Where There's a Will...

By C.J. Hirschfield

When Will Lewis was about 2 years old, he discovered the joy of puppets. His parents were indulgent – his dad built him a little stage for his productions – but they assumed that his interest was “just a phase.”

“It obviously wasn’t,” says the well-spoken Will, who is now 13 and will premiere his puppet version of “The Frog Prince” at Fairyland’s Puppet Fair Aug. 26 and 27. It will be his first full theatrical production. We can’t wait.

Will Lewis in Fairyland's puppet pit.

I first met Will when he was very young, under less than promising circumstances: I helped fish him out of one of Fairyland’s shallow water features. He and his dad were clearly enjoying a delightful day, and a little water didn’t slow them down in the least.

His deeper Fairyland connection, however, began in 2012, when he was 8 years old. Will attended Fairyland’s summer camp, where we invite kids to come backstage at the nation’s longest-running professional puppet theater. Unlike other campers, he kept coming back. He began a relationship with the park’s master puppeteer, Lewis Mahlmann, a legendary figure in the world of puppetry.

After Lewis became bedridden with his final illness, Will’s dad, Billy Lee Lewis, a well-known professional drummer, took him frequently to visit the puppeteer. Will gave Lewis some puppets he’d made of tissue, and he read to him. “Lewis always favored young talent,” says Fairyland’s current master puppeteer, Randal Metz, who himself had shown up at Fairyland’s puppet theater at age 10; he later became Lewis’ apprentice, then business partner, and ultimately took over for Lewis upon the latter’s retirement.

When he was 9, Will started coming to the theater every weekend. He made a great impression on Randal by giving him a puppet he’d made.  “I was amazed that a 9-year-old had constructed a mechanical moving mouth,” Randal recalls, with no small degree of professional admiration.

Puppets for "The Frog Prince," created by 13-year-old Will Lewis.

We lost Lewis Mahlmann three years ago. Will’s dad Billy died of cancer last year. Will’s mom, Jessie, an accomplished singer-songwriter and teacher, says that Fairyland has been a haven for the family during the best and worst of times. “Randal opened his door to Will anytime he was on site,” she told me. When Billy was ill, Randal’s supervision “allowed me to do the kind of care and advocacy that I needed to do for Billy, knowing that Will could not have been in better hands.”

Will Lewis is now a one-man—or one-early-teen—mini-theatrical company. He directs, designs and fabricates the puppets and sets—even creates and performs the music. He also dances ballet, plays the piano and organ, sings and sculpts.

Will has paid his artistic dues—as much as a 13-year-old can—in advance of his debut as a show producer at Fairyland. In the locally produced Driveway Follies, an elaborate annual Halloween marionette show performed in an Oakland driveway that attracts more than 1,000 people each year, Will worked backstage and manipulated puppets. During past Puppet Fairs at Fairyland, he helped clean, set up and do demonstrations.

His efforts were not lost on the adults he's encountered. For the audio track of his show “The Frog Prince,” all of the Fairyland voice actors volunteered their time and talent. The recording session was lots of fun, although “It was weird directing adults who I look up to,” says Will.

During the performances, his friend Sarah Tracey-Cook will be his assistant. They’ve been friends since preschool; her non-puppet interests include competitive soccer and playing drums and saxophone.

Sarah Tracey-Cook and Will Lewis.

Will is dedicating his performance to his father, who always encouraged his efforts, was “hilarious” and whose love of clever wordplay he obviously passed along to his son. What is Will hoping people will take away from his show? “That it was a good show, and not stupid,” he says honestly. He even admits to being “scared out of my mind.”

Randal is sure the response will be positive. “He’s doing the same things I did 48 years ago,” he says. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support of peers, schools, adults and Fairyland.”

He adds: “As long as you have support, there’s nothing you can’t do—and certainly Lewis thought so.”

Randal has told Will more than once that if he continues with puppetry, he could be the one to take over as Fairyland’s master puppeteer someday, just as Randal succeeded his mentor, Lewis. The older members of the San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild love the kid; he is not shy in the least about asking the whys and wherefores of puppetry. “We need young puppeteers,” says Randal. “No one is now learning the process at Will’s age, and we have a record of building confidence—and careers.”

Is it a coincidence that Lewis Mahlmann and Will Lewis share a name? Perhaps. But the dapper young Will chooses to sport suspenders, just as Lewis did, and we know that Mr. Mahlmann would have loved knowing that Will’s debut is at Fairyland.

Our youngest puppeteer will most likely use the show as part of his audition for the Oakland School of the Arts, where he will apply for admission next year. The principal of the high school is none other than Mike Oz, whose uncle Frank Oz—creator of Yoda and Miss Piggy—began his own apprenticeship at age 10 at Fairyland’s puppet theater and who continued his puppetry work throughout high school. Mike is the grandson of puppeteers who spent a great deal of time working with our Storybook Puppet Theater.

Will’s 10:30 performances of “The Frog Prince” will lead off the many shows each day at Fairyland’s Puppet Fair. Join all of us at Team Fairyland, Will’s mom Jessie and numerous members of the Bay Area Puppetry Guild as we celebrate the talent, resilience and hard work demonstrated by one very special young man.

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C.J. Hirschfield has served for 15 years as executive director of Children’s Fairyland, where she is charged with the overall operation of the nation’s first storybook theme park.