MEET OUR NEW PUPPET!
Core to our mission at Leroy’s Place is to bring our characters to life through different mediums, and through different artist’s visions. While most of our puppets are built by our wonderful in-house puppet designer, Jacques Duffourc, we love to collaborate with different artists, and explore our characters through the lens of their unique processes. We’re pleased to introduce to you to the newest addition to our puppet family – Larry the Rat! Built in collaboration with two talented NYC artists, Marc Sauvé and (his Mom!) Dr. Carmen Campos. In this blog, we’ll share a little about Larry’s fabricators, take you behind the scenes of his build, and show you where you can find our new favorite rat.
KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY
We are so inspired by the creative friendship between Dr. Carmen and Marc. They often do creative projects together — from puppetry performances to workshops — and it’s no surprise that they both have a lot of creative endeavors on their plates. With a wealth of creative knowledge between them, we were quite lucky to have them both contribute to Larry’s fabrication.
Marc Sauvé is a New York native, and multi-talented artist and storyteller . We first collaborated with Marc to celebrate the launch of his debut novel, Witch of Haberfield Park, in 2023. Marc has since become a frequent creative partner, notably he was the lead writer on our first full-length puppet show DOOMSCROLLING! which we performed in 2024. Most recently he helped to write and produce our nostalgic infomercial-style commercial— which features Larry! His background in narrative arts, theater, and comedy–not to mentioned a shared obsession with Pee Wee’s Playhouse– helped Marc really capture the essence of the Larry character in his original puppet patterning. Keep an eye on GhostBookPress.com to see what Marc is up to next!
Dr. Carmen Campos, Marc’s mother, is a veteran educator with over thirty years of experience and a deep-rooted passion for puppetry that began in the classroom. As a Spanish teacher, she began crafting her own puppets to animate South American indigenous stories for her students, discovering along the way a love for the art form. What started as an educational tool soon evolved into a full creative pursuit, and today, Dr. Campos designs and performs with puppets made from a variety of materials — from socks, to clay and wood. We were lucky to connect with Carmen through Marc, and have carried some of her amazing puppets (including her own pizza rats, pictured above!) in our Brooklyn shop. You can find out more about Dr. Campos on her website: PuppetEd.com
A one-of-a-kind rat
We had so much fun imagining this character through the articulated design of a hand puppet. Our in-house puppet designer, Jacques Duffourc, has explored Leroy’s Place characters as large scale parade puppets, smaller puppets using an innovative combination of rods and strings, and even ‘puppeteerable’ masks, but Larry is our first hand-puppet. It’s no easy task translating a sketch into a foam puppet pattern, and Carmen and Marc were great about incorporating some Leroy’s Place specific materials, so Larry would fit right into our world. For example, Larry features eco-friendly “fur” crafted from repurposed t-shirt material rather than traditional fleece and faux fur. This design choice originally developed by longtime Leroy’s Place collaborator, Whitney Raynor, has become signature to the Leroy’s Place style. The process of bringing these characters to life is collaborative, and it’s truly magical to see the transformation from sketch to puppet. We are so appreciative of patience, openness, and talent that goes into these projects, and we’re just tickled with how great Larry turned out.
WHERE TO FIND LARRY
Larry made his official debut in our newest commercial for our Park Slope location – which was written and edited by Marc (and shot by his talented wife, Angela Sauvé). Check out our nostalgic (and ridiculous) infomercial below, and keep an eye on our YouTube and TikTok for more creative video content.
Larry is sure to be a internet sensation, but until Larry is world famous, you can come meet him in person in our Brooklyn shop at 353 7th Ave! And take Larry home with one of our Larry t-shirts, sold in-store and online.
Stay tuned for more puppets and more magic as the world of Leroy’s Place continues to grow.
