PERRY, Ga. — Students in Perry High School's theater department are state champions and their work is far from over. They're now launching a new puppet show series, and the director went above and beyond to make it happen.
It's not the first time the school's theater arts students used puppets. Director Joe Sendek is taking a different approach for their upcoming series.
"This one is something that's completely created in-house, and it's something that we're trying to do to reach elementary school kids and give them something that they can watch, even in the classroom, repeatedly about positive behaviors and ways to interact with one another," Sendek said.
They're planning to do 20 episodes. Each will be about five minutes long. These students are writing the scripts and performing, and they're also crafting the puppets by hand.
"We do everything. We pour the puppets' eyes with resin. Everything is cut out of foam and glued together and mouth plates are made out of old plastic bins and masking tape. So, it's just fun for me to make them and for them to learn how to make them, and also for us to learn how to manipulate them," Sendek said.
Logan Jacobs is an 11th grader who won Best Actor at the state competition. Jacobs says teamwork plays a big part of puppet acting.
"You have one person controlling a head in one hand, and then you have another person working the other hand, and so you really have to work with that other person, because if you have two hands doing completely different things, then it doesn't really look right," Jacobs said.
Jacobs and Sendek say voice and technique make a good puppet actor.
"I've never really worked with puppets before, so I've been having to think of okay well, let's not make all of our puppets sound like Elmo, or sound the exact same," Jacobs said.
Sendek has a word for anyone who may think puppets aren't really their "thing."
"We still watch films that have puppetry in them and you can respect that as an art form, so we can smile and say, 'Oh I'm too old for puppets.' But no one's too old for puppets," he said.
Perry High School's theater department took home state titles in One Act, Best Actor, Best Actress, and a regional award for their literary performance.