Edgewood Resident Performs Sunday in Puppets for Pittsburgh Pageant

Laura Bilski is realizing her own life dreams through Puppets for Pittsburgh after deciding to make a change from majoring in engineering to creating magic in art.

“I moved to Pittsburgh three years ago to study engineering and I recently decided that I don’t like it at all and I want to do something more artistic,” Bilski said. “Basically, I am looking for projects to do this summer and I found Puppets for Pittsburgh by chance and found out they were hosting workshops, so I showed up one day.”

Bilski, 26, of Edgewood, discovered the Puppets for Pittsburgh studio in April, where she has been helping to design, create and become the characters, which all are created from cardboard, paper mache and paint.

“It has been such a great experience,” she said. “When I started thinking, ‘What do I really want to do with my life?’ the perfect job would be working for Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, because I just love muppets and puppets.”

This Sunday, her work on puppets as large as eight feet high will come alive on stage during two performances in a “Puppet Pageant” at the Three Rivers Arts Festival at noon and 2 p.m. at Point State Park. Live music and dancers also will be included in the show.

The organization, founded and run by Cheryl Capezzuti, is based on the North Side.

“Through this free puppet lending library, I loan giant puppets out to organizations all over the city, including the East End,” Capezzuti said.

Bilski said the puppets are used in parades, First Night celebrations, the Three Rivers Arts Festival and also are used at nonprofit organizations across the city.

“When you walk into her garage, it’s like a mountain of puppets; puppets lining the walls, art supplies and craft supplies everywhere,” Bilski said. “They are always in progress, since they lend them out and there is a lot of wear and tear, so they are always becoming something new.”

This Sunday’s performance involves about 10 large puppets and “a couple of surprises,” Bilski said.

“It’s a pollination dance,” Bilski said. “The themes are community, cooperation and conservation of nature.”

There are two sides in the performance, including flowers and insects.

“They are sort of competing for territory and eventually they realize they have to work together to survive,” Bilski said. “I think it goes along really nicely with the Three Rivers Arts Festival’s themes of community and awareness of the environment.”

Bilski said she will be playing a flower during Sunday’s performance. About 10 people will be dressed in the puppet suits for the production.

“One of the things I am looking forward to is that the community will be involved,” she said. “There are certain parts where kids can come up and participate and I think that will be really fun.”

Since Bilski has been working to help create the puppets from scratch for the last month, she is looking forward to taking their creations to the stage this weekend.

“I have been doing a lot of the paper mache and painting and it’s just been so cool to see these things come to life from cardboard,” she said.

For more information on Puppets for Pittsburgh visit www.studiocapezzuti.com.