Wild Mountain Puppet Theater utilizes our beautiful watershed as its setting and our local creatures as its cast.

Under the leadership of Puppet Master Ashley Boling, talented puppeteers weave stories of risk, drama, humor, conflict and resilience for our youngest students, from preschool through primary grades. The Puppets also perform for audiences of all ages at local Farmer’s Markets, Wilkinson Public Library and similar venues, delivering performances to around 300 participants annually. The children are extremely enthusiastic to engage with this ancient yet current art form as the puppets teach them about regional issues, local flora and fauna, Bear Awareness and leave no trace techniques. These shows are some of Telluride Institute’s’s earliest introductions to our hands-on Watershed Education Program.

This year Telluride Institute plans to add to our repertoire of plays and to expand our venues to include the entire Watershed and other nearby communities. As the kids often want to get their hands on the puppets and make some original dramas, we also hope to begin to develop puppet making and playwriting with our students.