Zachary Crook is a 7th grader at Bernardo Heights Middle School. Zac started his love of puppetry at the age of 7 after attending a puppet show at the San Diego Zoo’s summer camp.  His passion was fueled when he found out that the puppeteer, Big Joe, was a resident puppeteer at the puppet theater right in Balboa Park.  Zac started to plan all of his weekends around the puppet theater’s schedule.  When most kids were watching TV and playing video games Zac was practicing and perfecting his puppet manipulation skills.  When other boys were asking for action figures for birthday gifts all Zac wanted was puppets.

The puppet theater started to recognize Zac and asked him to join their guild.  As a guild member Zac was able to participate in their annual December nights performances.   Big Joe started to mentor Zac and he assisted him with shows whenever possible.

In 2009 and 2010 Zac was given the opportunity to do his own puppet shows at the theater.  With the help of his family he wrote the scripts and made all the puppets, backgrounds and props. His goal is to create a new show each year and perform them in the summer when he is off school.

During the school year Zac continues to assist the other puppeteers at the theater on the weekends and breaks. He has learned so much from all of them and hopes to mentor younger aspiring puppeteers in the future.