Bringing his puppets back to Western New York

It takes a lot of imagination to breath life into an inanimate object. Don Kruszka took on that responsibility when he left a job as a newspaper reporter to become a puppeteer. He says "I though that sounds fun, I'd always been a fan of the Muppets and Mr. Rogers" It all worked out because Don has been putting on puppet shows for more than two decades. He lives in Bakersfield, California now but each Summer treks twenty-five hundred miles back to Western New York, his hometown, to entertain audiences with his Omnipresent Puppet Theatre. He builds the puppets, writes the shows and is the only one back stage creating the magic. Don says he has fourteen different puppet shows that he has created. His current production of Three Little Pigs has enough laughs for "kids" of all ages. At a recent performance at Grand Island Memorial Library Don pointed out "I never like talking down to my audience. I wanted to make the show smarter if I could." He's about halfway through his Western New York schedule and you can get more information at his website.