Arts: Seriously, How Do You Get to Sesame Street?

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Explainer Seriously, How Do You Get to Sesame Street? How professional puppeteers learn their trade. By Brian Palmer Posted Wednesday, Apr 03, 2013, at 08:41 PM ET Jane Henson, the widow of Muppets creator Jim Henson, died on Tuesday. The couple met cute at a puppetry class at the University of Maryland in the 1950s. Do most puppeteers, like engineers or financiers, learn their trade in college? Not traditionally. There are a handful of opportunities for formal puppetry education. The Los Angeles–based Puppet School and performance arts colleges offer classes. The University of Connecticut, along with a few other universities, offers bachelor's and master's degrees in puppetry. Formal puppetry education has its advantages: It condenses a lifetime of practice into three or four years of intensive study, it builds a professional puppeteering network, and graduates have a slightly easier time finding work in Hollywood and on Broadway. But the programs are small—the University of Connecticut graduates just five or six puppeteers every year. The vast majority of professional puppeteers are either self-taught or learned the trade through an apprenticeship. Many television puppeteers were fascinated as children by the work of Jim Henson, watching every program Henson made about the art of Muppetry. (Henson's gift for speaking to children is obvious in those delightful shows. He said things like, "when you make a seam—that means when you sew two pieces together ...") They built their own puppets out of found materials and got their start on local television programs. Kevin Clash, who gained fame as the voice and hand behind Elmo but now faces charges of sexually abusing minors, is probably the most ... To continue reading, click here. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate To Save Everything, Click Here Forty Years Ago Today, Snarky Tech Journalists Made Fun of the First Cellphone Is Living in a Nuclear Evacuation Zone Good for You?	Advertisement
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