Portfolio

Puppetry Design & Performance

Genna Beth Davidson

With 15+ years in the puppet theater, I work collaboratively and solo to conceive, write, design, fabricate, perform, and produce original puppet theatre for children and adults alike.


Enter the

world of

Genna Beth!

  • Email Me:
  • gennabeth@gmail.com

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Bio

Hailing from the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, Genna Beth Davidson is an
ambitious and down to earth puppet artist who brings her broad and deep set of
skills to both the theater industry and service arenas alike. With a penchant for
turning everything and anything into a puppet, Genna Beth loves transforming the
vitality of materials into imaginary beings. She discovered puppetry while studying
theatre at the University of Maryland from 2004-2008 thanks to the Jim Henson
Artist-in-Residence Program which was established while she was a student there.
After roughly a decade of work in theater and puppetry in the DC area, she went
off to UCONN where she earned her MFA in Puppet Arts in 2022.


Approach

Ideas, ideas, ideas! Basically I materialize ideas!


Always excited to work on a new project or return to an old one with fresh eyes, I strive to make what I see in my mind’s eye or on paper become real. I’ve learned that the simpler the puppet, the better it works. So I try to keep it simple. I’ve also learned to seek out projects where my collaborators and I have shared COMPETENCE, GOODWILL, RELIABILITY, and ALIGNMENT for the vision at hand.



Master of Fine Arts in dramatic arts

University of Connecticut, Storrs

Specialization: Puppetry Arts

Honors: Marks Family Endowment in the Fine Arts (2021); UConn Foundation Frank Ballard Scholarship (2022)


Bachelor of Arts in theatre

University of Maryland, College Park

Honors: Magna Cum Laude; President’s Scholarship


High school Diploma

The Baltimore School for the Arts, Baltimore

Concentration: Violin Performance



Education

Photo credit ©️ 2023 Justin N. Lane / jnlane.com

Solo puppeteer

The Curious School of Puppetry, online, 2022

Instructor: Rene Baker


Dark Clown

Weekend intensives, online, 2021

Instructor: Peta Lily


MASS MoCA Wood Carving & Puppet Design Intensive

The Berkshires, 2018 and 2021

Instructor: David Lane


Shakespeare & Company Summer Intensive

The Berkshires, 2016


New england puppetry intensive

The Berkshires, 2015

Instructors: David Lane, Peter Balkwill, and Nan Balkwill

Workshops & Intensives

    • Theatre Credits
    • Who I Work For
    • Experimental Work
    • Just for Fun
    • Design & Consultation
    • Calendar

Explore My Work

Theatre Credits

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    • TEMPTING FATE (2023)
    • The Changling (2019)
    • Dr. Caligari (2017)
    • Saudade (2018)
    • Sleeping beauty: a puppet ballet (2015)
    • Skull Puppet (2024)
    • HUMAN (2024)
    • A Hanukkah Carol (2024)

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Replay

Design work samples from my MFA show at UCONN. Replay, a dark comedy about unpacking baggage, is my solo show featuring tabletop, shadow, and object puppetry.

Performance stills from Replay. Performed at Arts Center East in 2022. Lighting design by Kayo Tokuue and Jackson Funke


photo by Kayo Tokuue

photo by Woody Dweyer

photo by Woody Dweyer

photo by Woody Dweyer

photo by Woody Dweyer

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Puppet and Design Gallery

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Shorts &

My stance on psychopharmacueticals

Parsnip rose

Surrealist puppetry experiment with two sexy parsnips and a rose. This divine feminine figure lets loose!

Replay

A dark comedy about unpacking baggage.

An object puppetry experiment while in grad school

A Directing for Puppetry class assignment in which we were instructed to reinvent the cantastoria.

A toy theater piece creaed over one weekend for a Women’s Suffrage Pageant.

Experiments

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Design and Consultation

Thinking about using puppetry but not sure where to begin?

I can advise on the following and more:


  • Puppeteering ~ Design ~ Fabrication ~Puppet re-builds and repairs ~ Content creation ~ Scripting ~ Puppet Direction ~ Puppet Staging

Styles of Puppetry

  • hand puppets

Bunraku-style

  • rod puppets
  • shadow
  • table top
  • moving mouth (TV style)
  • object puppetry

crankie

toy theatre

body/wearable

lantern puppets

hybrid forms

Design Process

From concept

to technical

drawings,

maquettes,

patterning,

prototyping &

finishing

I take ideas from paper to fully realized. Whether hand puppet, shadow, wearable or any other puppet style, I have a robust skill set to bring projects from conception to completion.

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Some shots of my process for Cerberus, a puppet rebuild for

Tempting Fate

  • I was commissioned by this NYC-based puppet company to reproduce several of the beloved tabletop puppets originally crafted by Z. Briggs.

Wonderspark Puppets

  • puppet builder
  • I am currently a puppeteer with Barefoot Puppets performing New Squid on the Block and The Wriggling Brothers Circus. I am also an artist-in-residence with the company in Richmond, VA.
  • I currently assist Barry Gordemer when he needs extra hands to help build his masterful creations.

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  • I am a regular puppeteer and a puppet builder for Ready for Pre-K! a D.C. Public Schools initiative.

Ready for Pre-K!

  • PErformer and Puppet Builder

Current work:

barefoot puppets

  • performer

Handemonium

  • Barry Gordemer

just for fun web-isodes

In Lopi’s World, big dreams soar, the mundane is celebrated, and play is absolutely serious business ;)

Part soap opera, part adventure series, the tiny-epics of one household tribe of finger puppets are documented in this web series for all ages

The Little Weirdos

Lopi’s world

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Tada!

Contact

  • Genna Beth Davidson
  • gennabeth@gmail.com

Photo credit ©️ 2023 Justin N. Lane / jnlane.com