PICK OF THE WEEK

The Aurora Valentinetti Puppet Museum is one of the hidden treasures of Bremerton, Washington. Someone in Bremerton told me about it a couple of years ago due to my love of puppets and finger puppets, but I never visited it until yesterday. The child and I took a drive to Bremerton to see puppets.

The space that the museum inhabits is very small. The museum is run mostly by volunteers and it often shows. The passion that these lovers of all things puppetry have is also very apparent, however, and trumps any of the museum's shortcomings. What the museum lacks in size and staff is made up for in the wonderful puppets and masks. Many of the puppets were donated by Marshall Campbell, one of the founders of the museum and the Evergreen Children's Theatre, and by his mentor, Aurora Valentinetti. When the child and I visited there were hand puppets, rod puppets, marionettes, shadow puppets, life-sized puppets, masks, and props from some of the shows of the Evergreen Children's Theatre.

In addition to the main gallery of the museum, there is also a small room filled with hand puppets, marionettes, children's books, a puppet stage, musical instruments, table, and chairs. This room is intended for children and adults alike to play with puppets and imagine. There is also a gift shop that sells puppets of all types, shapes, and sizes so that you can take the world of puppetry into the comfort of your own home.

I immensely enjoyed the puppets in the gallery and the child seemed to be enjoying herself as well. We then played in the "imagination" room putting on some improvised "shows" for one another, as well as tried out the various percussion instruments—xylophone, snare drum, tamborine, maracas, castanets, and more. We purchased a set of "eyes" that clip on one of the fingers of your hand, turning that hand into a puppet. The child is fascinated by them and listens to what she calls Eyeballs better than she listens to either of her parents. After a great time in a world of puppets, puppets, and more puppets, the child, Eyeballs, and I wandered off into the cool late summer weather of downtown Bremerton to explore the newly renovated and expanded waterfront district.