Peek Behind The Curtain At Orlando’s Art Scene: Nic Parks
Director of Michelee Puppets, Orlando Family Stag
Nic Parks, Director of Michelee Puppets, Orlando Family Stage
HOW LONG WITH ORLANDO FAMILY STAGE: Orlando Family Stage (OFS) took over MicheLee Puppets in December 2023. (The MicheLee Puppet Theater was part of the Orlando community since 1985.) Parks has been with OFS since that merger, and before that, with MicheLee Puppets for five years.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES OF HIS ROLE: Designing and leading builds for puppets, taking puppets to education programs in schools and camps.
HOW HE GOT INVOLVED IN HIS FIELD: Parks went to school for special effects and makeup, specializing in animatronics.
Nic Parks remembers the first puppet he ever created.
“It was a baby triceratops,” he says fondly. “It was really cute. Rough compared to what I can do now, but cute.”
It’s no surprise, then, what counts among his favorite movies.
“I have a deep passion for movies like ‘Jurassic Park,’ ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ and Broadway’s “The Lion King,’” says Parks. “They all pulled me into this puppetry world, and now I’m stuck, and I love it.”
Puppetry is practically everywhere you look, he says, sometimes people just don’t realize it.
“It’s in your movies, it’s in your commercials, it’s in your video games,” he says. “All of the dinosaurs in ‘Jurassic Park’ were puppets. Animatronics is puppetry with electricity.”
Just as puppets range in style, they range in size, sometimes dramatically so. The minotaur puppet he created for OFS’ “The Lightning Thief: A Percy Jackson Musical” was 10 feet tall; he’s also created puppets that are just a few inches tall. It all depends on the show.
But what doesn’t change is that each show is an entirely new build.
While most shows at OFS have at least one puppet in them, two-three shows per season have a major focus on puppetry.
“Because a lot of our shows are based off children’s books, and we tend not to make an exact copy or similar copy to the kids’ books as we would if it’s a famously known show, like ‘Frozen,’” says Parks. “My focus is, ‘what is the story trying to tell?’ then find a way to put my own artistic spin on it.”
One of Parks’ goals is to set up a section for puppet rentals once he builds a robust catalog of shows. He also hopes to change people’s perceptions of puppetry.
“It’s just as high an art form as any other performance art form out there,” says Parks. “I would love to be a part of creating that realization here in the United States.”
