January 10, 2026 | Monitor Puppetry Workshop | Images in Motion | San Francisco, CA
Puppetry magic happened yesterday and I am still buzzing from the experience.
I had the chance to attend an incredible monitor puppetry workshop hosted at Images in Motion and it genuinely opened up a whole new dimension of what puppetry can be.
Monitor puppetry is one of those techniques that sounds straightforward until you are actually doing it. The puppet performer and the puppet’s on-screen image are completely separated. You are performing in one space while the character lives inside a monitor, and the skill is in making that digital window feel completely alive and present.
It is a different kind of performance discipline and getting hands-on time with it in a workshop setting was exactly what I needed to start understanding it properly.
A huge shoutout to the brilliant people who made this workshop what it was. Workshop hosts Lee Armstrong and Images In Motion’s and fellow puppeteers attending the workshop Moddy Puppets and Clown Daddy, all brought so much knowledge, generosity, and genuine passion to the session.
Being in a room with puppeteers at that level and being able to ask questions, experiment, and learn in real time is the kind of experience that changes how you think about your craft.
What struck me most was how much monitor puppetry rewards the same improvisational instincts that I bring to walk-around and stage performance. The technique is different but the core of it: listening, reacting, finding the character in the moment, is the same. It just lives in a screen now.
I left the workshop with a head full of ideas and a very strong feeling that monitor puppetry was going to become a much bigger part of my work going forward. But that day at Images in Motion is where it started. Being grateful for the workshop does not quite cover it.
