We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Zachery Garner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Zachery , appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learned puppet manipulation and puppet building sort of at the same time. I can’t tell you exactly how I learned puppet manipulation (puppeteering), it just kinda happened… I would watch The Muppets, Fraggle Rock, and Sesame Street all the time as a kid and I guess I started making mental notes about lip sync and how to make a puppet look like it is walking and how to use arm rods. Then I would try to mimic what I saw using mirrors at first then eventually I would set up my Dads old tape recorder and practice my puppetry that way. Learning to build puppets was an entire other thing, I would search “how to make puppets” on Google, Youtube, and Yahoo for hours, and finding websites like ActivityTv.com where there were like 10 videos on puppet making taught by John Kennedy (works with Muppets, Sesame Street, etc.) from then I was off to the races. Every time I made a puppet I learned something new, or tried something new, continually “building” on what I have learned. Knowing what I know now, I would have asked more people more questions. Puppetry is a sort of an ambiguous word of mouth type of art form. I have learned so much about building and performing just by talking to people, and so now when I am teaching puppetry I encourage everyone to ask me every annoying question they have, because the sooner they understand the easier it is getting what’s in their head out, on the table as a finished puppet or in their performance. I think confidence is the most important skill for any creative. You have to have the confidence to start, to ask questions, to know that you will get better, and to ask for help. Confidence is not being cocky or conceited, it’s believing that you can do anything you want to, it just takes time. Also a basic understanding of geometry and algebra. I am pretty sure nothing stood in the way between me and what I wanted to learn. I was the right age when I started to really dive into puppetry. Me and the internet grew up together, so I had access to the whole world by the time I was 10. But if I had to pick something it would probably be money, but not having enough money to buy really nice fake fur or really good foam meant that I had to really use my creativity to make Walmart foam, cotton batting, cereal box cardboard, and grocery store bags work. Every obstacle I faced that I didn’t know was an obstacle made me a better performer, builder, and creative altogether.

Zachery , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hello I’m Zachery Garner, I am a Puppeteer, Puppet Builder and Designer. I started “wiggling the dollies” when I was probably about 6 years old, being inspired by the work of Jim Henson and Julie Taymor (puppet designer of Lion King on Broadway). I loved all the silliness of the Muppets, and the beautiful and striking designs of the Lion King puppets. When I was 8 the summer program I was part of took a field trip to a church to see a presentation of Anansi The Spider by Mesner Puppet Theater. At this point I had been making puppets and performing shows for my family for a year or two so I was very excited to see this show. During the show I laughed from beginning to end, I was crying I was laughing so hard. I think that show changed my brain chemistry, I felt like the whole show was being performed for me. Then after the show ended and I gathered myself, my Mom who ran the summer program took me up front to introduce me to the Puppeteers. I was genuinely starstruck when I met them, and after talking with them for a couple of minutes they invited me to a puppet camp that they did at the time. This began my long relationship with then Mesner Puppets Theater, Now What If Puppets. In 2022 I left What If Puppets in an official capacity to focus on what I wanted to create as an artist, but still do freelance work with them regularly.

I think what sets me apart from other puppet builders, is the look of my puppets. I am very inspired by animation and illustration. I love how they draw whatever without restrictions. In puppet building we have to figure out how we are going to make something as we design. So, I now think of myself as a character designer and puppet builder, doing both things at the same time, not worrying about how in the world I’m going to make this design work in three dimensions. I think that’s what makes my designs and puppets unique. My design philosophy is “if it looks good it’s good”. Then, when I actually start making the puppet I have the fun challenge of figuring out how to make everything work without making the puppet too heavy or too awkward to use. I am not always successful at making the perfect puppet, but after the smoke clears I will have learned something new, and only because I dared to try. It should also be said that every single builder, and designs I look up to, has taught ( directly and indirectly ) me to design and create fearlessly

Puppet building is not just about aesthetics it’s also about function, and I take a lot pride in making puppets that are comfortable to perform, as well as look good… most of the time.

My goal in puppet building, performing, designing is to make you feel something. I think a great character makes you feel something even before it talks.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I would say that there are two things I aim to do with puppetry and my art in general, 1.) I want to make work that spreads joy and embraces silliness. Silliness is an amazing way to reach people, it’s also incredibly contagious. When you were a kid being silly was all the rage, but as you became an adult being silly had to take a back seat. I want to inspire people of all ages to be as silly as possible for as long a possible. 2.) I want to highlight puppetry as a medium and not a genre! There are a lot of people who think that puppetry is a children’s medium that’s only good for teaching letters and numbers, and while that is all well and good, it is not the only thing that puppetry can do. Puppetry is able to tell all kinds of wonderful and diverse stories, like learning to shear on Sesame Street, discovering new worlds in The Dark Crystals, and tragic and triumphant ones like in the Life of Pi on Broadway. Puppetry can move people to tears, make them laugh hysterically, and teach everyone a thing or two.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I am still pretty early in my career and finding new resources all the time, but I have been fortunate enough to come across many wonderful resources for puppetry. There is the Puppeteers of America, that supports Puppet Theater all over the country. There are Puppetry Guilds in LA, San Diego, New York, Atlanta, and a bunch of other ones, they host workshops, slams and social events where you can get to know more puppet people. There’s also the Jim Henson Foundation that highlights and supports Theatrical Puppet works. They offer grants and residencies to help artists create and workshop new projects. There are even puppetry workshops that happen over zoom. Little Shadow Productions provides TV Puppetry workshops, Writing workshops, and Business workshops. There are tons of resources out there, you just got to look around.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sites.google.com/view/zachery-garner/home
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zacherythursday/

Image Credits

Headshot taken by Michael Stoufer

Photo of me working was taken by Meghann Henrey