BRAD BREWER
(b. 1954, Washington, D.C.; lives and works in Freeport, NY)
Brad Brewer is the founder of New York City’s Brewery Puppet Troupe. As a child in the Soundview projects in the Bronx, Brad was obsessed with the art of puppetry, which he learned from puppeteers Kermit Love, Jim Henson, and Frank Oz. Through the creation of his puppet singing group the Crowtations, Brad and company have worked with Melvin Van Peebles, Chaka Khan, Spike Lee, Harold Nicholas, David Brenner, the Four Tops, Mr. Rogers, Ron Carter, Oscar Brown, Jr., and Ron Howard, to name a few. His troupe is the only African American puppet company to appear on Broadway, in a major motion picture, and on network television. Several of his puppets are in the collection of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.
Children’s Art Carnival affiliation: Teaching Artist, circa 1980-1983
Puppetry was frequently used within the Carnival’s Creative Reading through the Arts program as a holistic approach to art education. Children not only created puppets, but also wrote a script, performed in, and even video recorded their own puppet shows leading to improved reading, vocabulary, and communication skills. The program also had an effect on its teaching artists such as the puppeteer, Brad Brewer.
Translating his intuitive artmaking process into a clear and concise lesson plan challenged Brewer to think more critically about his own creative methods, further hone his mastery of foundational artmaking principles, and enhance how he communicated his thoughts on the art of puppetry. In an interview he once stated, “I consider myself still a student of puppetry and…every time I’m working with any audience, especially young people, I feel like I’m still learning.”
This puppet, named after the jazz legend Duke Ellington aka The Duke, is from a production of Duke’s Place, an original coming-of-age story featuring Ellington’s music. The show was created and written by the Brewery Puppet Troupe, a groundbreaking all-Black puppet company founded by Brewer in 1974.
