Toto Comes to Life for Students in Unforgettable Puppetry Experience

Toto is coming to life at SCH! Thanks to an Innovation Grant, our Middle School drama students, the Spotlights, are diving into the magical world of puppetry, exploring creativity, collaboration, and storytelling as they bring the Wizard of Oz to a whole new dimension.

Partnering with Monkey Boys Productions, our students had the opportunity to hear from co-founder and puppetry supervisor Marc Petrosino who led a dynamic presentation, sharing examples of his real-life work creating puppets for Saturday Night Live (where he met Lin-Manuel Miranda!) and many well-known theme parks. He then provided hands-on training for two of our students, Bobby Morris '30 and Leighton Kahoe '31, who will be controlling Toto, the professional puppet. 

What brings a puppet to life? Focus and breath, says Petrosino. Students discovered how the smallest movements—an intentional glance, a well-timed breath—can transform a puppet from an object into a living, expressive character.

“As they refined their skills, they learned that puppetry isn’t just about movement—it’s about storytelling, precision, and emotional connection,” says Heidi Painter, director.

The magic of puppetry has left an inspiring mark on our Spotlights students.

"I am super excited that I got to learn about puppetry because I had never worked with puppets before, so it is going to be new for me," says Kahoe, one of Toto's handlers. "The puppetry expert gave me tips about using the Toto puppet and I thought that was really cool."