LYON HILL: Imagination's always been very important to me.
So growing up, I had two younger sisters.
It was usually about me creating characters out of their dolls
and stuffed animals and things like that.
And I did.
I had a lot of characters that I would do and a lot of voices.
But that stuff kind of fell by the wayside.
I wasn't really thinking about that stuff career-wise.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
I came to the Columbia Marionette Theatre
looking for a bit of summer work and thinking it would just
be kind of fun and came here as I was finishing up at USC
and then never left.
The place took me on full time as soon as I graduated.
And I realized I had found something really unique.
And I think my illustration background, my love of drawing,
and all those sorts of things are
things that I've kept very much alive
and contribute kind of a unique look to what I do.
When it comes to designing and building a puppet,
I mean, there are a lot of different ways to go about it.
For myself, sometimes I might just
design a cool looking character and make that puppet
and just figure out something that that puppet's going to do.
And it might be a short little five minute piece.
Or it might blossom into something larger.
[HUMMING] What's that?
LYON HILL: When we are making shows
for the main stage at the Columbia Marionette Theatre,
we saw a bigger picture we're looking at.
We're finding the story that's going to work for us.
And once we have settled on the story,
I start looking at all the characters
and start designing each of those.
And I have to know what that character's going to do,
what that puppet will physically be called upon to do,
and what type of voice it's going to have,
how it's going to be written.
And I try to take all those things-- those things
into consideration and then give a unique look
to the show as a whole.
And then we make all of those puppets, kind of, assembly line
fashion.
We'll sculpt all of the heads.
We'll construct all of the bodies.
We'll paint them all.
They'll get costumed.
And then we string them up.
And it all kind of comes together
toward the end of the puppet making process.
I have lots of puppets that I'm really happy with.
I mean, I've made hundreds.
They weren't all winners.
And sometimes maybe I didn't really
have a grasp on who that character was,
or the role was so minimal.
But there certainly have been standouts through the years.
All I want to do is go to the park
and feed the squirrels and the birds.
But does he have time for that?
No.
You'd think he had the most important job
in the world the way he goes on about his schedule.
I said, you're just shaking dolls.
[LAUGHS] You call that a career?
I just like to tease him.
LYON HILL: I have to say that entertaining
my boys with puppets and making them laugh
is extremely rewarding.
[BLEAT]
I judge a puppeteer by how well they
can do when they don't have the bells and whistles
of lights and soundtracks and all of the things.
Like, can you, with a puppet there, entertain
me, robbed of anything else?
And so when I can just take a puppet off
of a rack and interact with people and make them laugh
and engage with the character and forget that I'm there,
that's extremely rewarding.
Puppetry was a way for me to get out
of my-- I'm a very shy person.
I'm very insular.
I don't-- I never spoke in front of crowds and things like that
and was always very nervous.
And through puppetry, I found a voice,
a way to feel comfortable.
And now I've become-- I introduce
all the shows and everything like that, which I never
thought that I would do.
So I don't know.
I found something that kind of brought me out
of my comfort zone, which I'm very appreciative for.
I do definitely have tried to never abandon
the artistic ideas that drove me to do certain things
in the first place.
I'm still sort of, like, fiercely
idealistic when it comes to the projects that I take on.
And I always try to stay true to what really works for me
because I feel like I can't-- I can't make something to be
popular.
I don't know what other people like.
The best thing I can do is make it interesting to me.
And then I hope that other people--
that I am like other people and that it will find an audience.
So sort of being, like, fiercely true to yourself
as a way of actually making something
that connects with other people has been what I try to do.
[MUSIC PLAYING]