We were lucky to catch up with Cedwan Hooks recently and have shared our conversation below.

Cedwan, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

So I build and design puppets, and I am also a puppeteer and voice actor. I grew up in Kansas City, KS where not much was happening in the way of film and TV production. My career path kicked off in my earliest years when I took interest in the TV puppetry of the 90s. Barney was at the center, and other shows followed like Gullah Gullah Island, The Puzzle Place and of course Sesame Street. My sister, in a moment of frustration from my incessant Barney watching, revealed to me that Barney was a person in a costume, thinking that would kill my interest in the show. Of course, that had the opposite effect.

A domino effect took place where I was questioning how every puppet show was done. My mother made sure I saw as much theater and puppetry as possible. In one instance I remember her calling when Barney was in town on tour and asking if there were backstage passes available. She kept me in art camp each summer, her support was amazing. My Aunt Brenda made a Barney costume for me for Halloween and, looking back, she did a pretty good job of guessing how the real suit was made.

As I got older and was able to use the internet, I made contact with every person in the industry that I could get ahold of. Some answered, some didn’t. But those that did answer gave advice that set me in the right direction. Discretion was one of those things. I learned that when you’re given access to privileged information you have to be able to hold water. So much in entertainment is confidential, especially when it comes to creating living characters for children’s entertainment (children believe in those characters!), so that was a valuable thing to learn early on. I learned to be a sponge when I was in rooms of opportunity where people were doing what I wanted to be doing. And when I shared my performances, and puppets that I had built, I learned… that I had a lot left to learn.

I customized my high school electives to be classes that were becoming to the things I was interested in. I was in all of the theater classes, I was in the advanced Radio/TV Production class where I produced the school district’s local TV news program, and I was in DECA. I began an internship at the Paul Mesner Puppets in Kansas City where I performed in shows and built puppets. Paul Mesner, Mike Horner, Spencer Lott and traveling puppeteers that passed through the theater with their own shows were generous with their knowledge. Lauren Mayeux, who played Baby Bop on Barney and Friends, was a major online mentor. She had a diverse entertainment background and a unique perspective.

I had a self-imposed emphasis on learning the technical skills involved with designing and building complex character costumes and puppets. No one was teaching that on the level I wanted, so it was largely up to me to glean what I could from the little information that was available online, and to teach the rest to myself. I got the look of my characters to the level where they photographed well, even though their internal structures were a mess. I would remedy that part later down the road.

Looking back, I wish I had more hunger for the knowledge needed to be a performer with iron clad instincts. I learned eventually, but I took longer than others. I did a little bit college because I knew exactly what my lane was and how I wanted to do it. For me, I think it was a good decision.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have a few lanes. I’m a puppeteer, puppet designer, writer, and voice actor. I operate a small business, Characters Inspired, where I build custom puppets and costume characters for film, TV, and theme parks. I also work freelance as a performer and writer.

On the performance side of things, I am a trained television puppeteer who has had the fortune of working on a litany of amazing projects. I frequently work with Aflac to bring their hyperrealistic duck to life for their campaigns. The Curse of Bridge Hollow on Netflix with Marlon Wayans was the first movie I puppeteered on. I play Percy the Rooster, the spokesperson for Primrose Schools along with his friend, Og the Bookworm. I’ve also been a puppeteer on Donkey Hodie and Albie’s Elevator, both shows on PBS Kids. There’s nothing like having the pleasure to work with a production to create a character, then seeing that character appear in a program that audiences watch the world over. Crafting a character as a performer is a delight, because you start with what is on the page via the script, and use it to inform who your character is. It’s your job to fill in the gaps and imagine why your character is the way that they are, how they carry themselves and what kind of voice might come out of them. The recent privilege I’ve had of working as a voice actor for animated shows was a natural progression.

As a designer/builder with my company Characters Inspired, my clients are typically a company that is looking to have a physical character created to represent their brand. Sometimes, the character is made to appear in a TV series, or commercials as a spokesperson. Other times a character is made to appear in an immersive theatrical experience like a theme park, where guests will meet them in person. In any case, our goal is always to create a product that looks like a living, breathing character in whatever style best serves the story. Stylistic design choices are usually informed by the creative goals and visual language within the story the client is telling.

In the case of the off-Broadway play “demons.” by Keelay Gipson, Danily was written as a demon sent to haunt a black family after their patriarch dies. Grief after the death of a parental figure is a funny thing. It can bring back vivid memories and feelings from childhood. This was the thought process behind the design of Danily. In his case, it made sense to design him in a way that evoked the imagery of childhood. Despite the malevolent mission he was sent on, he feels like a familiar entity, so he was a giant furry maroon and yellow creature with frowning eyebrows and blinking purple eyelids. Visually he was as alien to this family as the feeling of grief is after a family member passes on. The play was a true exercise in collaboration, as I collaborated with Keelay and his team from very early in the play’s production. We created Danily’s look and function from whole cloth (pun absolutely intended) using the written word of the play as our source material. The puppet design in that show earned me a positive mention in the New York Times!

In another application, we are currently building a costume character version of a spokesperson of a medicine company. This character will be seen on social media posts, and it will make appearances at trade shows. Duplicates of the character are being sent to both coasts. This summer we also completed puppet versions of Spookley the Square Pumpkin that were sent out to several attractions across the United States. We’ve got rental sets of Audrey Twos for Little Shop of Horrors going out to different productions beginning next year! Keep an eye out for those!

At the center of my passion for everything I do is storytelling. On WonderMore, a children’s program with InTouch Media, I worked as a staff writer for several episodes. For me, this brought into focus so many of the core tenets of storytelling. I had series concepts of my own that I’d been pitching, and working as a staff writer for an existing series really polished my skillset in that regard.

At the end of the day, designing, performing, and writing are all in place to serve the story that is being told. Story is integrated at every level of what we do, from fabric choices, to what a character says, to the way a character walks. What sets me apart as an artist is that I am in the middle of the Venn diagram of these disciplines. Because of my performer’s perspective, my puppets and wearable characters are designed for optimum movement and functionality. Because of my perspective as a designer, those same puppets have a beautiful exterior finish. The design perspective also informs my performances as a puppeteer, because I know the limitations and freedoms of how the instrument I’m using can move, and how it can be rigged to do amazing things. Writing as a skill gives you the bird’s eye view of what it means to tell a good a good story, and bring all of these elements together in harmony with one another.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

As a child, what drew me to show business was the magical, transcendent air it has, particularly in children and family entertainment. It turns chaos into poetry, and for a moment we put aside our cynicism and believe that fanciful characters walk among us like talking animals and dragons. Play is conducive to good storytelling, and what that really means is relearning what you knew as a child. That is my goal within my work, to approach each project stripped of my preconceived notions and be ready to entertain every possibility. In that headspace is where we find new ways to tell fresh stories.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of my work is having the chance to see audiences react to what I’ve helped create. It’s pretty cool that more often that not, my contribution to any given story is a “wow moment” onstage or onscreen. Live performances are the best, because I get to be with an audience and hear their reactions in real time.

A huge goal of mine was to have the opportunity to perform in front of a live audience on Broadway. In April of this year, I got the chance to do that with a run of the show “Aanika’s Elephants” by Annie Evans and Marty Robinson. Looking back, it is still surreal that it ever happened. The happy faces of families out in that crowd will live in my memory forever.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.charactersinspired.com, https://www.cedwan.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cedwanhooks/