A Puppeteering Legacy Endures

Each week in our Saturday Supplement we re-post an entry of interest to both residents of the Washington area and visitors to DC that first appeared in another publication's web site.

Alban Odoulamy has been running Puppet Heaven, or puppet shops by other names, in Crystal City for 18 years, but his heart isn’t in it like it used to be.

Odoulamy emigrated to the U.S. in the mid-1990s from the small, French-speaking West African country ofBenin, where he had worked in production and set design for children’s programming for the state-owned television station. He had been formally trained in Marionette puppetry — the puppets controlled by strings — and worked under a master puppeteer until he came here, where he worked as a concierge for Charles E. Smith before its merger with Vornado.

A year after starting his new job in his new country, he saw a vacant shop in a nearby alley and decided to turn it into his own puppet store and workshop, calling it La Marionette. The shop has moved and changed names twice before finding a permanent home in the Shops at 1750 Crystal Drive, as Puppet Heaven.

To continue reading this post, which 1st appeared in Arlington Now, click here.

Friday Flashback - Puppetry @The Smithsonian

This post 1st appeared in The Prices Do DC last month. It makes an appropriate Friday Flashback entry since this weekend our grandkids Audrey and Owen are visiting us from Atlanta and we will be taking them to see this exhibit, as well as a special workshop on puppetry.

Puppetry is one of the oldest types of performance art in America. Now, at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, a new exhibition traces the history of the subject from colonial times to the TV shows of today.

Early American hand puppets

The earliest traditions of puppetry were established by immigrants from Great Britain, France, and Italy who traveled from town to town putting on street and park performances. In the early 20th Century, puppets and their puppet masters became an integral part of vaudeville stage performances across the country.

In the 1930s, Edgar Bergen and his sidekick Charlie McCarthy brought the idea of puppetry to the new media of radio. In 1969, Jim Henson and his staff brought the Muppets to the children's show Sesame Street. With Kermit, Oscar, and the beloved duo of Bert and Ernie, puppet popularity encountered an explosion which continues to today. In fact, it was the donation of 21 of Henson's most beloved creations to the museum in October of last year which paved the way for the current exhibition.

The California Raisin made sure they were heard through the grapevine in 1986

The exhibit, which delights youngsters of all ages, examines puppets from the beginnings of America until today. Included are examples of:

• Asian shadow puppets
• hand puppets
• marionnettes 
• paper puppets
• ventriloquist's puppets
• finger puppets 
• stop-motion puppets and
• Muppets

But no matter what the type of puppet is used, the art of puppetry really depends on 3 factors: a puppet, the imagination of a manipulator, and an audience willing to suspend belief and accept the puppet as "real."

Youngsters who get excited about the exhibit, can indulge their puppetry fantasies at the special gift shop

Puppetry Now at the Smithsonian

Puppetry is one of the oldest types of performance art in America. Now, at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, a new exhibition traces the history of the subject from colonial times to the TV shows of today.

Early American hand puppets

The earliest traditions of puppetry were established by immigrants from Great Britain, France, and Italy who traveled from town to town putting on street and park performances. In the early 20th Century, puppets and their puppet masters became an integral part of vaudeville stage performances across the country.

In the 1930s, Edgar Bergen and his sidekick Charlie McCarthy brought the idea of puppetry to the new media of radio. In 1969, Jim Henson and his staff brought the Muppets to the children's show Sesame Street. With Kermit, Oscar, and the beloved duo of Bert and Ernie, puppet popularity encountered an explosion which continues to today. In fact, it was the donation of 21 of Henson's most beloved creations to the museum in October of last year which paved the way for the current exhibition.

The California Raisin made sure they were heard through the grapevine in 1986

The exhibit, which delights youngsters of all ages, examines puppets from the beginnings of America until today. Included are examples of:

• Asian shadow puppets
• hand puppets
• marionnettes 
• paper puppets
• ventriloquist's puppets
• finger puppets 
• stop-motion puppets and
• Muppets

But no matter what the type of puppet is used, the art of puppetry really depends on 3 factors: a puppet, the imagination of a manipulator, and an audience willing to suspend belief and accept the puppet as "real."

Youngsters who get excited about the exhibit, can indulge their puppetry fantasies at the special gift shop