Elise Handelman

Elise Handelman BIO for VIRTUAL PUPPET CON 2021
HISTORY PANEL Saturday, November 13, 2021

B.A. Mass Communications, Queens College (1974)
Marketing/Promotion Assistant, Better Homes and Gardens magazine (28 years)
Business Manager for PUPPETS TO GO, which she co-founded with her husband, Bob Nathanson, in 1980. For 40 years, they toured their puppet shows extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada, entertaining children at libraries, schools, theaters museums and other venues.
Elise designed many of the puppets used in their productions. They also performed skits for adults at Regional and National Puppet Festivals.
Business Workshop Presenter at Regional and National Puppet Festivals
Studied puppetry at the Gramercy Puppet Theatre in New York City with Lea Wallace (a founding member of the Puppeteers of America (PofA) and PGOGNY (Puppetry Guild of Greater New York) and at the National Theatre of Puppet Arts in Great Neck, NY, with Carol Fijan (renowned puppet Director, teacher and co-author, with Larry Engler, of “Making Puppets Come Alive” and co-author, with Frank Ballard, “Directing Puppet Theater Step-By-Step,” and author of “60 Years of Puppets & Politics.”
Past PGOGNY and PGLI (Puppet Guild of Long Island). Recording Secretary/Membership Chair.
For the Puppeteers of America Audio-Visual Library, Elise and Bob, have done over a dozen Video Oral Histories of renowned puppeteers, in addition to videotaping various special puppetry events.
Performed with other PGLI members in Carol Fijan’s “60 Years of Puppets & Politics” reprised skits at Regional & National Festivals (’94, ’95)
Event Coordinator UNIMA-USA (Union Internationale De La Marionnette) Reception Awards Ceremony, in conjunction with the Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater in NYC (’94, ’96, ’98). Held in at Lincoln Center; The Public Theater.
1996 PofA Mid-Atlantic Regional Service Award recipient
Puppeteers of America Board Trustee (1999-2002). One area of responsibility was the PofA Video Archives.
Registration Assistant — 2007 National Puppet Festival, Puppet Rampage (MN)
In June 2008, I was the First Time Festival Attendees Coordinator for the Puppet Gumbo S.E. Regional Festival in Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD).

Elise has attended festivals other than those sponsored by the PofA. These include multiple times at each of the following: PuppetFest Midwest in MO; volunteered at the Puppets Up! Festival in Almonte, Canada; Orlando (Florida) Puppet Festivals (sponsored by Heather Henson’s IBEX Puppetry).
Many Guild newsletters have included Elise’s countless reviews & photographs of puppetry festivals and puppet exhibits she attended.
The Cornell Art Museum in Delray Beach, Florida, and Sugar Sand Community Center in Boca Raton, Florida have displayed puppet posters from Elise and Bob’s vast puppet poster collection.
For PGSF, Elise & Bob have hosted several Guild meetings for touring puppeteers in their home in Florida. Jim “Nappy” Napolitano, from Connecticut, performed in our living room for a close-up look at his shadow stage and the reception was a way for him to meet puppeteers in the Guild.
We also hosted a PGSF reception in our home so members were able to meet Belgium puppeteer, Ronnie Albrecht, following his performance at a nearby theater.
After Bernice Silver, the QUEEN of POTPOURRI, passed away, at 106 years young in April 2020, I asked Seth Shaffer, the PofA’s current A-V Library Archivist, if he would assist assembling a Tribute to Bernice. This was shown at VirtualPuppet Con: Northeast Edition 2020. We included additional footage of Bernice Silver’s Potpourris and more photographs. Below is a description and link to view it:

QUEEN of POTPOURRI REVISITED: A tribute to the amazing and talented Bernice Silver. 2020
This is a revised version of the 1994 original PofA video by Elise Handelman, Bob Nathanson, and Norman Gibson (a former PofA A-V Archivist). Enjoy an interview and some performances of the amazing Bernice Silver. See the moment when she was crowned THE QUEEN of POTPOURRI.

Elise’s Puppetry Affiliations:
PofA (Puppeteers of America)
Puppetry Guild of Greater NY (PGOGNY)
Puppet Guild of South Florida (PGSF)
National Capital Guild (NCPG)
Western Massachusetts Puppetry Guild (WMPG)
Puppets To Go website is: www.PuppetsToGo.com
Elise can be reached at her email: [email protected]
She can also be reached on Facebook.