mission

The Mudeye Puppet Company is an educational puppetry arts organization dedicated to providing esteem-building arts workshops, reducing waste, encouraging creativity through use of reused materials and offering local communities with exciting neighborhood-based puppet performances and parades.

history

In the fall of 2002 Bruce Orr moved to Portland from Philadelphia, where he worked as Education Coordinator of the Spiral Q Puppet Theater. With Spiral Q, Orr taught in marginalized urban areas where stories about day-to-day struggles and dreams took to life in larger than life puppet pageantry. From the giant Martin Luther King puppet at Strawberry Mansion to the massive Peoplehood parade, Orr witnessed the power of art as catalyst for change again and again. The use of reused materials and the revival of traditional outdoor pageantry inspired Orr to envision his own puppetry arts organization. In January of 2003, he created the Mudeye Puppet Company. From the first residency at the Robert Gray Middle SUN School, Mudeye's programming and partnerships grew rapidly. As of this writing, the Mudeye Puppet Company has taught reused puppetry workshops to over 2000 children and adults in schools, community centers, homes for the disabled, churches, neighborhood celebrations and afterschool programs. Mudeye has been featured twice in the Oregonian, and is a roster artist in the current Young Audiences 2007-2008 resource guide.

the mudeye puppet company has worked with...

Lent Elementary School - Creston Elementary School - Augustana Academy

Oregon Country Fair - Native American Youth Association - SCRAP

St. Andrew's Church - Car Free Day Celebration - Miz Kitty's Parlour

Reading Frenzy - TAG program at Harvey Scott Elementary - Girl Scouts

Touchstone Academy - The Blazers Boys and Girls Club

Danville Developmental Services - Boise-Eliot Elementary

Buckman Elementary - Helen Gordon Child Development Center

Richmond Elementary in Salem - Trillium Charter School

Nomadic Theatre Company - Portland Art and Revolution

The Serendipity Center - Saturday Academy - The Natural Style Convention

Estacada Summer Fair - Good in the Hood Parade - A Child's Eye

Friendly House - Columbia Puppeteer's Association - Collage

Palisades Elementary - Pacific Crest School - Portland Art Museum

Soul Café - Bridger Elementary - Environmental Middle School

Madison High School - ABC Daycare - Roosevelt High School

ORLO - Youth Opportunity Center - Winterhaven School

Dishman Community Center - Oregon College of Art and Crafts

SUN Schools:

Robert Gray Middle School - Davis Elementary - Alder Elementary

East Gresham Elementary - Hall Elementary - McCarty Middle School

YMCA afterschool programs:

Vestal - Woodlawn - Beach - Rigler - Grout - Arleta

King - Harvey Scott - Faubion - Humboldt - Creston Elementary

bruce's bio

Bruce Orr grew up playing with bugs in Delaware City, Delaware. While working as a street caricaturist, he earned his BFA from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and then his MA in Art Therapy from Hahnemann University. Orr worked as an illustrator for Hollister Publications, created his own comic books under the name Immersion Press and taught children's art classes for six years at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. As an Art Therapist he ran groups for adults at Girard Medical Center in North Philadelphia. Orr was the Education Coordinator of the Spiral Q Puppet Theater for two years before moving to Portland and founding the Mudeye Puppet Company with whom he teaches, performs and manages.

In Portland Bruce organized the biannual celebration of local puppetry called Puppetganza. Orr has written curricula for Oregon Public Broadcasting's Oregon ArtBeat television show. In 2005, he received a grant from Worksystems, Inc. and the Mayor's Office of Cultural and Creative Development to support the fourth PuppetGanza, and a grant from the Regional Arts and Culture Council to paint one of the first legal murals in Portland on the side of SCRAP at N Williams and Failing. You can see that mural and much more of Bruce's artwork at his personal website: bruceorr.com.