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As David Simpich begins his evening show, called Portraits, the atmosphere is one of edgy half-attention. Young men indulge in the boisterous and ironic laughter that lets a performer know they may be too cool for this show. Perhaps they expect a typical puppet show: the crude humor of Punch and Judy, or the maudlin comforts of the late Shari Lewis's beloved Lamb Chop.

But Simpich works with marionettes—elaborately sculpted and jointed dolls that wear costumes rich in period detail. Using an intricate collection of strings, Simpich breathes new life into such characters as King David, Francis of Assisi, Abraham Lincoln, Pinocchio, Helen Keller, and John Merrick (the Elephant Man). When Simpich reaches the closing moments of his 70-minute show, several hundred students listen in a rich silence. He receives a lively ovation.

"There is a preconceived idea of marionettes and what they're going to do," Simpich tells Christianity Today the morning after his performance at Wheaton. "It's exciting to me to have the marionettes overcome that."

To enter the world of David Simpich is to step into a narrative spanning centuries. Many of his characters quickly gasp for breath between their sentences, conveying a greater urgency and pathos than an observer normally expects from puppets.

In addition to Portraits, Simpich takes on an array of challenging classical stories, including A Christmas Carol, Great Expectations, Pilgrim's Progress, and The Little Mermaid. Watch Simpich working and you'll see him at all times—he does not hide behind a curtain—and yet you may easily forget all these voices and personalities are coming from only one man. A Simpich performance is captivating because it is so intimate.

"The live experience of having the puppeteer really there, really giving the voice, will always be the most valuable, the truest form of puppetry," Simpich says. "You know something can go wrong when you do it live, and things do, often. … But I would say that it is worth the difficulty, as opposed to just programming the whole thing where the human soul is not somewhere up there, giving, on the stage."

In time, though, he found that he appreciated the classical discipline and the full-bodied complexity of marionettes. By 1984, with the help of some library books, Simpich began creating marionettes. A year later, he developed Beauty and the Beast into a show.

Sophisticated puppetry appears as far back as 1573 in England and the 17th century in Japan. Two common theories prevail about the source of the word marionette. One theory says marionettes appeared in Nativity scenes in churches (the Middle French word maryonete means "little Mary"). The other theory ties the word to the Italian morio, for "buffoon" or "fool." Neither marionettists nor other puppeteers are widespread in 21st-century America; Puppeteers of America has about 2,000 members.

Simpich now has 14 shows in his repertoire. Simpich travels often with his wife, Debby, and their four children as he performs an average of 150 shows in a year. The Simpiches use a homeschool curriculum so the family can stay together throughout the year.

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October 1 2001, Vol. 45, No. 12