Puppet master
By CORY YOUNG, 2/15/2006
John Cruncleton, part owner of the Nightingale Theater, will teach youths puppetry techniques during a 12-week puppetry class offered through the Youth Services of Tulsa. CORY YOUNG / Tulsa World
Performer to lead class through Youth Services of Tulsa
John Cruncleton has come a long way since his childhood, when he was afraid of his Bert and Ernie puppets from "Sesame Street."
"I used to sit them up, turn off the lights and stare at them until I was overwhelmed with terror. Then I'd run out of the room," he said.
Cruncleton, 31, said the early scares were an important lesson.
"In a way, it was a good initiation into the power of the puppet. Puppets are very uncanny," he said.
Cruncleton, part-owner of the Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. Fourth St., will teach an upcoming experimental puppetry studio for youths called "Art Soup" through the Youth Services of Tulsa's art studio program.
The studio will begin this week and run for 12 Saturdays at Youth Services of Tulsa.
Other studios offered in the Youth Services of Tulsa's spring session include mixed media painting; experimental photography; clay: methods and materials; screen printing; street art; and video art. All are for youths ages 12 to 18.
Youth Services of Tulsa is a nonprofit community agency that provides quality programs and services for the protection, education and positive development of youth, according to the Web site, www.yst.org.
Cruncleton specializes in shadow puppetry, which uses a light source to project a shadow on a screen. He will teach students various puppetry forms, including marionette, rod, standard and parade-style.
In the class, students will make three-dimensional and shadow puppets, he said.
"It's good for people who like to work with their hands," he said.
Scott Heberling, art program director at Youth Services of Tulsa, said Cruncleton came to him last year and said he wanted to help youths through the program.
"John and I have worked around each other for at least 10 years in local theater," Heberling said. "His puppetry is really amazing. I don't think the average person sees puppetry as an art form."
He said most people's idea of puppetry is Punch and Judy, hand puppets from England that hit each other.
"It's much larger, much more intense, and much more involvement than most people would think," said Heberling, who performed in a puppet show in July for a production called "Alcestis."
"I created a very large vulture puppet," Heberling said.
The experience was different than acting.
"You're not necessarily seen, but you are voicing and playing through the character's part. You are putting personality into the puppet and the situation the puppet is in," he said.
Although "Art Soup" is designed like a class, Cruncleton wants students to think as though they are professionals.
Class members can participate in a culminating puppetry performance.
"It's all about the performance we create," Cruncleton said. "What we'll end up with is a wide variety of terms of puppetry based on the personal appeal of each student."
PUPPETRY CLASS
What: "Art Soup," an experimental puppetry studio for youths 12 to 18 years old
When: The first of 12 sessions is scheduled for 2 to 3:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Youth Services of Tulsa, 311 S. Madison Ave.
Cost: $40, which includes supplies and materials for the 12 sessions.
For more: Call Scott Heberling at 382-4427.