by Madison Rutherford | Photography by Angelina Aragon
All Puppet Players founder and artistic director Shaun Michael McNamara admits that his 18-and-over puppet cabaret is difficult for many people to wrap their heads around. “I’ve been doing this for 15 years and I have yet to figure out the exact way to phrase ‘puppet theater for adults only’ where it doesn’t sound either really icky or completely lame,” he says. Yet, since 2010, McNamara has garnered a cult following for his original puppet-driven productions, including subversive parodies and pop culture crossovers like 50 Shades of Felt and The Exorcist Has No Legs. Ahead of APP’s 16th season this September, McNamara introduces us to some of the felt-and-foam acting troupe’s most notable members.
Inigo Montoya, The Parody Puppet Princess Bride
“You can tell the emotional scars that he carries by the actual scars on his face,” McNamara says of the vengeful Spanish swordsman, who has appeared in two sold-out runs of APP’s musical adaptation of The Princess Bride.
Hamlet
The now-iconic blue monster starred in All Puppet Players’ inaugural production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in 2010. “He is 100 percent the mascot in every way, shape and form,” McNamara says. “Now, he’s like an easter egg to true fans… He has cameos in a lot of things.”
John McClane, Die Hard: A Christmas Carol
The ruggedly handsome hero of the company’s annual holiday mashup returns for his fifth season this December. McClane and his two body doubles sport tank tops in varying stages of distress, removable tufts of chest hair and hand-drawn Sharpie tattoos.
David, Lost Boys: Live & Undead
In APP’s rendition of The Lost Boys, the ultracool leader of a bloodsucking motorcycle gang dons custom-made leather gloves, handmade jewelry and clay vampire fangs. “Unfortunately, he met his end in The Lost Boys,” McNamara says. “We did the Home Alone ending, so he got paint cans to the face and lit on fire.”
Rita Repulsa, CONvicts on an AIRplane
Featuring a hand-formed clay cone bra, intricate yarn headdress and purple felt skin “to really show the evil witch in her,” the emblematic Mighty Morphin Power Rangers villain performed a duet of “Shallow” from A Star is Born with Skeletor in a wacky, irreverent spoof of Con Air earlier this year.
