Meg Roussos / The BulletinMiranda Baglien, 20, left, practices with Stephanie Crespo, 26, both of Bend, in a puppeteer class taught by Dave Felton, right, at 2nd Street Theater in Bend on Saturday. Many who attended the session are likely to audition to do puppet work in the upcoming "Avenue Q" production at the Tower Theatre.

Nursing a stiff thumb following a Saturday puppetry workshop, Bend actor Clinton Clark said he didn’t expect it to be so difficult to keep everything moving in sync. Focus too much on the mouth, and you discover you’re no longer moving the arm, he said. Focus too much on the arm, and the reverse is true.

“It’s like riding a bike and hula-hooping at the same time,” Clark said.

Clark and others were at 2nd Street Theater in Bend on Saturday for a primer on puppets from Dave Felton, a Bend puppeteer who’s signed on to assist with the Stage Right Productions’ upcoming production of “Avenue Q,” a sometimes-racy musical performed largely by puppets. Though not an audition, Saturday’s workshop was intended to help would-be cast members get up to speed on the finer details of how to bring a puppet to life.

Felton said he’s long loved the work of The Muppets creator Jim Henson, but only picked up puppetry recently. When he was about 6 years old, Felton discovered a talent for voices, performing a Groucho Marx impersonation for his father.

“It was probably awful, but I remember getting a laugh out of him and thinking ‘wow, I can do funny voices and get a laugh out of people,’” Felton said.

About five years ago, Felton made his first puppet, a yellow-skinned, sunglass-wearing “cool guy” he named Buddy Waters. New ideas for new puppets kept coming, and Felton created a small universe of characters — British newscaster Nigel Kensington, dreadlocked burnout Roach, Rusty the Leprechaun, nerdy Bernard and more.

Though Felton still considers himself primarily a hobbyist and not a professional puppeteer, he’s put his hobby to work, producing a variety of commercials and promotional videos. Locally, he can be seen playing the part of Ben the Dog in a series of commercials for Bend Pet Express.

Saturday, Felton ran his students through a series of drills, starting with learning how manipulate the mouth using the thumb instead of the fingers. Attendees graduated to rod puppets, using the hand that’s not inside the puppet’s body to move a rod controlling the puppet’s arm, and to sack puppets, which require two people working in tandem to control the mouth and arms.

Karen Sipes, who will be directing “Avenue Q” in the fall, said she expects most of her cast will be coming to the show with limited puppet experience. Once auditions get underway in early April, she’ll be looking largely for strong voices and acting skills, with the expectation Felton will be able to hone their puppet skills over the next few months by the time the show opens in September at Tower Theatre.

“They have to be able to be a larger-than-life character,” Sipes said.

John Kish, 26, of Bend, said he’d planned to audition for “Avenue Q,” but recently learned his sister will be getting married on the show’s opening night. The puppet workshop was a lot of fun just the same, Kish said, and he’s thinking of finding a way to integrate puppets into a cabaret show he performs locally.

First-time puppeteer Miranda Baglien, 20, of Bend, said her thumb and her arm were a bit sore after an hour’s worth of puppetry, but she’s definitely coming back to audition next month. She said it’s exciting to see a show like “Avenue Q” in Bend, something she said would have been hard to imagine just a few years ago.

“I would be absolutely, spectacularly delighted to be a part of it, I think it’d be awesome,” she said.

— Reporter: 541-383-0387,

shammers@bendbulletin.com