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Daily Press

WILLIAMSBURG Sunday, Aug. 20, 2000 - You would like to witness to your faith, but you're racking your brain: How best to tell the story of Noah's Ark? David and Goliath? Jonah and the whale? Why not a puppet show?

When a group of 200 people gathered at the Williamsburg Community Chapel Saturday for the first-ever "Virginia Festival of Puppet Ministries and Creative Arts," they came away believing that puppets are indeed one of the most effective ways to spread God's word.

And they learned tips from professional puppeteers on how to make it a first-rate show. The daylong workshop included classes on, among other things, puppet choreography, recording techniques, writing a show and making puppets. In his talk and demonstration on puppet choreography, Jason Wiedel, a festival co-director from Rainbow Productions in Hampton, spent a good deal of time on puppet dance moves and getting all puppets to work in sync. He taught how to use props like bubbles, lights or signs, such as John 3:16, that might pertain to the Bible verse you're talking about.

"At the end of the show, you can throw some confetti in the air, or throw some streamers. It's a big finish to the story."

Weidel and the other festival co-director, David Messick, also of Rainbow Productions, said they started the festival after noticing a need for it on their puppet tours. Invariably, after unloading their equipment, local church members would come up to ask questions. "Whether it was in Berryville, Va., or Manteo, N.C., or places in between, what we heard was the same -- 'How did you get started?' and 'Can you tell us what our church can do to start a puppet ministry?' " Messick said.

They tried to share what they knew, but after explaining it the first few times, they eventually decided a festival was in order. They decided, Messick said, "to pull out all our trunks of puppets and call on some of our friends and colleagues to share what we've learned along the way."

Several professional puppeteering friends were called. Attendees came from as far as West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey and North Carolina to attend. A group of 23 young people came from "Creator's Critters," a puppet-performing group encompassing 12 churches in central West Virginia.

Friday, they performed at Potter House, a homeless shelter in Virginia Beach.

Dominique Broadnax, a 13-year-old who attends First Baptist Church on King Street in Hampton, has never put on a puppet show before but came away a true believer in the method and vowed to try it at First Baptist.

"The lighting, the sound -- everything was good," he said after seeing the lunchtime performance of Noah's Floating Zoo. "It was just great. There are a lot of stories we could do. Like the Prodigal Son. Jonah and the whale. Jesus and how he died on the cross or other things he did in his life."

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