It started with a handshake. “We call our handshakes sacred. And when we handshake on something it has to happen,” said Kylie McLaughlin, BFA Fine Arts (Painting) ’25, and Avery Vang, BFA Digital Arts (2D Animation) ’25, co-founders of Puppet Club Fun Time!
The two friends met in their first-year residence hall. “We would talk puppets, and then we started making puppets together.” Now seniors and suite mates, they share the load of organizing one of Pratt’s most distinctive organizations. “They have a charm,” said McLaughlin. The club, which recently concluded its fifth semester, was created as a space for students to gather and make puppets in a stress-free environment.
So What Exactly Is a Puppet (Club)?
“It’s an object with some personality, and it definitely needs to move. It needs to be able to perform,” explained Vang. “I think it’s about putting the life into the object.”
At Puppet Club, they explore all manner of puppets, from shadow puppets, to masks, to sock and finger puppets. They also tie their activities to relevant themes: plant puppets on Earth Day, masks for Halloween. They’ve collaborated with Bird Club and C-Board on projects as well.
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Digital Arts and Animation Robert Lyons has taught both Vang and McLaughlin and currently serves as the club’s faculty advisor.
Sometimes the club brings in puppet professionals, screens movies, or organizes puppet-themed field trips to New York City museums, like the Museum of the Moving Image, Museum of the City of New York, or MoMA, which put on an exhibition devoted to Pinocchio last year. “I think I went like three times,” said Vang. “It was awesome.”
McLaughlin and Vang have an easy rapport, finishing each other’s sentences and laughing at their whimsical shared pursuit. They set a relaxed tone for the meetings, with music, chatting, a table full of supplies, and very little instruction. “We want everyone to just be able to show up,” they said, so all materials are provided. Establishing a laid-back environment takes a lot of invisible labor: writing emails, filling out event forms, managing the Instagram account, and ordering, storing, and transporting supplies. A corner of the co-founders’ residence space is devoted to large tubs of felt, construction paper, hot glue, googly eyes, paper brads, socks, pom poms, feathers, stickers, wire, tape, foam, needle felting, and other puppet materials.
Expanding from a close circle of friends, the club now has a steady stream of members—averaging 25 attendees per meeting—and a growing follower base on Instagram. They also advertise via posters and at club fairs. “Avery makes great posters where it’s like Elmo and Kermit in front of flames fighting,” explained McLaughlin.
We Challenge You to a Puppet Off
The club’s marquee event, Puppet Off, draws their biggest crowds. The playful competition, which they describe as “Chopped with puppets,” tasks participating teams of Pratt students with creating a puppet performance in a limited time frame. Every couple of minutes, Vang and McLaughlin throw out a curveball, such as turning off the lights, or requiring a new creative element. This past semester, they had everyone work in silence for five minutes; if they broke the rule, one of their thumbs would be taped down. A chain-smoking fish puppet named Mary-Lynn was named the victor.
Recently, they received a message on Instagram from The New School’s new puppet club, which was inspired in part by Pratt’s. “We challenge you to a Puppet Off,” it stated. McLaughlin and Vang are hoping to host them for an event in the spring.
Puppet Club’s Next Act
On top of their puppet club duties, McLaughlin and Vang have their hands full. They are both full-time students working on theses and holding down on-campus jobs. As they approach graduation in the spring, they’re preparing to pass their puppet responsibilities on to new leadership so the puppet club can live on at Pratt.
Outside of their club, McLaughlin and Vang have already expanded their puppeting practice. Last summer, McLaughlin ran a group for Pratt’s PreCollege program, where they made paper and armature puppets and watched stop motion movies. Vang, who studies 2D animation, is currently taking a stop motion course with faculty advisor Robert Lyons as well as a puppet course that is taught by Visiting Professor of Art and Design Education Theodora Skipitares, a prominent figure in the puppet world. “I’m kind of having a full puppet semester now,” Vang said. After graduation she hopes she can continue her pursuits in puppetry. “I know I would love to work with puppets post-grad,” she said. “I think they’re very magical.”
