Visitors at Eastertide often remark on the giant flower mobile hanging in our nave.  Papier-mâché characters in our galleries and back pews signal that all visitors are welcome, while the banners hanging in the rear gallery simulate a magical forest. These creations are the work of Sara Peattie, whose studio in our basement is populated with characters even more varied than you might find in our Sanctuary.  Our former head usher Stephen Babcock and our Priest Associate The Rev. Susan Ackley are also puppeteers.

“There are more people than you’d think who always wanted to be a dragon,” says Sara.  Whether he wanted to, or was just pleasing Martha, George Mutrie became our poster dragon.  Every Easter game parishioners don Sara’s gear to delight children and the rest of us in our special Easter parade.

Sara Peattie

Over the decades her collection, aka Puppetopolis, has been enlivened by the Back Alley Puppet Theater, who created effigies for Boston’s First Night; the Puppeteers’ Cooperative, founded by Sara and her late partner George Konnoff; and the News Sharks, who started a street theater with puppets later incorporated into their film work.

Anyone who would like to employ the puppets may call (617) 536-3355 ext.26 or email puppetco-op@puppetco-op.org.

See also:

• 2016 Boston Globe article by Cristela Guerra: “Borrow a bit of magic from Boston’s Puppet Free Library”.
• 2023 article by Emily Niedermeyer in Northeastern University’s Huntington News about Sara’s Puppet Free Library.
• WGBH’s 2024 interview with Sara.
• Sara’s website for the Puppet Free Libraries and “like” the FaceBook page of The Puppeteers Cooperative.

Thanks also to Meg Kelley for her contribution to this page and to Susan Larson for her 1995 Voices article, “The Puppet Library Grand Tour with Sara Peattie, Puppetmaster.”  Here is a gallery of some of Sara’s creations.

Our Other Puppeteer

Stephen Babcock

Stephen Babcock, our head usher, has been a puppeteer since 1972. His wife Janice makes puppets of all sorts: hand, rod, shadow and spring. Together they have staged over five thousand shows at schools and libraries in the Boston area and the Puppet Showplace Theatre in Brookline.  In 2022 we dedicated the doors to our west lobby to him.