Reviews

UP CLOSE Thurs, Oct. 2nd 1997. Paradise Post

18- year-old puppeteer shoots for the big time.

By: Lindsay Garcia
Post Staff Writer

At 18 years of age, Paradise resident Jason Ropp is more sure of what he wants to do
with the rest if his life than most people twice his age. For the past four years Ropp has
been homing his love for puppetering with shows at the Butte County Library, three cable
access shows, private birthday parties and at the upcoming Johnny Apple Seed Days,
just to mention a few.

His life has not been without tragedy however. On Christmas Eve of 1995 Ropp lost his
biggest fan and source of inspiration, his mother, to a long battle with diabetes.

Ropp's love for puppets started with what he calls "The-go-ahead"from his mother, as well
as a life time of home schooling which he says "gave him a much-needed freedom to
pursue his creative desires."

After the completion of his first puppet theater, Ropp was given permission to be taken in
as a puppeteering apprentice to Chico resident Hillary Cornwell. After two years of training
in puppet creation and latex work, Ropp now has a skilled eye for detail when creating his
own puppets.

To make ends meet, Ropp has been working at a Payless Drugs and Red Lion Pizza.
Most of his free time is spent creating new puppet characters and playing as he would
call it, "an addictive game "Called Warhammer 40,000. With the help of his father, he was
able to tour Germany through a program at Paradise High School last year and is a long
time member of the Boy Schouts/Eagle Scouts.
Although his life goal is to become "rich and famous", he is currently saving to attend
Butte College in the spring and plans to take drama and computer classes.

Why did your parents decide not to enroll you in public school?

Well, both my parents were credentialed teachers, so they had both taught and seen the
whole public school thing.
They decided that they didn't like the public school system at the time. My mom just
thought that she could do a better job. She told me I always had the right to go to public
school if I really wanted to.

Do you think you missed any social or academic perks that you could have had if
you had attended public school?

No, because I was always active in the Boy Scouts and other things.

Where did you get the inspiration to start your puppeteering?

I owe a lot of my puppets and my creativity to my mom.
I think because I was home-studied all my life I always had time to do this kind of stuff
and she always backed me on it when I started to do the puppets.

What was your first experience like creating a puppet and a puppet theater?

I was working on my Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts. To earn your Eagle Scout you have
to do a community project.
I had done some puppet shows with a guy that did some stuff for the Butte County Library
and I noticed that the library didn't have a theater, so I asked them if they would want me
to build them a theater for my project. That's where I met Hillary Cornwell.

What was the transition like, moving away from home?

Between me and my dad there was that whole "leaving the nest" thing. Every once in a
while there was that lack of communication and after a while it was hard to agree on
things, but moving out has been a good experience. We get along pretty well now.

Where does most of your spare money go after bills?

My main hobby is the miniature game, "Warhammer 40,000" That has been where most
of my spare money goes. It's kind of like chess except with orks and goblins in the future.
They have their own special powers and capabilities. It's a lot of fun.

Is this a fairly popular game?

Yeah, I went to Pacificon, a gaming convention in San Mateo and they had a lot of this
kind of thing there. There is also another one in Chico Called McCormicon that I've been
to also. I've gotten a lot of my friends addicted to it. We play together all the time.

You mentioned that you are very attached to your hair. What would some have to
give you to cut it off?

They would have to get me a job with some great company. It would have to be
something pretty major!

What is your earliest memory?

I think my earliest is of being in preschool. One thing that has always been fresh in my
mind is of a time when I was three of four years old.
My mom would come in in the morning, wrap me up in this little blanket while I was still
sleeping and take me over to the preschool which was over at my grandma's house next
door. She would put me in one of the bedrooms and I would wake up at preschool with all
the other kids.

If you could talk to your mother one last time what would you say to her?

Before she died I used to show her every miniature I painted for the Warhammer game.
When she died I didn't have anybody to show it to.
Things just weren't the dame after that because she was always the one critiquing my
work. I think the last thing I would do with her is show here what I am doing and talk to
her about it like I used to. I miss it. She was very inspirational.

Paradise Post, Tues. 15th 2005

The Reluctant Dragon Comes To Paradise

When Paradise native Jason Ropp was 16, he had no idea
the community service project he carried out for Boy Scouts
would transform his longtime hobby into a career.

In order to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, the home-schoolede
student built a puppet theater for the Paradise Branch
Library, where he had been putting on amateur shows for
local children.

After watching his presantation of "the Three Little Pigs" at
the theater's inauguration, Chico based professional
puppeteer Hilary Cornwell offered Ropp an apprenticeship
with her company. Under her tutelage, Ropp learned to make
more sophisticated puppets and panned his first script. "The
Reluctant Dragon".

Puppet Plays It Safe article in ON SITE Magazine

After eight years as an ARCO site manager with
safety record second to none, Michael Vezinaw
found a void in safety training and filled it by
creating a video starring a set of colorful puppets
and his own employees.

"I wanted to make it fun and memorable for them,"
he says. "Plodding through this HSE (Health, safety,
and Environmental) manuals just wasn't working."
With a shoestring budget, Vezinaw recruited fellow
employee Jason Ropp, who had a small puppet
theater business, and together they developed a
script.

Focusing on the eight planks of the safety policy,
the puppets demonstrate the proper and improper
ways to handle various situations related to safety
in the retail environment. Employees Mildred Young,
Michael Lagomarsino and Shar Kimball were
featured in the 5-minute flick.

To his surprise, Vesinaw's video has taken a life of
it's own. "When my supervisor found out about it he
wanted copies for the rest of the territory." says
Vezinaw who purchased videotapes in bulk and
copied them himself. Did I mention a shoestring
budget?

"Next thing I know, I'm on a plane to Los Angeles to
receive a bonus check, the ARCO Presidential
Award and an ARCO jacket at our safety meeting,"
says the humble producer. And best thing about it?
It works. "Just a week ago we had a beer run
(someone stealing beer) and a new cashier told me
she remembered what to do from the video. After
calling police with a good description, the beer
runner was apprehended."

Cheers!

Ashley J. Vezinaw

Puppeteer ignites kids' imaginations

Jason Ropp worked with an east metro arts and culture council and Gresham
Parks & Recreation to bring a tale to life.

09/25/03

BARBARA ADAMS

GRESHAM -- With an air of expectancy, children gathered at Blue Lake Park on
Wednesday afternoons, and waited for the shows
to begin. Would they sing? Would they dance? Would they be transported to
another time and place via the magic of
imagination?

This summer, they were treated to the premier of the children's fantasy
"Thrump-O-Moto" by James Clavell, told by puppets and
their young puppeteers. Working with the East Metro Arts and Culture Council
and Gresham Parks & Recreation Division,
puppeteer Jason Ropp brought to life the multi-theamed story of courage and
overcoming life's obstacles.

City of Gresham recreation coordinator Michele Brouse Peoples discovered Ropp
during Arts Night in the Park in the summer of
2002 as he performed for Portland's puppet theater, Tears of Joy. On the lookout
for new creative programs to offer to the
community, she met with Ropp to discuss a puppetry program in Gresham. First
project on the list, adapting her favorite children's
book, "Thrump-O-Moto."

"We sat down, and I gave him my ideas and hopes; he gave me his ideas and
hopes, then he said he could do it and we checked
in with each other regularly," Peoples said. "We made our own timeline and
adapted as we went, and it all came together as
theater does."

Financed through an arts council grant and the William H. Hurt Foundation, Ropp
was hired in December 2002.

"Money and funding are the excuse for doing nothing and canceling programs a
city and community should be responsible to
provide," Peoples said. "Partnering, sharing, volunteering keeps us vibrant,
creative and learning. It's also a lot of fun."

The beginning of Ropp's puppetry life began eight years ago when he was 16.
That was the year he stopped cutting his straight,
silky blond hair, which now cascades down his back like Rapunzel's. It was the
year he became a puppeteer's apprentice,
performed in his first Shakespearean festival and started his company, Dragon
Theater Puppets. It was also the year his mother,
who was his home-school teacher, died from complications of diabetes.

Ropp grew up in Paradise, Calif. To earn his Eagle rank in the Boy Scouts, he
volunteered to work with a puppeteer who
performed at libraries and birthday parties. He built a puppet booth for a library
where he performed three versions of "The Three
Little Pigs" with puppets he created.

It didn't take long for word to spread that a talented young man was
experimenting with puppetry before puppeteer Hilary
Cornwell from nearby Chico asked Ropp whether he'd like to work as her
apprentice. She taught him how to create puppets with
latex, and helped him get work.

"She helped me build the puppets and write my first script, which was 'The
Reluctant Dragon,' " Ropp said.

He performed "The Reluctant Dragon" and "The Princess and the Witch" at his
first Shakespearean festival. It was the only time
his mother saw him perform.

"She actually went with me. She was always a backstage mom," Ropp said. "She
made the puppet stuff part of my curriculum
when I was starting out."

"Your perfect actor" After apprenticing with Cornwell, he attended Butte College
in Oroville, Calif., where he studied acting,
illustrating, painting, sculpting and video. He continued performing at parties,
schools and libraries.

Three years ago, Ropp moved to Portland to work with Tears of Joy, a nationally
recognized puppet theater that performs across
the United States and abroad. He worked with artistic director Nancy Aldritch,
who helped him improve his puppet manipulation
and ways to express the characters.

"A puppet can be your perfect actor," Ropp said. "They never argue with you.
They don't mind their costumes being glued to their
skin. They can look exactly like the character you had imagined."

"Thrump-O-Moto" is the story of a tiny Japanese Wizard whose mis-directs magic
sends him into the outback of Australia, where
he befriends an 8-year-old named Patricia. Ropp created puppets with little more
than sketches from the book with the help of
four young apprentices, Callie and Reid Vandewiele, Elizabeth Tobey and
Andrew Runge.

Home-schooled siblings Reid, 15, and Callie Vandewiele, 16, of Eagle Creek,
became involved with the puppetry program through
their work with the Gresham Little Theater.

Their mother, Sherie Vandewiele, said they have benefited from Ropp's
expertise.

"He can teach them things that I don't know how to do," she said. "They've done
art, performance and business stuff. Jason is
amazing, and it's really fun for them because he was home-schooled, too."

The work began in January as they created the puppets and built the set. Ropp
directed the show as his apprentices memorized
lines and learned to manipulate their characters.

A chain of training "It's a unique world," Ropp said. "Puppeteers encompass all
facets of theater -- acting, set design, script
writing, directing, illustrating, lighting and sound. We do everything that an
entire cast would do."

"It's been really, really fun learning how to do this stuff. Jason knows a lot. It's
amazing some of the things he knows how to do
with puppets," Callie said.

Ropp said he would like to see more youths get involved in puppet theater and
has devised a way to do that.

"The people I trained have agreed to pass down their knowledge to at least two
other people before leaving," he said. "Puppetry
is an art form that needs more new talent."

Peoples said she hopes Ropp will work with students at Hogan Cedars
Elementary School through a school grant.

Two more puppet shows are in creation: a spook house for Halloween and a
comical tale of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Meanwhile, "Thrump-O-Moto" will be marketed as an educational program
through schools and libraries.

"It will be offered as an innovative, beautiful and entertaining piece of
performing art," Peoples said.