About Us...

The year was 1969. Roger Dennis and Bob Vesely, known as The Poppinjay Puppets, held a two day picnic in Solon, Ohio and invited all their puppeteer friends. Over fifty puppeteers arrived to spend the weekend, performing and partying as puppeteers tend to do. It was surprising to Bob and Roger to see how many local (Cleveland, Akron, Canton, Lorain) puppeteers joined the fun. During the next year the group made plans to form a guild. In 1971 more than fifteen people met as a guild for the first time and applied to Puppeteers of America for a charter. PGNO soon became one of the most active guilds in the United States. In the decade of the seventies, there were nine professional troupes (or solos) working in the Cleveland area; The Poppinjay Puppets (Roger Dennis, Bob Vesely), Melchior Marionettes (Erica Melchior), Clad Hands Puppets  (Greg Sager, Dave Stone) Archie Elliot's Puppets, Small World Puppets (Jean Jenkins), The Joy Puppeteers (Nancy Sander, Linda Wells) Ball and Cooper Puppets (Suzanne Cooper, Helenmary Ball), The Once-Upon-A-Time Puppet Theater (Eugene & Alina Nahum) and our most gifted of all, George  Latshaw. There was even a junior guild with seven junior members. Not all guild members were professionals. There were librarians, teachers, storytellers, church affiliated folks and even one who worked with special needs children. At their largest, over thirty members regularly attended their monthly meetings.  In 1979 "Pignosers" (the nickname given us by the Detroit Guild) launched its first National festival, held at Kent State University. This was a three day festival for all the guilds in the Great Lakes Region. Regional festivals are held every other year; the alternate years have a national festival.  The second festival, in the early nineties, that Pignosers sponsored was held at the Marriott Hotel in North Royalton. But their most ambitious festival  was the national festival held at the University of Toledo. This festival, headed by Chuck and Joyce Berty (Berty Craft Puppets), is considered one of the finest festivals P of A ever held. As the guild members aged, retired or moved south, the guild floundered until finally, we ground  to a halt, meeting only at Pokagon.  Now there is new energy arriving to the guild and a new group of Pignosers have met to carry on our tradition. 

Mission Statement;

To perform, learn, educate, explore, and share the art of puppetry!