Posted by Diane - November 11th, 2009
With the 40th Anniversary of Sesame Street now behind us, and this season underway, I wanted to share my thoughts about yesterday’s season premiere. Let me preface my thoughts by saying this: It’s been a long time since I watched Sesame Street from start to finish. I’ve watched segments, seen clips, and read reviews, but I hadn’t actually watched the program on TV in 15 years or more.
This was episode 4187. Yes, you read that right. The four thousand, one hundred and eighty-seventh episode. What causes a show, any show, to last that long? I think there are two answers.
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Tags: big bird, child development, curriculum, ernie and bert, google doodle, music, puppet, puppeteer, puppetry, Puppets, sesame street
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Posted by Diane - November 9th, 2009
There are those that believe that Sesame Street “jumped the shark” when Elmo “took over.” There are those that believe that the show has lost its edge, lost what made it special, now that Elmo is a central character. Change of any kind is difficult to deal with, and Elmo is change.
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Tags: Bert, big bird, cookie monster, curriculum, Elmo, google doodle, muppet, music, puppeteer, Puppets, sesame street, snuffy
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Posted by Diane - November 4th, 2009
Google helped Sesame Street celebrate it’s 40th Birthday today with a rather unusual (but charming) “Google Doodle.” And what better way to celebrate than with the show’s iconic character, Big Bird, providing the ”L” in the word ”Google?”
Forty years?! Wow! Just think about it. For forty years this show has been teaching children to count. To spell. To sing. To recognize letters and colors and shapes.
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Tags: ABCs, Bert, big bird, child development, curriculum, educational philosophy, educational tv, elementary school teacher, Elmo, google doodle, jim henson, public television, puppet, puppeteer, puppetry, Puppets, sesame street
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Posted by Diane - October 30th, 2009
The idea for StoryQuest Puppet Theatre actually came about several years ago. The concept for StoryQuest was a story within a story within a story. The general backstory involved a knight, Sir Quest, whose mission was to bravely seek out all of the stories, legends, and tales of the world to share.
Sir Quest was originally introduced in a poem that I wrote as potential lyrics to a song we hoped to use to open our shows. The song and the poem never actually ended up being used in performance, although we kept the concept as a backstory.
You can read the poem here.
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Tags: performance, puppet, puppet theatre, puppeteer, Puppets, storyteller, storytelling, tales of the world
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Posted by Diane - October 8th, 2009
If you’re looking for a simple project to introduce puppetry to a group, or just want to create good looking quick rod puppets as extras for a show, these simple rod puppets are just the thing.
The materials listed below are merely suggestions, as you can really do these puppets in many different ways and with lots of different materials, depending on your needs or your group’s skill level or project time.
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Tags: creating a character, dowel rod, dowel rods, hand puppet, puppet, puppet design, puppet making, puppeteer, puppetry, puppetry workshop, Rod Puppets, styrofoam head, theater
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Diane began performing as a puppeteer when she was only six years old. Her first marionette, Clippo the Clown, a gift from her Grandmother, accompanied Diane to school every year through college. As an adult, Diane began making and performing hand puppets. She writes the shows, fabricates the puppets and props, performs all of the puppetry, and even serves as her own lighting and sound engineer!
