- Mudeye Says “Farewell” to Portland
and “Hello” to Boston!
The Mudeye Puppet Company is leaving Portland after nearly 10 years of neighborhood puppet shows, workshops and school residencies. A Letter from Bruce
Last Chance to See Mudeye
Lot 13 Garden Shows June 24th, July 15th and August 5th at 10am $5 per person. Read More!
Thanks Everyone! We had such a great time at our “LotsandLots” Puppet Festival on July 9th. We are so glad everyone could come out. You made it a huge success! We’d also like to thank the Multnomah County Cultural Coalition and the Oregon Cultural Trust for the Cultural Participation grant we received to help put on this event! Thank you!
Free shows at your Public Library See Calendar!
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 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, he taught in marginalized urban areas where stories about day-to-day struggles and dreams came to life in the form of 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 20,000 children and adults in schools, community centers, homes for the disabled, churches, neighborhood celebrations and after-school programs. Mudeye has been featured twice in the Oregonian, and is a roster artist in the current Young Audiences 2007-2008 resource guide.
The Company
Bruce Orr – Director
Bruce Orr grew up in Delaware City, DE and has been making puppets since he was 4 years old. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Illustration from the University of the Arts, and a Master’s in Art Therapy from Hahnemann University. He has been a freelance illustrator, a street caricaturist, an Art Therapist on an acute psychiatric unit in Philadelphia, the painter of SCRAP’s first mural, and a puppeteer. Bruce started the Mudeye Puppet Company in January of 2003 and couldn’t be happier with its progress.
- We would like to thank the Oregon Arts Commission and Andie Petkus Photography for allowing us to use the beautiful photos that were taken at the Arts Education Congress on November 8th, 2010.

