Two master puppeteers will host a “puppet social” this evening to gauge the interest in starting a troupe in the summertime.

Kathryn Mullen and her husband, Michael K Frith, invited the public to join them at the Bermuda National Gallery to experiment with the craft and have fun while learning the basics.

Ms Mullen said that, although the main focus was for people to have fun, she wanted to gauge the interest and talent around the craft.

She added: “We want to teach people who are seriously wanting to learn this skill.

“You don’t have to start off good — we just want to see what you can do and you can get good later.”

Ms Mullen has been building and controlling puppets for decades, working on massive projects such as Fraggle Rock and The Muppet Show alongside Mr Frith, an artist and designer, and industry legend Jim Henson.

She helped bring to life Mokey Fraggle on Fraggle Rock, as well as Leona the Lion on Between the Lions, Kira in The Dark Crystal and the titular Allegra in Allegra’s Window.

The pair said attendees — who must register for the event — would learn to move their puppets, make them talk and learn to put together a voice.

Ms Mullen said it would be geared at adults who may be interested in joining a production club in the future.

She added that the summer workshops would depend on tomorrow’s turnout, but would likely run for six weeks between June and July.

Ms Mullen said it would be “more in-depth” with her working as a coach and be designed for adults to take part in once a week.

Attendees would build and their own simple puppet, develop a character and give it a voice.

Ms Mullen added that she believed there may be some interest in the craft after the success of her husband’s BNG exhibit, The Art of Michael K. Frith: From Pencil to Puppet.

She said: “We were told it was their most popular show ever.”

Ms Mullen said puppetry had been a revered art form for centuries and played many important roles from entertainment to therapy.

She explained: “A counsellor might use a puppet to talk to a child who’s unable to speak. The other side of that is a child or even an older kid who is often afraid to share how they feel, they can often say it through a puppet.”

Ms Mullen and Mr Frith helped create the organisation No Strings, which used puppets to talk to children around the world about serious, locally relevant subjects.

The pair explained the puppets were helpful in broaching taboo subjects such as landmine safety, child predators and diseases.

Ms Mullen added that parents of these children have often times learnt lessons through these performances.

She said: “We’re not talking just to the children, but through the children we’re talking to the parents as well.”

Ms Mullen recommended people bring their own puppets to tomorrow’s workshop, though she added that “something can be done” if one does not have a puppet.

Mr Frith said that, even though the workshop would focus on puppeteers, everyone could find an interest in the field, either through voice acting, design or even script writing.

He added that he hoped people could find their role in the field — or at least learn they could do something great.

Mr Frith said: “People feel like they’re put in a book and they have this envelope around them and they’re almost not aloud to step out of it.

“We found people saying ‘oh, we see that we can see more and do more that we might have been able to do.”

• The workshop will be held at the Bermuda National Gallery at City Hall from 5.30pm to 7.30pm. Registration is required, and can be completed at www.bng.bm