When Corinna Rezzelle-Pennypacker returned to the area last summer, she brought with her a passion for the puppetry arts.
Over the past year of working with her mother, Carol Rezzelle at Flowing Wells Theatre, she’s developed a puppetry program with eyes on expanding its scope in the fall. A recent grant from the Community Foundation of the CSRA will help the organization do just that.
“The grant is all about puppet education,” she said. “It’s getting the kids involved in puppetry and teaching them puppetry skills.”
In March, they finished the spring session in which they created a “faithful fairy tale” based on “The Pearl Princess” by the Brothers Grimm. Much of what Enopion Theatre, the resident company at Flowing Wells Theatre, does is based on Biblical stories. Although not directly from the Bible, the “faithful fairy tales” puppet stories fall in line with Biblical teachings.
Not only has the grant laid the foundation for a program to teach their students how to make simple puppets for the smaller children and more complex ones for older students, Rezzelle-Pennypacker is creating an expanded program to include outdoor puppet productions in the summer as well as a guest puppeteer in the fall.
Rezzelle-Pennypacker, who has a doctorate in education with emphasis an in arts-based pedagogy, studied puppetry arts in California under Randal Metz of The Puppet Company.
“He has also been personally trained by many famous American puppeteers: Lewis (Mahlmann) in classical puppetry, Lettie Schubert in manipulation, Bob Baker Marionettes of Hollywood and even by The Muppets. Randal also runs his own theater, known as The Puppet Company, that performs at libraries, fairs and festivals. Together, Mahlmann and Metz have created 100 puppet shows that are still in repertory. Randal is celebrating his 54th year working at Children’s Fairyland, and has published four books on puppetry,” according to his bio at the Flowing Wells Theatre website.
She’s excited to have him bring his puppets to the Flowing Wells Theatre in September to talk with students as well as present his classic production of “Puff the Magic Dragon” from Sept. 7-15.
The production features vintage puppets and a time-honored, wholesome story filled with themes of ethics, friendship and creativity, she said.
“It’s perfect for everyone,” she said.
Shows will be presented during the school day for public and private school students as well as evening and weekend shows for the public. Go here for ticket information.
She’s also creating curriculum guides for teachers with ”templates for teachers to make puppets with their students to get them to invest in the lesson while learning skills,” she said.
Another project Rezzelle-Pennypacker is working on is a production of “Stone Soup,” a folktale that focuses on strangers and neighbors coming together to create a meal.
She’s building the puppets as well as designing the curriculum for young children between the ages of 3 and 7.
And she’s working on creating an interactive production of ‘The Tale of Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny” for the summer in the new outdoor puppet theater which was recently constructed.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named Augusta Magazine’s best local writer in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
