Bob Baker Marionette Theater (BBMT) has made its return here at Heart of LA! In the summer of 2024, BBMT worked with students to channel their emotions and imaginations into visual storytelling through character and costume design. With the help of puppet builder Karina De La Cruz and production manager Daisy Hernandez, students created their own marionettes by hand and made their debut performances at the end of the five-week program.

This summer, Bob Baker Marionette Theater has returned to help students dive deeper into the art of performance and puppetry. As representative artists with years of expertise in puppetry, Karina and Daisy know what it takes to put on a show. Over the course of five weeks, students will gain exposure to a number of processes that are integral to performance-based and visual storytelling.

For more information about Bob Baker Marionette Theater click here.

WEEK 1

INTRO TO STORYTELLING

BBMT’s representative artists kicked off this five-week residency with an in-depth introduction to not only the core elements of storytelling (such as setting, cast, and themes) but also why we tell stories.

To start off, students developed their short stories through quick sketches and writing. Daisy Hernandez and Karina De La Cruz picked their brains as they jotted down keywords to describe their plots and sketched out preliminary character designs.

This exercise eased students into the storytelling process, allowing them to determine which ideas they wanted to further explore over the next several weeks. Throughout the casual drafting activity, students' imaginations could run wild without the worries of perfecting their stories quite yet.

Next, students were split into four distinct groups that will perform together at the end of the artist residency. Tasked with creating a story that they will later act out with their own marionettes, the groups came together to workshop and synthesize their ideas. Filled with plenty of laughter and curiosity, this process generated more ideas and conflicts to arise for each unique cast of characters.

WEEK 2

THE PLOT THICKENS

Karina and Daisy worked with students to focus on developing specific themes in their storylines and character development. Providing them with examples like "IDENTITY" and "LOVE and/or REVENGE", the two representative artists encouraged students to explore tension or conflict in storytelling to communicate overarching messages to their audience.

The groups gathered once again to tease out the final versions of their stories. This time, students learned how to utilize storyboarding to establish and map out key scenes and transitions throughout a plot line.

Students began by working on their individual iterations of their group stories. Their storyboards included dialogue and important details for setting.

After some time of working on their own, students were instructed to cut out each of their scenes captured in their storyboards. Each group then brought their fragmented scenes together and played with the sequence of events to finalize their narratives. This process was especially helpful for students who are drawn more to visual forms of storytelling.

It was really interesting to see how every group workshopped their stories to ensure that everyone's visions were included in the final version.

WEEK 3

PLAYING DRESS UP

Another representative artist from BBMT who specializes in Puppet Fabrication came in to support students in puppet building. Each student worked on their marionette's design, working first on paper and later moving onto fabric.

Using hot glue and assorted fabric, students took the lead on dressing up their marionettes. Some students used acrylic paint to color their marionettes, too.

WEEK 4

DRESS UP CONTINUED AND SETTING THE SCENE

In the penultimate week of Bob Baker’s residency students continued to style their character’s clothes, hair, and faces! They used yarn to create wigs and felt to create wings for animal puppets.

Daisy and Karina, with the help of students and interns, also created the backdrops for the stories students created. Each group was consulted and their chosen setting was handpainted on large pieces of paper they could perform in front of. Some of the stories took place over multiple locations, so the backdrops were divided into three different pictures!

After the busy day, students are ready to rehearse their stories for their performance next week!

WEEK 5

MAKING MOVES AND SHOWTIME

During the Bob Baker Team’s last full day, they led students through the mechanics of moving, walking, and gesturing through their characters via a marionette control bar. The students used these techniques to bring stage directions and dialogue from their stories to life. At the end of the day they were prepared for their performance on Friday.

On the fateful day of the performance (Friday) HOLA staff, students, and parents headed to The Bob Baker Marionette theatre to see the students perform their stories! 

Daisy and Karina, along with other Bob Baker performers, put together a showcase of different puppets and musical numbers to give the crowd a taste of what the theatre had to offer! HOLA students then got to perform their group stories to the crowd of their parents and peers. Each story was met with cheers, laughs, and gasps from the audience as each student got to show off their characters. After the show, the audience and performers took pictures, ate pizza, and had ice cream. It was a wonderful way to close out our summer program!