Animating the End of the World: The Puppetry of "The Skin of Our Teeth"
The enduring art of puppetry has been a cornerstone of dramatic arts, serving as a vital storytelling device that shapes an audience’s view of a narrative. For the BA Theatre Arts program’s presentation of Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth, puppetry designer Steven Ackerman has executed extraordinary and memorable designs. The use of puppetry in this production helps support Wilder’s maximalist themes of chaos and survival.
A Lifelong Obsession Grows into a Craft
Ackerman’s fascination with puppetry began at a young age, sparked by shows like Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and other children's programs featuring puppets. He recounts being “pretty obsessed, asking my parents to take me to different puppet shows, local and regional puppet conferences, and pleading with my dad to help me build a simple pvc puppet stage so that I could put on shows”.
After graduating from grad school, Ackerman moved to Minneapolis and immersed himself in the Twin Cities' vibrant puppetry community, which offers a wide range of opportunities and incredible artists/teachers. He credits this community for teaching him most of his skills, highlighting the spirit of "skill sharing, working alongside one another on shows, school and community residencies, community puppet builds, and watching how different artists approach puppet making".
The Collaborative Creation
Bringing these elaborate designs to life has been a major collaboration. Thanks to community engagement and local resources, Ackerman worked with several experts including Gustavo Boada, Kurt Hunter, Barbara Peterson, and Emerson Oram, student artist/designer who has been helping with the construction of the puppets.
Ackerman also praised the collaborative effort of the wider production team, sharing that "all of the design elements created by the team have helped inspire the building of the puppets and create a unique world for them to exist in".
Puppets as Spectacle and Metaphor
The vast scope of human existence in The Skin of Our Teeth—following a family through natural disasters, war, and extinction-level events—is perfectly complemented by the use of puppets. Ackerman noted that the puppets "only add to this spectacle, and give a nod to those creatures no longer with us due to the multiple levels of extinctions the world has gone through". He explains that the presence of puppets "immediately causes the audience to lock-in a different way and creates a heightened sense of spectacle. It’s an all-together different viewing experience".
The Hands Behind the Magic
The intricacy of these creations requires a village to execute. Ackerman gave major credit to his student performers/puppeteers. He expressed his amazement at their abilities: "I’m just so amazed at the students' abilities to breathe life into these puppets and am excited for the audience to experience their work".
“It takes time to adjust to walking and performing inside a large two-person backpack dinosaur puppet body, controlling a long-necked brachiosaurus head, and walking around on all fours with arm stilts as a wooly mammoth, but the students are doing an unbelievable job. And their interactions with their fellow human actors only adds to each of the creature’s personalities!”
Come see these prehistoric creatures brought to life!
The Skin of Our Teeth by Thornton Wilde
Meet the Antrobus family - a typical American family - except for the fact that they have been around since the beginning of humanity, enduring through endless cycles of growth, destruction and rebirth. We witness their struggles once again, surviving disaster after disaster by the skin of their teeth. Written in 1942, the play has a prophetic quality; drastic climate change, natural disasters and wars seem all too familiar to us now. The cyclical nature of the play questions the myth of progress. As Sabina says “Nothing matters, it’ll all be the same in a hundred years.”
November 14-23, 2025 in the Thrust Theatre, Rarig Center
Purchase Tickets Here
Photos courtesy of Steven Ackerman.
