It's Time to Light the Lights

Oh my friend inspired me to write about yes, the MUPPETS.  Do you remember when the Muppets first happened?? I do, I was in second grade and that little weekly reader talked about THE MUPPPETS. I am sure if you google you can find the first show. The Muppets have been a part of my life since I was in second grade but right after second grade I would have to take a break from any of the shows because I was headed overseas, and so for my 3rd and 4th grade of life, NO MUPPETS.

There is one Muppets movie that I remember the excitement when my sister saw the commercial. She loved Miss Piggy. In this movie they add a special effect (yes this was the 80's) Miss Piggy has bubbles coming from HER NOSE. She's underwater, and swimming.

The Muppets have added so much to our entertainment. My highschool years of singing, "The Rainbow Connection". All my friends in the Muppet gang, and more were part of my growing up years.

Yoda, who could forget the brilliance of this puppet and all the things the art work added to in the Star Wars series of the 80's. Something was lost when the creator of these characters died. I cried, knowing Jim Henson was gone and with him many happy memories of creatures.

Somewhere along the way, I went behind the scenes and learned about the power in the creation part of muppeting. I also learned how much work it is. A full time job if one is to film it the way one wants to, getting those creatures to become human is not as easy as they make it. Hours must be spent to get things the way one creates the being in ones mind.

I've only done a few shows with puppets, it isn't easy. I started and realized the power in puppets when I was about 17 and working at a pre-school. You can terrify a three year old with just the sight of a puppet. Being able to come out from behind a puppet show and share with the child what is real and what is fake is a gift. You can't see this from a television screen.  The key of a child overcoming this fear is often their relationship with you. Puppets can be a great teaching tool.

One of the wonders of puppetry is they can speak another language with the hit of a switch. You just need to know the timing of the tape (ahem now that would be CD or whatever you use.) Although my puppeteers could speak Korean and English, I could not. I found local Bible stores and purchased CD's in Korean. Our puppets did the entertaining to their own language, as we visited orphanages and anywhere asked to perform.

One I was in USA, I learned of Puppet Productions and One Way Street (now called Creative Ministry Solution). I enjoyed visiting Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. Colleges have puppet degrees? yes, they do. For years I stood in front of a puppet screen watching puppeteers achieve the levels of puppeteers. All this began with probably Sesame Street, but that scholastic reader in second grade first told me about The Muppets. Time to find that first show on youtube.