work, we feature productions by other puppet companies about twice a year. Out Tiny Tots @ 10:00 performances are offered several times each month, and feature legendary puppet master Bob Brown. We have also inaugurated our first show for adults, “Playhouse Puppetry Slam” Our lobby exhibits present up close views of the works of various artists in the field, as well as our own work, on a rotating basis.