Virtual Puppet Con is the world’s largest online convention focused on the art form of Puppetry.
A puppet is something that is moved in order to invoke in the viewer the impression that the thing being moved has thoughts, feelings, and intentions it does not innately have*. There are 5 general categories of Puppetry: Hand, Rod, Shadow, Mask, and Marionette. These can be combined and there are even some modern forms, such as CGI, object theatre, and hand mime that don’t quite fit these categories! Whether in-person, online, or recorded, Virtual Puppet Con is a place to learn about and celebrate them all!
Puppetry is a synthesis art form, blending many different techniques, materials, and tradtitions to create a form of visual storytelling at smaller and larger scales than just human scale. No puppeteer comes to the art form the same way, resulting in a very lush and varied art form with no hard and fast boundaries. Where Puppetry ends and another art form begins is often blurred, and open to interpretation. Here at Virtual Puppet Con, no matter the focus of a particular Virtual Puppet Con Edition, there is always a multi-genre selection of Puppetry Performances, Workshops, Panels, Artist Q and A, and more, exploring the vast Universe of this Art Form we call Puppetry!
The Art of Puppetry is in the motion. To know if an object or figure is a good puppet, it must be experienced moving, through time, like listening to a piece of music or reading a book. A puppet not in motion is just a piece of sculpture, you can’t tell if it is a good puppet until it is in motion. So too, Virtual Puppet Con likes to keep moving. In 2020 and 2021 Virtual Puppet Con teamed up with the Northeast Region of Puppeteers of America to create the Northeast Editions. These focused on the Art of Puppetry as practiced in the Northeast Region of Puppeteers of America (upstate New York; the New England states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont; eastern Canada from Toronto to the Atlantic). Virtual Puppet Con is looking to move forward, to create new Editions that can celebrate The Art of Puppetry , in all its forms, anywhere in the world! If you are interested in discussing creating a VPC Edition with us, send us an e-mail or message us on Facebook. [email protected]
