Mary Churchill (puppeteer)

Mary Phipps Putnam Churchill (December 29, 1930 - November 16, 1997) was an American puppeteer, educator, and entrepreneur.[1] Her puppet troupe, The Cranberry Puppets, entertained children for 25 years with witty feminist adaptations of folktales. Churchill was founder and director of Puppet Showplace Theater in Brookline, Massachusetts.

This article is about the American puppeteer. For the British author, see Mary Soames.

Early life and education

Churchill was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the youngest of three children of Charles Washburn Putnam and his wife, Imogene Phipps (née Hogle).[2]

Churchill attended Radcliffe College and Barnard College (Class of 1952).[3] She studied economics and government.[4] In 1968, she earned a Master of Arts degree from Simmons College.

Career

Churchill taught elementary grades in the Boston school system. She taught third grade in Roxbury and was a reading specialist in Newton.[3] There, she began using puppets to teach students who had trouble learning to read.

Churchill started reading books about puppets and making them.[5] In 1972, she joined her local puppetry guild and took workshops. Then she attended an international puppetry festival in France. She returned determined to be a puppeteer and to have her own theater.[6]

The Cranberry Puppets

Churchill began to crochet hand puppets and create her own puppet shows. In 1973, she founded The Cranberry Puppets and performed plays for children. She named her signature puppet "Betsy."

Churchill performed witty adaptations of fairy tales and fables. These included “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Three Billy Goats Gruff,” “The Lion and the Mouse,” and "The Three Bears." She also performed "Devil in the Pumpkin Patch" and "The Witch Who Hates Birthdays."[7]

Her adaptations featured strong female protagonists. In Churchill's versions, female characters were the heroes.[8] Her version of “The Three Little Pigs” included a smart female pig named Mary. Mary was a dentist who avoided being eaten by pulling out the teeth of the Big Bad Wolf.[9]

Puppet Showplace Theater

In 1974, Churchill founded Puppet Showplace Theater. She located the theater in her neighborhood of Brookline Village. Churchill became a regular performer with The Cranberry Puppets. She also served as the theater’s principal administrator and benefactor.

Over the next two decades, Puppet Showplace grew. It went “from a few weekend shows to an internationally recognized puppetry center.”[10] Churchill showcased performers from across the United States and around the world. She also offered meeting space for the Boston Area Guild of Puppetry.[11]

The Puppetry Journal called Churchill the “driving force” behind Puppet Showplace Theater.[12] In The Boston Globe, Lynda Morgenroth wrote, "The Puppet Showplace is the house Mary Churchill built."[11]

Personal life

Churchill was the mother of four children: Jean, John, Bill, and Charles.[13]

In 1976, Churchill attended an international puppetry conference in Moscow, Russia. There, she met puppeteer Paul Vincent Davis. He became her lifelong companion and partner. Davis served as Artist in Residence at Puppet Showplace for over 30 years.[14]

Churchill died of lung cancer on Sunday, November 16, 1997 at her home in Brookline.[15] She was 66. Churchill was buried in Agawam Cemetery in Wareham, Massachusetts.[16]

Legacy

Churchill saw puppetry as a powerful medium. It could teach children, stimulate their creativity, and introduce them to live theater.

In 2007, Puppet Showplace created the Mary Churchill Memorial Fund. It honors “her legacy of generosity and her commitment to making arts accessible to all.”[17] The fund brings schoolchildren from low-income neighborhoods to see puppetry at Showplace.[18]

References
  1. "Mary Putnam Churchill". www.sagecraft.com. Retrieved 2020-04-25.
  2. "Mary Phipps Churchill". Geni. May 24, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  3. Kneeland, Paul (February 20, 1974). "In This Corner: Little Red Riding Hood Joins Women's Lib". The Boston Globe  – via ProQuest (subscription required) . ProQuest 746877647. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  4. "Mortarboard". Barnard Digital Collections. 1952. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  5. "INTERVIEW". The Boston Globe  – via ProQuest (subscription required) . January 4, 1987. ProQuest 2074274587. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  6. Doten, Patti (November 26, 1992). "PUPPETS PULLING THE RIGHT STRINGS IN BROOKLINE". The Boston Globe  – via ProQuest (subscription required) . Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  7. McCabe, Bruce (October 29, 1994). "HALLOWEEN CREEPS UP The scary season culminates in enough activities to fill a witch's caldron". The Boston Globe  – via ProQuest (subscription required) . Retrieved April 21, 2020.
  8. Leone, Loretta (March 23, 1978). "NO STRINGS ATTACHED". The Boston Globe  – via ProQuest (subscription required) . ProQuest 757679272. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  9. Avery, Brad (February 4, 2015). "Celebrating 40 years of puppetry". The Patriot Ledger. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  10. Brown, Nell Porter (November 2015). "Life On a Tabletop: An ancient art form thrives at the Puppet Showplace Theater". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  11. Morgenroth, Lynda (September 17, 1981). "Puppet Paradise: MARY CHURCHILL IS WOMAN BEHIND SHOWPLACE IN BROOKLINE". The Boston Globe  – via ProQuest (subscription required) . ProQuest 1009575330. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  12. "Women in Puppetry". The Puppetry Journal. 50: 4: 12–14. Summer 1999. ProQuest 1794350 – via ProQuest.
  13. Long, Tom (November 19, 1997). "Mary Churchill, at 66; founded Puppet Showplace in Brookline (obituary)". The Boston Globe. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  14. Mukwashi, Kathleen Conroy (Fall 2009). "The Little Theatre That Could: Celebrating 35 Years of the Puppet Showplace Theatre". The Puppetry Journal. 61: 1: 6–7. ProQuest 1800535 – via ProQuest.
  15. "Puppeteer dead at 66". The Associated Press  – via ProQuest (subscription required) . November 19, 1997. Retrieved April 17, 2020.
  16. "Mary Phipps Putnam Churchill". Find A Grave. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  17. "The Mary Churchill Memorial Fund". Puppet Showplace Theater. Retrieved April 20, 2020.
  18. "Globe West Community briefing: Fire department renovations in Arlington". The Boston Globe  – via ProQuest (subscription required) . February 14, 2010. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
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