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In 1984 the Puppet Showplace Theatre marked its tenth anniversary with a shared sense of amazement that a permanent puppet theatre could have survived for a full decade. For a Puppetry Journal article that year, Eleanor Boylan interviewed Mary Churchill, the Showplace's founder. Mary looked ahead to the future, but worried whether her dream could endure much longer without support.
Fast-forward another 25 years. The Puppet Showplace Theatre is alive and well and going stronger than ever. And so a celebration of the Puppet Showplace Theatre's 35 years is a celebration of the spirit of Mary Churchill. Her dream of a permanent puppet place has not only survived and thrived, but has become an important part of the American puppetry scene.
Beginnings
As a teacher in the Boston school system in the early 1970s, Mary Churchill used puppets to teach students who had trouble learning to read. Soon puppetry itself became her passion. Using hand puppets she crocheted herself, she created her own puppet shows, and named her company Cranberry Puppets.
By 1974, having left teaching, Churchill found a vacant storefront in her neighborhood of Brookline Village, just outside of Boston. "When Mary came to the space it was vacant. It had been home to a small printing company," says Mary's partner, Paul Vincent...