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Tuesday, 03 February 2004
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At age three, John started building puppets in his hometown of Plainfield, Indiana. His audiences at local libraries cheered him on when he was thirteen and led John to consider puppetry as a possible career choice.
By the time he had graduated high school, John had honed his skills in music, dance, drama, and art in an effort to improve his puppetry, and landed a job at the Indianapolis Union Station Festival Marketplace. Performing there as a singing, dancing, banjo-playing puppeteer, while also working on a bachelors degree in theater at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI), John built up his confidence to write the Jim Henson Company. As a result, he was invited to several performer workshops in New York City.
Coincidentally, in 1990, John auditioned in Indianapolis as a dancer in a Muppet revue for Walt Disney World. He got the job, was relocated to Orlando, Florida, and in a few weeks was working beside Jim Henson himself. John has now been working in film and television for more than 17 years. Some of his many credits include Dinosaurs, Sesame Street, Telling Stories with Tomie DePaola, The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, Muppets Tonight, Muppets From Space, and The Country Bears. His most recent credit is playing the drum savvy pooch Mel the Dog for Noggin's Jack's Big Music Show.
John's career in puppetry blossomed with the release of his two puppet making books Puppet Mania! and Puppet Planet. Published by North Light Books, they feature original puppet projects with patterns and performing tips that Kennedy developed as a young puppeteer. Being an author has helped John land appearances on the HGTV crafters series The Carol Duvall Show, the PBS series FETCH with Ruff Ruffman, and the Comcast on demand network Activity TV. |
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