Saint Ann’s Puppet Parade hits Brooklyn Heights for 37th year

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — Hundreds of Saint Ann’s School students and their artistic creations — giant heads with flowing gowns, winged creatures flying on sticks, Trojan horses — took to the streets of Brooklyn Heights on Tuesday for the school’s annual Puppet Parade.

A beloved spring tradition, this was the 37th year Saint Ann’s students and their teachers brought the myth-infused festival to the neighborhood. Locals lined the sidewalks of Montague and Pierrepont streets and a bit of the Promenade to enjoy the zany procession with its drummers, dancers and mischievous cavorting clowns. 

“It was so much fun and it felt magical to be sharing art and puppetry with people walking along the streets of Brooklyn Heights,” said Will, an early participant who asked to withhold his last name. “Former puppetry teacher Ronnie Asbell liked the ‘surprise’ aspect of staging the parade spontaneously as a welcome to spring.”

“Part of the magic was the serendipity of just appearing on Montague Street as an actual parade, and then on the Promenade, where we might get cheers and expressions of bewildered wonderment, possibly from tourists looking at the skyline,” added Will.

Students from preschool through 12th grade have been working all year on puppets in classes led by puppet art and theater teachers Olga Okuneva and Christina Rodriguez. The weather couldn’t have been better for the event.

The exuberant paraders did two laps around the route and then it was a wrap, the gods of youth and life and spring appeased once more.