‘Avenue Q’s’ John Tartaglia on Making Puppetry a Career

Before John Tartiglia earned a Tony nomination for playing Princeton in “Avenue Q,” he wanted to be a puppeteer like his hero Jim Henson. Not only has he become one, but he has worked with Kevin Clash, who plays Elmo on “Sesame Street,” and on June 16 and 23, Tartaglia will be offering puppeteering classes at Pearl Studios.

Back Stage caught up with Tartaglia and discussed creating a career in puppetry.

How did you get involved in the puppeteering community?
Tartaglia: It was just really sitting down and writing to your heroes and hoping. You know, I didn’t know the path of how you became a puppeteer, and I wanted to do it. Many people experienced similar kind of experience of my generation. A lot of younger people are going, “Oh, I need to let my mentors know now that I want to do this.” It’s kind of the way it works because it’s kind of a “secret club career,” something you don’t go to college for and study for. Its not like dance class [and] singing lessons where it’s easy to access how to learn. You have to be yourself and learn as much of it as you can through word of mouth, YouTube, and hope that and you get to meet somebody that will want to meet you.

How do you not become discouraged if someone you admire doesn't write you back?
Tartaglia: I think everyone has this idea that, you know “Who’s going to read this? Who’s going to care?” Obviously when you’re a huge celebrity or superstar, you’re not going to have time to answer everything or read everything, but a lot of times you do try to read that stuff and you hope that person is going to read it. I think I just never thought that wouldn’t pay off. When you’re young, especially when you’re a kid, you think, there’s nothing cynical about you, there’s nothing jaded about you, and you kind of go, “Well of course he’s going to read my letter. Of course he’s going to get it.” That was kind of my thought. I never had a sense of “Oh, he’ll never want to read this. So, I think because I have that kind of optimistic quality about me it did pay off.

How did you get work as a puppeteer?
Tartaglia: It’s kind of very full circle. Kevin [Clash] was the one who hired me, and it’s amazing. Recently, I directed a concert. I just did “The Muppets at Carnegie Hall,” and I was directing the show and I had to tell Kevin where to come in and where to go. Because of the work I was given and because of the opportunities from a creative side, I just learned so much from Kevin, so it’s been passed on. 

Where can actors train if they want to learn about the art of puppetry?
Tartaglia: Only one school [University of Connecticut] offers a major in puppetry. It’s a wonderful program, but that’s a curriculum that covers more the history of puppetry and many different kinds of puppetry. If you love “The Muppets”-style and the television puppetry there’s really not an outlet to just go and learn. I’ve been so lucky to have the most amazing people teach me what I know. So, I was hoping to pass on what little I picked up from those incredible people.

Will puppetry become a necessity for actors to learn?
Tartaglia: I kind of think its become kind of a quadruple threat. It’s a great way to do a lot of things. Not only do we have more and more shows that are a little spectacular and stories that feature or involve inanimate objects or animals or effects that will be hard to pull off with traditional stage craft. It’s becoming a little more expected. You know, look at “The Adams Family” with all those puppets, “Little Shop of Horrors,” “The Lion King.” Frankly, if they walk into an audition and they’ve studied puppetry, compared to a person who might be equally as talented, but has never had a puppet on their hand…knowing puppetry could get you the part. 

For more information about Tartaglia's puppetry classes and workshops, visit www.johntartagliapuppetry.com.