SUMMER INTENSIVE
PUPPETRY TRAINING
2026 Intensive will take place July 26 - August 9.
Application window runs March 1 - May 1.
Workshop Mission
Sandglass Theater believes that the puppet, as a theatrical medium, evokes the worlds of our dreams and memories, offering many metaphorical possibilities. We understand that puppet theater creation can begin in many places: through exploring a material, through play and relationship, or through dramaturgical research.
Applicants for the 2026 Summer Intensive training will select a focus track of Building, Performance or Directing. Participants will spend mornings as a whole ensemble developing common vocabulary through warm-ups, breath training and puppet animation/manipulation class. After lunch participants split into their tracks in puppet construction, puppetry performance or directing for puppet theater, occasionally overlapping classes. In addition to daily classes, students will spend their evenings working on collaborative compositions in small ensembles, which will be presented at the end of the training.
Classes are scheduled five and a half days per week. Parallel lessons of morning training and focused afternoon tracks provide a strong foundation for participants to apply to their own work. Participants will have evening access to work spaces.
The objective of this training program is to:
Inspire artists to understand and experience the strong potential of puppetry as a form of ensemble-based theater.
Learn foundational techniques of giving life to inanimate objects in solo and collaborative processes.
Enjoy being in a creative process with a group of peers to develop compositions that are specific to the medium of puppetry.
Sandglass teaches a method of puppet performance that has been developed over 30 years of workshops around the world. This program encourages repeat participation. Returning participants have the opportunity to deepen their practice in this style of puppetry through the possibility of changing their focus track each time they attend.
Morning training will be led by Eric Bass (Co-Founder), Shoshana Bass (Artistic Director), and Amanda Maddock (Sandglass Associate Artist). Applicants must select a first choice and second choice for the afternoon track. We will do our best to accommodate your first choice. Afternoon tracks are as follows:
Puppetry Construction Track with Ines Zeller Bass
The puppet building track will be dedicated to the construction of a full figure that can be animated by one to three puppeteers. The session will address how different materials impact a puppet’s function and metaphorical capacity. Our focus will be on creating a puppet that allows emotional expression and dramatic presence through its breath. Ines has built many puppets for Sandglass shows that integrate our understanding of why we use a puppet in the first place and how it can best express its life within a show.
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Ines Zeller Bass, Co-Founder of Sandglass, has been performing with puppets since 1968. In 1978, she created her children’s hand puppet theater, PUNSCHI, which has toured Europe, Australia and the US. In 1982, Ines co-founded Sandglass Theater with husband Eric in Germany and moved to Vermont in the mid-1980s. Together with Eric, she teaches their approach to puppetry in workshops in Vermont and abroad. She designed the puppets and set for Natan El Sabio, a project with Teatro Luis Poma in El Salvador. Ines’ puppets and design for Babylon, Sandglass Theater’s production, include two of her many crankies. Ines has last been touring with Sandglass’ production of D-Generation, An Exaltation of Larks, a piece about people with dementia. She is an UNIMA citation winner. In 2010, she received the Vermont Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts. Ines has retired from touring but is still very connected to Sandglass through her designs and puppet building.
Puppet Performance Track with Shoshana Bass
This track focuses on puppetry performance technique and explores how a puppeteer serves the life of the puppet. Classes will include: building a capacity for dramatic tension, ensemble practice with actors and puppets, split focus training, how a puppet embodies text through gesture and language, and tools for devising original puppet pieces. Throughout, there will be a focus on performance presence, the puppet’s awareness to every moment.
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Shoshana Bass is the second generation Artistic Director of Sandglass Theater. She grew up touring internationally with the theater founded by her parents and now performs their legacy work as well as her own devised work. Her training consists of a range of physical performance disciplines spanning across theater, dance, puppetry and circus. She works as a performer, teacher, producer, director and choreographer around the world. Her solo puppet theater piece, When I Put On Your Glove has and continues to tour in North America, Asia, and Europe. She has been a primary force in Sandglass’ work on Babylon: journeys of refugees, a production about that has garnered support from the National Theater Project and the Doris Duke Islamic Art Foundation’s Building Bridges Program. Her newest project titled Feral, received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Henson Foundation and numerous commissioners from around the country.
Directing for Puppet Theater Track with Eric Bass, Assisted by Amanda Maddock
What does it mean to direct a puppet production? Or a production with actors and puppets? What are the key questions to ask in order to dive deeply into the process and the material of the show? Puppets give us so many options and approaches, how do we decide what is right and how do we help the performers give their best performances? The directing track will unpack questions like these, and then engage in exercises where some of the answers we are seeking might be found.
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Eric Bass,Co-Founder of Sandglass, has worked for over forty years as a director, playwright, performer, presenter, producer, and puppet maker. In 1982, Eric co-founded Sandglass Theater in Munich, Germany, with his wife, Ines Zeller Bass, and they moved to Vermont in 1986. As a director, he has worked on five continents, nearly always including puppets in his staging. His international collaborations include The Story of the Dog, in Cambodia, BlackBirds in Poland, The Glass Menagerie in Germany, and a new adaptation of Nathan the Wise in El Salvador. Eric directed Sandglass Theater’s production of Babylon, Journeys of Refugees as a live show, and as a film. In 1991, Eric was awarded the Figurentheater Prize of the City of Erlangen, Germany for his contributions to the field of Puppet Theater. In 2010, Eric and Ines received the Vermont Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts.
Amanda Maddock is a puppet artist in theater, television, and film. She loves to find ways to satisfy her passion for creating through building, designing, wrangling, and performing. In 2024 she presented an in-development presentation in Los Angeles of her new show 0per8r(s), and also taught a workshop with Tim Lagasse through the LA Guild of Puppetry about how to create short form shows for puppet slams. Most recently she was the lead puppeteer for Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, and traveled to Japan to perform puppetry for an American Japanese independent film coproduction. She is delighted to be back working and training with Sandglass Theater, which strongly influenced how she develops her own shows.
Location / Housing / Support
The Site
The Sandglass Summer Intensive will take place between The Putney School and Sandglass Theater both located in Putney, Vermont. Our intimate 60-seat theater is housed in a beautifully restored barn from the early part of the 20th century, and includes a fully accessible lobby, with ramp for wheelchair access, the Sandglass facilities offer space to train, build, rehearse, and perform.
Summer is a wonderful time to be in Southern Vermont. Putney is a walkable small town that sits on the banks of the Connecticut river. Along with several places to eat affordably, there’s also a fantastic local co-op for groceries, an historic General Store and deli, plenty of hiking trails, and local swimming holes.
Housing
Housing is arranged by Sandglass Theater in beautiful Putney in the Putney School dormitories.
Meals
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner for all participants is provided by The Putney School. The meal at the end of the day is an opportunity for conversation and connection that is an important part of the training. The Putney School offers an array of options to accommodate vegetarian, gluten free and vegan preferences. Please let us know if you have any serious food allergies.
Support
You may be eligible to receive financial support in the form of a grant or bursary from government agencies, foundations or other supporters in your own country or state. Please apply to them directly.
If you are a Vermont resident and are interested in the training to further support your professional life then you are eligible for the Vermont Student Assistance Corporation Vermont Non-Degree Grant. For further information go to vsac.org.
We are offering at least one US-based BIPOC scholarship which will be awarded on a first come first serve basis to accepted students. Applicants who are interested in being considered for this scholarship will be able to indicate so in their application. The scholarship covers tuition, housing and all meals; the student is responsible for their travel, personal meals and all other expenses.
Costs / Application / Due dates
Course Fee: $1,500
Housing: $600
All meals provided (breakfast, lunch, dinner): $400
Participants are responsible for all travel, other food and incidental costs.
Application and Tuition Due Dates
Final application is due in our office by 5pm Friday, May 1st, 2026. (If sending via USPS, please allow at least 7 working days for the mail to arrive in our office on time)
A $500 deposit holds your space in the Intensive and is due upon acceptance and no later than May 15th. The balance of the Intensive fee plus additional housing and food costs (if applicable) are due before the first class on July 27th. Payment can be made by cash, check or paypal. Payments that need to be made by credit card will incur a 3% processing fee.
The deposit is fully refundable before May 15th, and 50% refundable through May 30th, after which refunds are no longer available. Should the Intensive be canceled for any reason, registered participants will receive a full refund for any portion of their registration fee, housing and food that has been paid to Sandglass.
Sandglass follows state and federal guidelines for health and safety protocols.
When reviewing applications we consider your passion for learning, your courage, and the diversity of age and experience in the whole group. Your cover letter will be important for us to understand who you are and why you want to train with Sandglass. Applicants must be over 18 years of age unless otherwise agreed upon.