Teresa Moler

Teresa Moler became interested in puppetry at age 4.  At age 6 Moler saw a marionette in a toy store window and determined that marionettes would be her passion for the rest of her life.   

Moler received a bear marionette and a cardboard stage for her seventh birthday.  Moler figured out how to work the marionette with practice and following illustrated instructions in the box. 

Moler would give marionette shows to the neighbors.  Then at age nine Moler set up her cardboard stage in a plaza and  put out a tip jar and gave her first performance she wrote called “Dizzy and Proud”. 

Throughout the years people would give her marionettes or Moler would see one she liked and buy it. 

Molers main characters were Mr. Berry, Barkley, Juanita, and Hilda the witch.    

For the first 35 years of her life Moler’s shows revolved around her four main characters until she went to college to finish her theater degree at Keene State College.  At that point her bad witch eventually became a good witch then an old lady. 

Moler then started with entirely new characters but some had traits of the original stock characters.   

After that, Moler consulted with another puppeteer and Moler added hand puppetry to her show possibilities.  That puppeteer retired and gave Moler most of her hand puppets. 

Moler besides her many puppetry performances and original scripts likes to paint watercolors, compose songs, and be a mental health advocate.