Joe Munley

My journey with creativity began on an August day in 1971 as I left suburban New Jersey for a new life in Northern New England. The people I met listened and out it came, stories, poems, songs, joyful nonsense and my first attempts at performing for others. After meeting my future wife, we moved to NYC in 1975 where I soon discovered the Bread and Puppet Storefront on 9th Street and learned papier mache puppet construction and performed at their spaghetti dinners. I also learned to make and perform with life sized Kabuki style puppets.

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In the 1980’s I started Paper Moon Puppets in New Hampshire using marionettes, masks and puppets. I began teaching puppetry in Hanover and Meriden, New Hampshire, and then in the New York City Elementary Schools.

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In 1990’s the puppet workshops evolved into 10 outdoor, nighttime, summer productions in New Hampshire using puppets and masks and live music. There were up to fifty performers in these shows where adults and children got to play together in building masks and creating an hour long musical.

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I attended the Jack Hardy Song writing group for 17 years writing a weekly song. I became an art therapist and worked for twenty-five years with the homeless and mentally ill clients doing art, music, theatre, and puppetry.

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In 2015 I started a puppet group for adults at the Off Center Community Art Center in Albuquerque where the group creates an original puppet play, usually on a monthly basis.

 

My wife, Melissa and I recently took part in making a puppet film "The Magic Ring" with Karen Cunningham, Bill Beck, Jeff Hudson and Alexandria Cordova that was shown at the Guild Cinema and now it’s on YouTube.

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My joyful nonsense continues.