A teaching studio built by working puppeteers, for anyone curious enough to pick up a marionette.
StringCraft began as a series of after-school workshops run out of a converted garage by a small group of touring marionette performers who wanted a permanent home to teach the craft they'd spent careers mastering. What started with eight students in folding chairs has grown into a purpose-built teaching studio with a full curriculum spanning marionette construction, rod puppetry, shadow performance, and voice-and-movement technique.
Every class at StringCraft is taught by someone who performs professionally — not a general arts educator reading from a puppetry manual. That distinction shapes everything from how we sequence a six-week beginner session to how we structure our touring educator residencies.
The studio houses a full marionette-building workshop, a rod-puppet performance stage, and a dedicated shadow-screen theater used for both classes and community showcases. Materials, tools, and safety equipment scaled for young students are available at every workstation, and every session ends with stage time — we believe a puppet isn't finished until it's performed.
StringCraft's instructors come from touring marionette companies, children's museum theater programs, and film & television puppetry departments. Each brings a specialty — construction, shadow technique, voice work, or youth curriculum design — and all continue performing professionally alongside teaching.
We run a scholarship fund for youth programs, a free educator residency placement program for under-resourced schools, and community showcase nights where students of every level perform for family and friends. Donor support keeps tuition accessible and keeps our touring programs free for the schools that host them.