All About Muppets

Thom Stanley is a puppeteer, puppet builder, and choreographer who served as a "Right Hand Man" for Muppets from Space, choreographing arm movements and assisting. A native of Atlanta, he trained with the Henson Company around the '90s proposed Disney merger, where he studied under Steve Whitmire and Kevin Clash. Thom also worked with Peter Linz when he did his first paid puppetry project, which was a video for the United Way. Outside of the Muppets, Stanley both built and performed puppets for many short films and pilots like Maiden to Monster, Magic the Gathering: The Musical, and Freestyle Love Supreme, to name a few. I've read that he even choreographed puppets on the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2007. He was also seen as a regular performer in the Puckin Fuppet Show, part of the National Puppet Slam Network. Thom Stanley seems to be more well known outside of the Muppets since he only assisted in one f...

Georges Mosca is a French artist and puppeteer who performed the Grouch character Mordicus on 1, Rue Sesame, the French co-production of Sesame Street. The only two puppeteers he worked with was Lucien Morisse and Catherine Coste who did Toccata and Trepido respectively. After the show ended production in 1982, Georges became a freelance artist in the Languedoc region of France. Mosca has been sculpting lots of things out of clay, metal, wood, and even bronze. It's a pity he never did any other projects in France involving puppetry. Though he was probably more interested in sculpting rather than puppetry in my opinion. I wonder if Georges Mosca is also a musician since the picture above shows him playing a guitar, though his page on the Muppet Wiki doesn't say anything. He is apparently one of those many puppeteers to also be a sculptor; others have included Kamela Portuges, Bruce Schwartz, Jess Nelson, and Ron Mueck. Maybe someday, he'll be a sculptor in a French puppet wo...

Emily DeCola is a puppeteer, puppet creator, director, and therapist who is known for her work with puppets. Perhaps she is well known for being one of the co-founders of the Puppet Kitchen, alongside Eric Wright and Michael Schupbach. For television, Emily performed on many shows like LazyTown, Johnny and the Sprites, Moonfishing, and Katalog, to name a few. As for theatre, DeCola has done a whole lot of theatrical productions such as The Tempest, Carrie, HATS! The Musical, and more. In the past, she received several grants, including one from the Jim Henson Foundation. She may not have actually worked with Sesame Street, but she has worked with many performers who have, including the co-founders of the Puppet Kitchen. Some of the performers Emily DeCola worked with include David Matthew Feldman, Julie Westwood, and Jodi Eichelberger. In later years, she went on to do social work such as therapy, but she still works with the Puppet Kitchen for many productions. She is one of the many ...

Ruth Danziger is a Canadian puppeteer and storyteller who is most well known for storytelling all over Canada. She was also the puppeteer of Annie on Mr. Dressup in the later years until 1996. Ruth may not have done any Muppet projects in Canada, but she has worked with Sesame Park performers such as Bob Dermer, Nina Keogh, Karen Valleau, and Jani Lauzon. Danziger also performed with Jim Parker who also hasn't done a project involving Muppets. Apart from puppetry, she did lots of storytelling for storytelling gatherings and festivals, not to mention facilitating workshops for community groups like Afrofest and Spiral Garden. She has even been an educator, working to develop curricula for primary school teachers and editing two story collections. Despite all of that, Ruth Danziger should have done at least one Canadian Muppet project or even assisted on Sesame Park when she had the chance. But she was probably more occupied with her storytelling career as well as performing on Mr. D...

Judith Lawrence is an Australian-born Canadian puppeteer, author, and activist who was best known for her work on Mr. Dressup (as Casey and Finnegan). Her characters started off on the Butternut Square TV series before transitioning to Mr. Dressup. Judith has been performing opposite of Ernie Coombs from the beginning to 1989, the year she retired from puppeteering on the show. Lawrence also wrote many books within The Young Canada Reading Series as well as a series of books for D.C. Heath. But she is perhaps most well known for being an activist too, for she co-founded The Voice of Women in the 1960s. She continued her peace and feminist views through newspapers. But perhaps the biggest achievement of Judith Lawrence was being awarded the Order of Canada in 2001 as both a puppeteer and activist. It's a pity she retired from Mr. Dressup in 1989, for she was doing wonderful as Casey and Finnegan over the years. Her characters were retired as well and replaced with newer puppets unti...