I’ll Be Your Puppet on a String

Go ahead: Take cheap shots at puppeteers, see if they care. Puppet people rise above your negativity. They do noble storytelling work -- with children. What do you do for a living, huh? Work at the Gap? Does folding skinny jeans and cardigans give you the same inner joy as, say, holding strings attached to fabric characters that frolic whenever you flick your wrist? No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t even come close.

Maybe you should see how the other half live during Puppet Week, a solid week of enchanting puppetry hosted by Sugar Sand Park (300 S. Military Trail., Boca Raton). You’ll change your tune about puppeteering as a trade today and tomorrow when you encounter a magical world packed full of puppety goodness. On Friday see a collection of splendid shows called “Tales From a Mysterious Land,” where brave, dignified puppeteers display their mastery of all things felt (from hand puppets, to rod puppets, to masks and props) in order to tell three stories. For a full-force puppet onslaught, come back tomorrow and see the outdoor festival, featuring Ronin Taiko Drummers, giant puppets, a 45-foot Dragon dance, and, yes, roaming puppeteers. You’ll be so impressed by their talent that you’ll want to shake their hands, but don’t. The swarming children will think you’re trying to strangle the puppets, which will make this yet another puppet show from which you’ve been forcibly removed. Visit www.sugarsandpark.org.
April 11-12, 2008