GREAT ARIZONA PUPPET THEATER INC
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Mission Statement
Arizona's professionally staffed puppet theater is housed in a historic building in central Phoenix. Shows are offered at the theater 5 days a week, year round, and the troupe tours with educational and entertaining puppet shows. The stated mission is : To advance and promote the art of puppetry; to celebrate the great state of Arizona – it’s heritage, culture and ecology; to educate children and families through the art of puppetry; and to enhance the cultural climate of Arizona. The audience is mostly children who attend the theater with their classes or families or see a show at their school, child care or library. Demographics cut across all socio-economic levels, with special efforts to serve low income children via separate funding. Audiences for adult shows tend to be adventurous art seekers living in the central Phoenix area.
About This Cause
The Great Arizona Puppet Theater was founded in 1983 and has operated a theater open to the public since 1988. The theater is open 5 days a week and tours shows to the community 7 days a week, year round. Our theater, a historic building in central Phoenix, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is the largest puppet theater in the west, has a fully equipped stage, 250 seat auditorium, puppet exhibit, gift shop, & activity room. We have collaborated with other organizations in producing and presenting shows, including Desert Botanical Garden, the Phoenix Symphony, the Phoenix Zoo, the Craniofacial Foundation of Arizona, valley water conservation departments, and the Grand Canyon. GAPT has received numerous awards, including Best of Phoenix, the Mayor’s Award for Environmental Education and the UNIMA-USA Citation for Excellence in Puppetry. Our Director was Festival or Artistic Director for three regional and one national puppet festival and serves on national puppetry committees. GAPT shows have been featured at regional, national and international puppet festivals. Outstanding national and international guest artists have included puppeteers from Japan, India, China, Uzbekistan, Germany, Russia, Romania, England, Mexico, Canada, Indonesia, Greece and all regions of the United States. Follow-up surveys with teachers evaluate study materials and assess the effectiveness of shows. We worked for two years at Bicentennial Elementary’s ArtSpace program, offering an intensive Puppetry Program for 1st graders that incorporated state arts and language standards. The principal reported that every child in this special program did not need tutoring in the 2nd grade. Letters and pictures from children give us insight into what parts of a show were most effective and how well they have absorbed the message of the show. In-house audience surveys help us understand how we may better serve our patrons. Awards from our peers and repeat audience attest to the quality of our programs. We are visited by schools throughout the Greater Phoenix area and travel to reach children of all socio-economic levels and ethnic backgrounds. This past year we served over 27,000 youth and family members with our in-house shows and approximately 53,000 with touring shows and programs. Most shows are for preschool through fourth grade children. “Reach Out With Puppets” offers free admission and study materials to children in Head Start and SteppingStone programs, Title 1 schools and area shelters. This funding comes from a variety of grants and private donations. Almost every day our puppeteers are also touring shows to valley schools, libraries or child cares. Most of these are paid for by a city, school, library or corporate sponsor and are free to the children. “Imagine This!”, with Kenilworth Elementary, has second through eighth grade students write stories to be developed into professional puppet shows. 76% of Kenilworth students qualify for free or reduced lunch, 27% are English Language Learners, 78% are Hispanic, 9% are white, 7% African American and 5% are Native American. The program includes after school puppetry workshops with PEER students. We have an extensive repertoire available for touring outreach programs, designed for various sized audiences from a classroom to a large assembly. ZONER & THE DRIP and ZONER’S WATER CYCLE are sponsored by valley water conservation offices and go directly to schools for children in grades K-4. THE PIRATE & THE TOOTH FAIRY and LITTLE DINO'S BABY TOOTH are sponsored by a pediatric dental practice for children ages 2-6. We are involved with our neighborhood, and Roosevelt Row Merchants Association and this participate in Festival of the Arts and Day at Hance Park celebrations, collaborating with other cultural organizations surrounding Hance Park. We also serve as a meeting place for these and other groups, and host poetry readings at the theater. We provide 800 free tickets to 200 organizations annually to use in fundraisers. Our extensive repertoire has accompanying study guides which address science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) and other educational standards. Approximately 500 performances annually are held in schools, 350 at our theater, and 75 in libraries, museums and other locations. More than 65,000 children, from preschool through 8th grade, attend these shows. Many of these shows were educational in nature. We have several shows that directly address STEM topics, including our award winning environmental shows HOTEL SAGUARO, ZONER & THE DRIP, ZONER’S WATER CYCLE, CREEPY CRAWLY WILD AND WOOLLY and CANYON CONDOR. The Great Arizona Puppet Theater is the meeting place for the Phoenix Guild of Puppetry, offering workshops for adults and coordinated trips and backstage tours to see outstanding puppeteers.