St. John’s Prep Students Breathing Life Into Historic Puppets

COLLEGEVILLE (WJON News) -- History will come to life this weekend at St. John’s Prep.  Students at the school are putting on the puppet show Amahl and the Night Visitors in the historic Stephen B. Humphrey Theatre with puppets built in the 1960s.

The puppets were built by John and Lindy Wright in London for the opening of Queen Elizabeth Hall and are on permanent loan from the Little Angel Puppet Theatre. The 23 life-size puppets are animated by 17 student puppeteers and some of them need as many as three puppeteers to come alive.

Sophomore Axsel Newman is one of the three puppeteers for the lead character Amahl, she says it takes a lot of teamwork to bring Amahl to life:

"On the first day of rehearsal, we decided how we would coordinate the walking with going stick, leg, leg, and Erin using the arm to walk and it's really, it is  hard to coordinate using three people but we're pretty good at figuring it out."

Cerys John is another one of Amahl’s puppeteers and she says it can be grueling work:

"I mean you're on stage a lot so there's not a lot of time to rest but it's nice because, I don't know, it's the main character so I feel like you get a lot to work with from the music, like characterization, and it's just fun to be on stage."

The three puppeteers are on stage continuously for 55 minutes. Director Brandon Anderson says the details are important:

"Little things matter in this, in the puppet show, how the puppet turns its head just ever so slightly or if it raises its hand means a lot because they're not speaking that the voice is from someplace else."

Senior Erin Volker is Amahl's third puppeteer and says there are some advantages to being a puppeteer versus acting:

"We're able to make, since we're so far away from the audience we can talk a little bit and be like hey we're moving this way so it's been nice to have that as an option instead of being like a performer and not being able to whisper so it's been good."

Get our free mobile app

The show includes a choir and a full orchestra and over 100 students, alumni, and parents all take part in bringing it to life. The style of puppetry is called Black Art and the historic puppets only come out every four years for the showAmahl and the Night Visitors is showing Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. and tickets range from $10 to $20.

READ MORE FROM AUTHOR PAUL HABSTRITT:

• Award-Winning Brewing Company Bringing Its Beers To Minnesota
• Klingons To The Rescue In New Holiday Musical
• Table Talk Goes Mad With Druid City Games
• Frigid Dip Is Reward For Helping A Good Cause In Little Falls [PHOTOS]
• A New Microbrewery is coming to Paynesville
• Student’s New Who Done It Play Makes Debut At St. John’s Prep [PHOTOS]