Asheville Puppetry Alliance

Asheville Puppetry Alliance was founded to bring puppetry in all its forms to Western North Carolina. The organization emerged when several nationally known puppeteers settled in this area. APA was established to celebrate puppetry, an art form that is ancient, contemporary, ever evolving and enjoyed by all ages in all cultures. We promote puppetry by educating our public about the origins and development of the art form and introducing them to a variety of puppet styles. We also act as an umbrella organization for artists in Western North Carolina and beyond, to produce new works.

Since receiving our non-profit status in 1998 we have produced shows for both adult and children's audiences. In our first ten years we produced nine seasons of our Young Audience Series, held at the Diana Wortham theater in downtown Asheville, NC. The 2008-2009 season will mark our tenth anniversary of providing quality educational programs and family entertainment for Western North Carolina.

The Alliance has hosted two major festivals for Puppeteers of America. The first, Puppets On the Ridge in 2004, was a regional festival for the Southeastern states. In 2006 we hosted Supersonic, the tri-regional festival, for the entire East coast of America. Other events include sponsoring Debra Brown, the choreographer for Cirque du Soliel, to lead a community based workshop on Creativity, and co-sponsoring Pamella O'Connor's Anatomy of Melancholy,an adult puppet performance.

In 2003 we began an ongoing collaboration with the Southern Highlands Craft Guild's Folk Art Center and with the Carolina Guild of Puppetry to sponsor a National Day of Puppetry to coincide with other celebrations across the country. This year, this will be dovetailed into a Grand Puppet Gala May 9, 2009.

 We held our first annual Puppetry Slam in 2007. Six workshop sessions were offered to students, teachers, actors, and anyone interested in creating a mini-puppet show. These were followed by two public performances at the Bebe Theater where the three-to-ten minute creations were debuted.

HEARTFELT AND CONTINUING GRATITUDE

We have been able to do many of these things thanks to grant support from the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina, the Jim Henson Foundation, the Asheville Area Arts Council, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Junior League, the Susan Marcus Collins Foundation, and the helping hands of dozens of volunteers who share our love of the puppetry arts.

Asheville Puppetry Alliance
Board of Directors
January 2009