Summer Puppetry Caravan for Appalachia Collection

A Summer Puppetry Caravan for Appalachia was created by director Neil di Teresa, professor of art at Berea College, in 1969. Initially funded by Berea College and the Rockefeller Foundation, the Caravan received additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kentucky Arts Commission, the Kentucky Humanities Council, and other private organizations.

The aim of the Caravan was “to involv[e] Appalachians in Cultural and creative activities, to develo[p] a sense of rapport between Berea College and the Appalachian Mountain communities (especially the small isolated ones), and to exten[d] to Appalachians (and others), aspects of traditional mountain culture.”

The Caravan used a wide variety of puppets, including: hand puppets, life sized puppets, larger than human creations, wooden puppets, and two puppets (named Matilda and Reuben Bledsoe) modeled after the Japanese Bunraku style.

Before performances, di Teresa and the Berea College student puppeteers conducted workshops in the making and use of puppets to preserve mountain folk tales.Over eighty-five Berea College students, working through the college’s labor program, toured with the Caravan—making all puppets and stages, writing scripts, composing and performing original music, designing and printing posters, and conducting workshops.