LongHouse Reserve – Puppet-Making Workshop with Kim Profaci, The Modern Marionette

Kim’s workshop will begin with an introduction to puppetry, its history, and its significance as a global art form. Participants will be led through a step-by-step process to make their own scarf marionette using custom-made controls, learn how to make basic movements, and perform for others.

Kim will provide fabric; participants are also welcome to bring their own lightweight fabric measuring 12″ x 12″. The celebration of puppetry continues with a performance featuring a variety of custom-made scarf marionettes. Participants will see first-hand how a piece of fabric can come to life and tell a story.

The workshop will conclude with Kim sharing and demonstrating some of her other original scarf marionettes. For all ages (we recommend children under 12 be accompanied by an adult) About The Modern Marionette Kim Profaci and The Modern Marionette Company have been capturing the imaginations­ of the young and the old, and everyone in between, for over 20 years. The craft of puppet-making and the art of teaching and performing come naturally to Kim.

She was raised in Irvington, New York in a highly creative family of artists and educators. In modern dance class, she developed a fascination for movement and an understanding of body language and nuance that is central to puppetry. Kim envisions and builds the puppets, props, and sets using every imaginable resource. Driftwood becomes a puppet’s limbs, blades of grass morph into a praying mantis, and scarves take on a life of their own. She adapts classic stories and has even developed her own take on music legend Elvis Presley. With the right inspiration, Kim and her marionettes can bring magic to any character and tell any tale.

As she says, “It’s a great joy for me to inspire children to want to create for themselves. And to watch adults look on with a sense of wonder is a special experience all its own.” Modern Marionette is based in New Jersey and Long Island, NY and is available to perform and present hands-on workshops at schools, museums, libraries, and community events. Audiences range from very young children who fall in love with the puppets to memory care residents who respond to the music and the storytelling with remarkable vigor.