‘So Many Possibilities’: The Street Creature Puppet Collective Steps Back Into the Limelight

​In late summer last year, Jen Murphy grabbed a whiteboard and jotted down all the upcoming events her group, Street Creature Puppet Collective, had planned for that fall. Like in years past, there was a lot to keep track of, and it was shaping up to be another busy season for the crew of roughly 50 puppeteers, artists, performers, musicians, and tinkerers.

“October is always our busiest month, and we were in full production mode getting ready for those events when [Hurricane] Helene changed everything,” says Jen, a founding member of the Western North Carolina-based Collective. “Everything got erased.”

What a difference a year can make.

Beating Back the Storm (With Puppets)

This time last fall, Jen was scrambling to squirrel away as many puppets as she could from the Collective’s studio at the Asheville Mall, where FEMA officials had opened a temporary Disaster Recovery Center.

“The Monday or Tuesday after the storm, I was like, ‘We need some puppets,’” recalls Jen, who, armed with a headlamp and a mission, snuck into the dim, vacant mall just before its lockdown. “I grabbed a whole bunch of random puppets and shoved them in my van.”

Before long, those puppets began popping up at impromptu neighborhood parades and distribution centers where volunteers offered food, water, and showers to weary residents displaced by the storm. “A few of our good friends, Rising Appalachia and Secret Agent 23 Skidoo, did performances, so we would show up at their concerts and dance around and interact with the kids,” says Jen. “We pivoted and tried to be of service in the best way that we know, which is to bring creativity, fun, and lightness to a pretty dire situation.”

Despite debris and dirty water, Jen and the Street Creature Puppet Collective managed to bring Halloween to downtown Asheville that fall by improvising a scaled-back version of the beloved Surreal Sirkus festival. The Collective’s 10-foot-tall paper blue heron puppet, a staple in their performances, also made a surprise appearance at the candlelight vigil in Pack Square last October, where around a thousand people gathered to mourn the community’s profound loss.

“We hid behind the city hall until everybody was lighting the candles,” recalls Jen. “Then we came out with the heron, and the audience just gasped. All these people started crying.”

The Return of Fall Festival Season in WNC

One year after Helene battered WNC, causing $53 million in damage, countless event cancellations, and a substantial loss of revenue in the arts sector, crowds are once again flocking to regional festivals, craft fairs, and—happily for the Collective—puppet parades.

With their studio now reopened and WNC steadily recovering, the Street Creature Puppet Collective’s fall calendar is packed with familiar favorites like Surreal Sirkus, Halloween House, and the LEAF Global Arts Festival.

“The Street Creature Puppet Collective is a fixture at WNC parades and public events,” says ArtsvilleUSA Executive Director Elise Wilson, reflecting on her family’s recent participation in the Collective’s puppet parade during this year’s LEAF Global Arts Festival. "Parades are always celebrations that fill you with cheer," she explains, "but the Street Creatures operate on a higher level. They bring a sense of whimsy and delight. It's an experiential event, like a mobile art museum."

Whimsy and weirdness have returned to the region in full force this Halloween, largely thanks to the Surreal Sirkus, a unique festival featuring experimental theater, live music, circus arts, and, of course, puppetry. This year’s main event, The Tale of the Cosmic Eggs, explored the soul’s journey after death through an eight-part series of performances that have taken place throughout Asheville over the past year. Just before the show, the Street Creature Puppet Collective led a lantern parade, handing out hundreds of handmade glowing lights to festival-goers as they made their way to the stage for the debut of The Tale of the Cosmic Eggs.

Last year, Surreal Sirkus looked very different. “About 20 people gathered around Pack Fountain, which we’d turned into a big altar,” says Jen. “We all stood in a circle around it. People put up pictures of things they had lost, told stories, said prayers, and sent energy up for healing. It was beautiful.”

From Halloween Thrills to Mardi Gras Magic

While Surreal Sirkus and LEAF Festival have passed, fall festival season isn’t quite over for the Street Creature Puppet Collective. Right now, the group is busy putting the finishing touches on sea-themed decorations for the annual Halloween House on Vermont Ave. This year’s theme, “20,000 Screams Under the Sea,” promises to thrill trick-or-treaters with eerie mood lighting, puppets of fish and seahorses, and a spooky underwater soundtrack.

Next up in November, the Collective will join eastern North Carolina-based Paperhand Puppet Project for their performance of The Gift at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts in Asheville. “They have been incredibly influential and mentors to us,” notes Jen. “They are really wonderful people. Our group started from a workshop that one of their members taught in Asheville 12 years ago; he's going to do another workshop here next spring.”

In just a few months, the Collective will begin preparations for Mardi Gras, a celebration they embrace year after year with unmatched panache. During the 2023 festivities, members were spotted in fantastical mushroom costumes, tossing seed balls to the crowd of revelers. The following year, adapting to a smaller studio space, they created mini floats using rolling furniture. In 2025, the Collective puppeteered a motley crew of monsters, including Jingle the Trash Dragon, and handed out 200 cardboard puppet monsters.

What the Street Creature Puppet Collective has in store for the 2026 Mardi Gras festivities remains a closely guarded secret, but it’s safe to say that their upcoming showcase promises to be a spectacle worthy of the celebration's storied history.

As Jen slyly notes, “There are so many possibilities.”

All images published with permisson of the Street Creature Puppet Collective; featured photo: Elise Wilson.