Mum Puppettheatre founder Robert Smythe...

You know that kid at your middle school who was always EXCITED for your once-monthly library day? Yeah, that was me. Which is how I ended up reading George Orwell's Animal Farm when I was eleven. The librarian looked at me in confusion when I brought it up to the check-out. My parents asked if I was sure I woldn't rather read another Nancy Drew book. (This was long before Harry Potter.) But I......

There's no question that the puppets are extraordinary, both in execution and handling. The acting, too, leaves nothing to be desired. But there's something about Mum Puppettheatre's production of The Master and Margarita that's just... too much. It was nothing short of ambitious for Mum to mount director Adrienne Mackey's adaptation of the now-classic Mikhail Bulgakov Russian novel, and perhaps therein lies the problem. With twenty major characters worthy of mention on the book's Wikipedia......

Martina Plag demonstrates how puppets' eyes are carved deeply into their skulls so as to convey emotion. Mum Puppettheatre's production of The Master and Margarita opened last week (our review is forthcoming), but before it opened, I was invited to Mum's basement to see how the dozens of puppets needed for the production would take shape. It's key to remember that, despite the title of this article, Mum is a puppettheatre: one that presents......