By: Zaki Hutchinson and Bryanna Anderson
June 28th Unveiling of Puppets Display at Hart Memorial Central Library, July through August 2025Hart Memorial Central Library, Kissimmee, is exhibiting a set of 44 puppets crafted by inmates of Osceola County Corrections, the result of four weeks of bilingual workshops led by Dr. Tyler Fisher and Leah Basaria in June 2025. Fisher and Basaria used puppetry to help inmates develop job interview skills as part of the Correctional Facility’s classes. Open Scene, a multilingual performing arts non-profit, created kits of puppet-making materials, which the incarcerated students used to create puppet personas for practice interviews.
Research in “applied puppetry” has shown that puppets’ capacity for allowing a puppeteer to adopt various personas can build confidence, linguistic competence, and creativity. Drawing on this research, Fisher and Basaria developed a series of workshops, aptly named the “Art of Interviewing,” in which incarcerated students learn to make puppets and then practice job interviews in Spanish and English. The puppets help soon-to-be-released inmates build confidence and competence. Via their puppet personas, students can let go of self-consciousness and inhibitions. The puppets serve as an empowering extension of the self.
One inmate reflected on his experience using puppets as a proxy: “I can’t feel offended by critical feedback when I have a puppet on my hand.”
Initially funded by an “Our Town” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the puppet-making kits were created by Open Scene artists, who included written instructions in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. Distinct from typical children’s puppets, the puppet components were designed to be playful without being childish, featuring human-like qualities and non-human colors, steering clear of any racial connotations.
Thamara Bejarano, Executive Director at Open Scene, explained her team’s creative vision for preparing the puppet-making kits: “We approach every Open Scene project as a chance to honor complexity. This time, we paid close attention to the textures, colors, and accessory choices, because identity isn’t one-dimensional—it’s fluid, layered, and deeply personal. We wanted every participant to feel seen, and to find elements that reflect their unique story.”
The “Art of Interview” classes were taught by Fisher of Florida Gulf Coast University; Basaria, founder and CEO of Light Line; and Alejandro Bernard, a student at Valencia College. The students’ unique puppets, currently displayed at Hart Memorial Central Library, constitute something Fisher calls “anti-mugshots”: these puppets encourage the public to perceive the incarcerated students as artists, performers, creative agents.
Alongside each puppet, a written description offers details about the particular student’s journey and aspirations. The exhibition aims to inspire and uplift, illustrating how creative engagement with incarcerated individuals can spark personal transformation, from incarceration to reentry and reintegration.
