Wednesday Troupe poses with Jeghetto and their Cheshire Cat puppet.
Jeghetto shows students how to add whiskers to their Cheshire Cat puppet.
During this past week, Theatre Adventure had the great fortune to work with the talented puppeteer and educator Jeghetto, who hails from North Carolina. Because of the generosity of Sandglass Theater and the Vermont Arts Council, an exciting new collaboration was forged with our neighboring theater colleagues.
Noah touches the face of Jeghetto’s T-Rex puppet.
Our work with Jeghetto was an innovative project to help broaden our students’ experience with puppetry and to strengthen our ties with the public schools of some of the Wednesday Troupe members. Working with Jeghetto was a great opportunity for our artists to work with puppetry and art in new ways.
Online students show off their Cheshire Cat puppets.
Jeghetto’s shares his T-Rex puppet with online students participating in Zoom.
Jeghetto posing with Twin Valley Students holding their Cheshire Cat puppet.
“Our Community-Based Program has been participating in Theatre Adventure programming for several years. This week, famous puppeteer Jeghetto came to Twin Valley Middle High School and helped the students construct this fabulous Cheshire Cat. Thanks for all you do for us and our kiddos. It was so fun! What a treat to be able to work so closely with an amazing artist.”
-Twin Valley Middle High School
“Thank you all for coming to our class today at the Academy School. The students were talking about it all day! We are looking forward to seeing the “Alice in Wonderland” performance in the spring.” - Academy School Teacher
Jeghetto and the students attach the tail to the Cheshire Cat puppet.
Thursday Troupe students work at a long craft table assembling their self-portraits
The Thursday Troupe was guided in the building of self-portraits created with cardboard and cut-out facial features. What magic it was to witness twenty different and unique self-portraits emerge during the workshop with Jeghetto.
Because Theatre Adventure programming is designed in a hybrid format, all of the work with Jeghetto was adapted to work well for our online students. Each online actor created their own Cheshire Cat, as the in-person class worked together on one very large Cheshire Cat. And, each online artist made a self-portrait alongside the in-person artists.
What are some of the results of our work with Jeghetto? We expanded our group teamwork skills and developed stronger connections with our collaborating public schools. We deepened our students’ understanding of their forthcoming productions while experiencing new opportunities for creative self-expression with a variety of puppet-building materials. And, maybe most importantly, we had bundles of fun and laughter while visiting the schools, and during our own hybrid theater classes.
The power inherent in creating art and building puppets as a community was evident all week. Everyone worked hard, played hard, and felt proud of themselves and each other. What a delight!
Jeghetto and Paul show each other their self-portraits.