Arts Directory

About

Artist Bio

Hobey Ford has never had another career. Internationally renowned in the puppetry field, and an award-winning performer and Kennedy Center Partner in Education teaching artist, Ford knew early on what he wanted to do after seeing a puppet show while still a youngster. He was bitten by the puppetry bug – and while studying at arts college, Hobey eventually found . . . “one of my cornerstones – that I would approach puppetry as storytelling – with puppets.” Ford designs and constructs all of his Golden Rod Puppets as well as the beautiful sets that surround them. Now a resident of Asheville, NC, Hobey also draws on his early experiences growing up in coastal Connecticut or living in a Nevada Native American community in writing the scripts for some of his performances. He first created the Golden Rod Puppets in 1980 and often adapts folk tales and global cultural traditions for his performances, always adding a special Golden Rod twist. His performances incorporate a variety of puppetry styles: Bunraku, rod, marionettes, his own “Foamies”, and shadow puppetry. Hobey is quick to credit his audiences for completing the creative spark that is ignited with every live performance and he has brought his amazing talent to family and school audiences all over the world.

Ford has received the highest awards for his brilliant and priceless contributions to the world of puppetry: two-time winner of puppetry’s highest honor, the UNIMA (Union Internationalale del las Marionette) Citations of Excellence; recipient of three Jim Henson Foundation grants; and the The Hermitage Fellowship. Chosen as a Kennedy Center Partner to teach teachers (and other artists) how to use the performing arts in the classroom curriculum, Hobey offers professional development workshops to teachers as well as shadow puppetry workshops to students.

Hobey is considered by his peers to be both an innovator in puppetry craft and a master storyteller. He created both the “Foamies” and the clever hand puppet know as “Peepers” – an imaginative, patented set of plastic eyes – for hands of any size, worn in several ways that turn the bare hand into an innovative and inexpensive instant puppet. The “Foamies” are large animal puppets that Hobey designs, carves and paints from blocks of foam. After studying each animal’s characteristic movements, Hobey designs various rod control mechanisms to make the puppets themselves move in an incredibly life-like manner. The “Foamies” are presented using both stage and house performance spaces, often flying or “walking” right out over the audiences’ heads.

“Ford is a remarkably original and refreshingly authentic artist whose passion just happens to express itself through the rather unusual…medium of puppetry!” ~ Tom Kerr, Marquee

“Funny, talented, wonderful, creative, delightful. Absolutely great to work with! ~ Clark Performing Arts Center, Springfield, OH

Artist Statement

My programs are arts integrative. They are as visual as they are aural and they are intended to inspire invention and creativity within students by presenting original puppets and different puppetry forms. My storytelling puppet performances follow the oral tradition connecting students to histories, cultures, the imagination, and creativity of others.

Assembly performances allow students to experience the art form of puppetry firsthand, and to apply critical thinking to understand the mechanics and the creation of that art form. Students witness original, unique, and innovative puppetry performances that engage on multiple levels. Performances encourage both self and social awareness in the student audience. Students learn facts from the stories and positive and different ways to communicate emotions and ideas. They will utilize critical thinking skills when given the opportunity at the end of the performance to ask questions.

Stories like “Migration” help students to understand cultural differences and resilience through change, as they learn through the main character’s personal journey and the journeys of the different animals in the story. In my adaptation of “Three Billy Goats Gruff,” I offer a new spin on the original. Students are encouraged to examine both renditions and to evaluate the differences and determine if the characters made reasonable choices given their circumstances. My performance “Sea Song” promotes discussion about personal emotions (loneliness, boredom) and how to manage them.

The hands-on student workshops that I offer provide the opportunity to participate in group activities that foster individual self management and positive collaborative decision making and perseverance as students decide which puppets to create, and manage their time to complete the project. Follow up activities might include student groups writing shadow plays and performing them for the group. The stories and presentations would allow the students to experience new ways of understanding differences among themselves, and to communicate and demonstrate that knowledge. There is a feeling of safety in presenting from behind a shadow screen, allowing students the freedom to express themselves more freely.  Such individual and group interactions promote positive self awareness and relationship skills.

I have been exploring the merger of puppetry and video in my work, and putting it into practice with my assembly performance “Migration,” and in developing puppets for film and music videos. As an offshoot of this video and puppetry work, and stemming directly from his work creating puppets for film and video, I can incorporate film footage into workshops for older students, discussing the adaptation of stories to film and video and displaying props from some of the films.