Natural Material Animal Puppets (Intergenerational / July 26-31)

Create unique, 3D animal puppets with natural materials found on the Folk School grounds using a collage-esq technique called assemblage. Bring regional Smoky Mountain creatures, like woodpeckers, lightning bugs, copperheads, and groundhogs, to life using materials from the woods, creeks, and countryside they call home. Part sculpture, part nature observation, and part puppetry and musical performance, experiment with puppeteering and give your creations a voice using a variety of instruments. $

PLEASE NOTE: This class is for 12-17 year olds to attend with a parent, grandparent, or guardian -- 1 youth per 1 adult. To register, you MUST purchase adult and youth spots as a pair, one youth per one adult: $670 (adult), $330 (youth), $1,000 (combined).

Gretchen Van Lente is the Artistic Director of Drama of Works (DOW), a freelance theater director and a full-time Special Education public school theater teacher. She has been working in the field of puppetry and visual theater since 1995. Since this time, outside of the over a dozen award-winning shows she has created with DOW, she has been a freelance director, designer, and teaching artist. She has taken DOW to over 11 international festivals, from as close as Canada, to as far as Indonesia. She was the youngest president of UNIMA-USA since Jim Henson when she served previously on the board and also served as an international councilor. She received her BFA in illustration from Parsons School of Design, her BA in theater from Eugene Lang College, an MFA in directing from Brooklyn College, and an MS in Education from Pace University.