Get out of your head and into your hands in this fun puppet improv class taught by veteran improviser and puppeteer Sarah Nolen. Participatory games and a crash course in hand-and-rod style puppet manipulation will get everyone moving and creating right away. We’ll learn idea-generation skills and scene-building techniques in pursuit of our ultimate mission: to create amazing long-format puppet sketches and zany solo performances with zero scripting or prior preparation. Along the way, we'll discover the outrageous possibilities of puppet and object theater for the stage, find new ways to generate character ideas, learn strategies for supporting scene partners, and build confidence in our puppetry. A great class for puppet fans, improvisers, interdisciplinary artists, and anyone looking to jumpstart their creativity.

Recommended for adults 18+

About the Instructor

Sarah Nolen is a puppeteer and filmmaker originally from Austin, Texas. As Puppet Showplace Theater’s resident artist, she performs regularly for youth and family audiences and teaches puppetry in camps, workshops, residencies, and evening adult classes. Her three original productions, The Fairy Tailor, Judy Saves the Day, and Lisa the Wise, are all available to tour. Sarah recently designed puppets for Wee the People's My Night in the Planetarium, Metropolitan Chorale's The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore, and for Suffolk University's Loss of Breath: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe. She is currently directing a production for UNIMA-USA featuring puppeteers from across the North American continent that will be performed in Bali this spring at the World Puppetry Festival.

In addition to her work in puppetry, Sarah is an experienced filmmaker. In 2015, she received the Mister Rogers Memorial Scholarship in support of her television pilot Treeples, a show geared towards empowering girls, which screened at film festivals across the U.S.

Sarah earned her BFA in film from Southern Methodist University, and an MFA in Puppet Arts from the University of Connecticut.