All About Muppets

Cheri VandenHeuvel is an actress, poet, and puppeteer who is known for acting in many theatres across America. As for puppetry, she serves as a member of GLOP (Glorious Ladies of Puppetry) and recently performed in Sketch Fest with GLOP meets GLOG (Glorious Ladies of Groundlings). Cheri is also in training with Henson's Puppet Up company, which means she could be one of the next women to work on the Puppet Up shows. VandenHeuvel is also an alumnus of The Second City-Detroit Mainstage as a teacher, writer, and performer of sketch comedy like Detroit Sandwich. Her theatre credits include King Lear, The Trojan Women, Around the World in 80 Days, To Kill a Mockingbird, and more. Some of the shows she did have got herself awarded like in Flyin' West, Low Hanging Fruit, and I Go Somewhere Else. Upon moving to Los Angeles, Cheri VandenHeuvel got brought into the world of puppetry with GLOP, meeting several female puppeteers such as Genevieve Flati, Peggy Etra, Kathryn Molloy, Adrian R...

Olive Blackham was a British puppeteer, director, author, and weaver who was best known for being one of the first puppeteers to appear on television in 1948. She was also best known for developing the Roel Puppets Theatre, active from 1932-1961. Olive is definitely one of the historical puppeteers in the world for she did her puppetry career way before Jim Henson created the Muppets. Blackham started out with her production The Ark, which inspired her to become a puppeteer in the first place and later went on to do Roel Puppets. Within Roel Puppets, she tested out some experimental ideas of hers and she even got tour her shows during World War II, that was a dangerous time for puppeteers. Some of the pre-war shows she did took place in theatres, music halls, and even schools, while post-war productions include Chester Miracle Plays, Hagoromo, Widecome Fair, The Proposal, and The Unwilling Martyr, just to name a few. In addition to working with puppets, Olive Blackham also wrote three ...

Kay Yasugi is an Australian puppeteer, puppet maker, illustrator, and teacher who has worked alongside her mother to form the studio Pupperoos. She participated in several international festivals and projects that involved puppetry like the Copenhagen Puppet Festival, Prague Quadrennial, and China Quanzhou International Puppet Festival. Kay has also made and performed puppets for stage and screen including Where is the Green Sheep, The Amazing House, The 13-Storey Treehouse, and more. Yasugi also made puppets for many school productions of the reenactment of famous films and theatrical shows. It's a pity she never worked with any Henson puppeteers from Australia, for she probably wasn't old enough to do Farscape or Bambaloo. Her website stated that she even got to write Korean folktales that were read out loud online by The Wiggles, via the Korean Cultural Centre. Kay Yasugi must have felt thrilled to write folktales for the legendary children's band. In 2024, she created a...

Faye Dupras is a Canadian puppeteer, puppet builder, writer, and producer who has been performing for over 20 years in the theatre industry. She is mostly known for being the founding Artistic Director of the company Cozy Arts since 2018, as well as doing puppet-based programming for schools. Prior to Cozy Arts development, Faye has worked with Brazilian puppeteer and storyteller Andi Rubinstein under the name Foreign Landscape Productions. Within the company, Dupras performed on various productions such as By the Willow, Bird's Eye View, Mama Light, Great Red Ball Rescue, and I Spy Butterfly, just to name a few. She also has experience in making puppets of all kinds, from mini rod puppets to large pageant puppets, each with its own thrilling challenges. She should consider introducing herself to the Henson Company, but that's just a thought, she has her own company to run. At Cozy Arts, Faye Dupras dedicated the company to creating original puppet projects and resources inviti...

Todd Stockman is an actor, ventriloquist, and puppeteer who is known for doing the latter two in film, kids television, theatre, and other venues. He hasn't really worked on any Muppet projects, but IMDb states he assisted on The Muppets Take Manhattan, which of course is false. Todd has however worked with four Muppet performers on the show Whirligig which were Nikki Tilroe, Alison Mork, Rick Lyon, and Bruce Edward Hall. Stockman also got to work alongside the legendary Muppet designer Kermit Love who acted, created, and directed on the series. Apart from Whirligig, he served as a ventriloquism consultant for the Nunsense franchise and the film Cradle Will Rock also puppeteering on that. I read on Muppet Wiki that he also wrote a cover story about Caroll Spinney being Big Bird in a 1989 article of The Puppetry Journal. Some of the other works Todd Stockman did include being principal performer for five MCI commercials as well as performing the ventriloquist dummy named Lenny. He a...

James Barton is a British puppeteer who served as an additional Muppet performer on both The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island. I don't know why he didn't do any other productions that involved Muppets. James also puppeteered on the films Little Shop of Horrors and Who Framed Roger Rabbit as well as two television projects known as Potty Time and Hogfather. Outside, Barton founded the puppetry group known as the Jactito Theatre Company in 1976, with his wife Joan Morris. With the group, he traveled throughout the UK and abroad performing adaptations of fairy tales and Shakespeare plays, the latter combining original text with moving images. Some of the places they performed at have included The Royal Opera House, The Barbican, The Royal National Theatre, and more. In addition to working alongside Morris with Jactito, James Barton also performed with David Barclay as he was one of the puppeteers who worked there. Other puppeteers he worked with throughout his car...