Thu 9/28 @ 7:30PM
In 2018, CoolCleveland contributor Nicole Hennessey wrote a piece about a unique Cleveland artist named Nate Puppets, sharing his unusual story and his challenging path to realizing his own creativity.
“Nate started making puppets when he was 11 years old, drawn to the puppet shows of the ’90s: Alegra’s Window and Eureka’s Castle,” she wrote. “Of course, Sesame Street and the Muppets. Then, later, weirder, more irreverent shows, like MTV’s Wonder Showzen. ‘It just looks like fun!’ he remembers thinking. ‘I love these concepts; I love these characters; I love these ideas!’”
She describes one of his best-known creations, Rickety Rat, with his “highlighter-green fur and wild eyes, “safely tucked away in a black-and-white checkered duffle bag slung across [Puppets’] wheelchair.” Rickety’s characteristics include one leg shorter than the other — a childhood condition that led to Puppets’ disability. That’s when he felt that puppetry chose him as a creative outlet.
Read her article here. Also check out this video by Megan Alves we posted in 2019.
You can check out his family of creations and his own offbeat approach to puppetry when he does his latest show “Puppets Take Over the World,” at the Treelawn social club in the Waterloo Arts District.
Get tickets to his show here.