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Hi, Ping Pong Here...

I've been a member of The Olde World Puppet Theatre almost since it was founded in Beaverton Oregon in 1976 by Steven M. Overton. Our work has been seen in Hawaii, Canada, Egypt, Germany, England, and throughout the western United States. Our theatre is the recipient of five awards from national and educational organizations.

Many of our shows are performed in a style we developed called Maraku which uses marionettes in the Japanese Bunraku tradition, where the puppeteers appear on stage costumed in black, the puppet's shadows. This technique allows us to interact with and venture out into the audience.

All of the puppets on these pages* were designed and built by Steven M. Overton, a classically trained artist and Master Puppeteer (one of but a handful left in the world); and Martin Richmond (co-owner), who assists in their creation with neoprene work, mechanical mechanisms, stands, beams, etc. (* except for Ping Pong the Panda (me!) who was made by Phil Huber, but was rescued from oblivion and given life and love by us).

Most of our puppets are in 36" scale, or about 1/2 life-size. We do the preliminary drawings, sculpt the heads, hands, and feet, make the bodies, costume them, accessorize them (jewelery, etc.) build the beams, string them, and perform with them.

Usually, our puppets have heads, hands and feet made out of a self-hardening rubber compound called neoprene. However, The Cloth Doll Magazine contacted us to build an all-cloth marionette of Carmen Miranda, (which was featured on the cover) with building instructions which spread over five issues. You can see her in images #OWPT15, #OWPT16, and #OWPT23 above.

We have built puppets for clients both public and private, including several of the puppets for the children's video, Wee Sing Under The Sea, which we performed in as well. We also built puppets for the live stage show of the Hunchback of Notre Dame, at Disney World in Florida.

Our latest building projects are described here at the Puppet Museum in over 40 pages of detailed commentary and pictures. They are the building of the puppets for Perseus - Hero of Ancient Greece for the Tears of Joy Theatre in Portland, Oregon and the Quilly the Quail show for the Ojai California Land Concervancy. You can see these pages by clicking on the lobby button below and then clicking on the brown marble - Ping Pong's Puppet Workshop.

Our puppet exhibits have been seen at several national and regional puppeteer's conventions as well as the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (where we presented The Incredible, Fascinating, Wonderful World of Puppets).

Our latest exhibit was titled The Magic World of Puppets, at the Cannon Beach Historical Society, in Cannon Beach, Oregon. It featured over 250 puppets on display along with a series of puppet theatre performances. Many of the puppets shown in these pages were on exhibit there along with works from puppeteers around the Pacific Northwest and the rest of the world.

For more information on The Olde World Puppet Theatre, or its performances, please e-mail Steven M. Overton by clicking here.