My own puppets: Costume puppets

Cecil and Cecilia


Photo/puppets: Copyright 1996 Emre Yilmaz.
These puppets are like costumes; one actually gets inside them and manipulates the head with one's right hand. The heads are made of foam rubber sheets, cut and glued with contact cement, and finally painted with a latex rubber paint I devised.

I made them for a play in which all the main characters were grownups playing children; the plot was completely from the childrens' point of view. As such, I wanted to make these "parent" puppets big, looming, and cartoony. Cecil and Cecilia were quite loud and obnoxious.

In making these puppets, I was drawing very heavily from the work of Erminio Pinque / Big Nazo Puppets, Providence, RI. (I hope to have pictures of his puppets up here eventually-- he has a puppet band that has opened for major rock bands all over the country.) He informally taught me the construction technique (sheets of foam rubber with a special paint), and how to use it, backstage at a play we were both working on.

I drew somewhat on the Bread and Puppet Theater for the performance style.

This web page and puppet designs copyright © 1996 Emre Yilmaz