 |
|
|||||
Jason Hines
JOB: Resident puppet builder, Center for Puppetry Arts, Atlanta
WHAT I DO: Hines, 31, and the puppet builders at the Center for Puppetry Arts design and construct all of the center's performance puppets by hand. "People often ask, 'Where did you get those puppets?'" Hines said. "We build all this stuff here." Hines also helped write, design, build, direct and perform "Avanti, da Vinci!," the center's Leonardo da Vinci show. He is refining and repairing puppets for the current production, "Anne Frank: Within & Without," and building characters for the upcoming "The Tortoise & The Hare & More." His credits also include his marionette punk-rock band, Clobber; work at Dad's Garage Theatre Company; a film; and work on "Blue Collar TV."
WHAT GOT ME INTERESTED IN THIS: Hines said he always liked to make things - a trait he acquired from his artist mom and engineer dad. In college in Charlotte, N.C., he started doing puppet shows in a bookstore. He had done theater before, but this was his first time doing puppet shows. From there, he went to graduate school at the University of Connecticut's puppet arts program, the only such graduate program in the country. "I started building puppets when I needed to start making a living," Hines said. In New York City, he built puppets for the stage show "Pokemon Live" and PBS's "Between the Lions." He also performed in some self-produced shows, but mostly he built puppets. "It's harder to make a living performing." From New York, he worked as an actor in Cape Cod, Mass., where he met his future wife, Kristin Meyer. They moved to Atlanta in 2002, and she is a stage manager at the Center for Puppetry Arts.
BEST PART OF MY JOB: "Being able to be creative, getting to use my own creativity to make it work." In making a puppet, the builder must deal with both form and function, Hines said. "I have to make it look right and work right. ... I also like working with the people I get to work with."
MOST CHALLENGING PART: "There are so many different things you have to know how to do - sewing, sculpting, casting, painting." Builders also have to deal with the size and weight of the puppet, not to mention the challenges of budgets and deadlines.
WHAT PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT MY JOB: "We build all this stuff here by hand. It's designed and built in this room."
WHAT KEEPS ME GOING: "The variety of things I get to do. You don't have time to get tired of what you're doing." Hines has been building puppets for about six years. "I forget that it's an odd job."
PREPARATION NEEDED FOR THIS JOB: You need art training - drawing, sculpting, painting, acting, performing, dancing. "The puppet is the performer," he noted. "You have to know about stage movement, yet be removed from it." Hines has a bachelor's degree in theater from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and a master's degree in fine arts from Connecticut.
- By Karl Ritzler, for ajcjobs. Got an interesting job that you love? E-mail your story to jobseditor@ajc.com.
