Contemporary Masks and Puppets

by Sara Cogswell, Curator of "About Face: The World of Puppets and Masks"

Today there are more puppets than ever before, many new types of puppets and new kinds of shows. There are so many puppeteers and companies in the United States that they have their own organization, Puppeteers of America. Puppetry is now widely studied in American universities, colleges and schools.

The power of puppets to tell a story and transmit emotion to an audience has been used since the earliest theatre. Contemporary puppets, lively and imaginative in the hands of their makers and operators, have leapt up and grabbed the opportunity to give stories and emotions to the audience in all sorts of performance.


About three and a half years ago, two friends and art lovers wanted to bring a new kind of art and theatre to the Dayton area. Looking around, they both saw a massive pool of talent in the local community and artists who were looking for ways to collaborate and be a part of something different. And Dayton’s only puppet and mask theatre company, Zoot Theatre Company, was born. “Zoot materializes the imagination with outlandish, sometimes starkly haunting sets, hand-puppets, richly detailed masks, elaborate costumes, large-scale puppetry, and innovative ways of telling a story.” Now Zoot mounts full-scale stage productions, partners with local arts organizations and schools to produce educational plays, provides artists the opportunity to bring their art to life theatrically, and teaches mask making in local schools and organizations, such as Culture Builds Community, a program administered through Cityfolk.

The People’s Puppet Play”, a culmination of residencies with Zoot in three Dayton neighborhoods with three original plays based on each community’s personal stories, will debut at the Cityfolk Festival on Saturday at 1:00 PM. In addition, Zoot will have a display within the material culture tent, exhibiting masks, puppets and costumes from previous productions. The audience will also have the opportunity to participate in a discussion with the several members of the theatre company on the Material Culture stage at 2:00 PM on Sunday.


“A mask is like a poem that expresses the essence of a feeling, a spirit, or a character.” Because masks have the power to transform our identity and affect our feelings and behavior, they play many roles in people’s lives all over the world. Leesa Haapapuro is a sculptor, a ceramist, a mask maker, and a multi-media artist. Her efforts to connect with others are often radical and transformative. In 2007-2008, she took her studio “on the road” by building a portable sculpture studio which she took around town, and asked people to model in exchange for the artwork. She said of that time, “Working in public reinforced my belief that the creative process can be as interesting as the finished work.”

Leesa became The Dayton Visual Arts Center’s first Artist in Residence in 1991, and has been an active participant in the regional art community ever since. She has been honored by the City of Dayton in appreciation for her community art, and is a three-time recipient of The Montgomery County Regional Arts and Culture Individual Artist Fellowship. She began her teaching experience as a papermaking instructor in 1996. She currently teaches sculpture at Sinclair Community College and Antioch University Midwest, and works with the K-12 Gallery for Young People.

At About Face, she will exhibit a series of handmade paper masks cast from a human face. She will be doing face casting of Festival-goers using casting gauze. The ‘models’ can then take the wearable casts to the CBC Area for painting and decorating. There will be a parade on both Saturday and Sunday at 6:00 PM where Festival-goers can show off their masks, puppets and drums. A perfect opportunity to be transformed and try on a fun and different persona!