About Us

We are Tanya Crowley and Yumi Ozaki, program directors and performers for the northern California puppetry troupe, Quack and Wabbit Puppet Theatre. Occupational therapists by trade, we cofounded Quack & Wabbit Puppet Theatre because of our love of puppetry and because we discovered the effectiveness of puppetry in therapy sessions. By using puppetry to teach, children learned the skills being taught more quickly while having fun. We use our professional quality, handmade puppets to teach children positive messages and life skills. Our humorous, musical, poignant and tender-hearted stories yield emotional responses in children, enhancing their learning experience.

What do we do?

We have attended puppetry writing workshops, and have had the honor of being chosen to work with Jerry Juhl, the writer of the Muppet Movies. Attending national and regional puppetry conferences, we learned puppet creation and manipulation and theater production. We have a wide array of teaching experience, having taught puppet making and manipulation, script writing, and theater production over the course of ten years, at local and regional puppetry conferences and at FirePALS (Fire Prevention And Life Safety) conferences. We present puppetry workshops for children and teachers throughout northern California, along with Teaching Tolerance Workshops for teachers and school personnel. Quack and Wabbit Puppet Theatre has been creating and touring in original entertaining and educational puppet shows for the past 18 years. We have toured our programs throughout Humboldt County, Del Norte County, and the San Francisco Bay area.

Our puppet theater performances include both original musical versions of classic children’s stories and educational programs which teach valuable life skills. In the past, we have partnered with Fire Pals, a nationally recognized fire and child safety organization to teach traffic safety, bike safety, earthquake safety, and water and fire safety. We have worked with Humboldt Del Norte Dental Society to create a program that teaches children about oral health. In collaboration with Ink People, Garfield and Freshwater School Districts, McLean Foundation, and JAMS Foundation, we have created two bullying prevention puppetry programs that teach tolerance and compassionate communication.

Mission Statement

Our purpose is to promote a positive difference in the lives of children by teaching valuable life skills through the art of puppetry. Our hope is that we will begin to make a difference in children’s lives by working together with teachers and students to create a safe, peaceful and compassionate climate in the schools and our community.

Quack and Wabbit Goals:

– To empower students to help themselves by teaching skills which improve their safety, health, well-being through our puppet theater performances, follow-up discussions, and handouts.
– To develop creativity, imagination and positive self esteem by teaching movement, music, and art through puppet theater workshops.
– To provide training and tools for teachers and students to use which encourage a safe and compassionate climate in the classroom and the community through our theater programs, workshops, discussions and educational material.

Shows and Work

Froggie & The Ribbits Speak Out

This performance is a musical, humorous and tender-hearted puppet show about a frog who is enrolled in a school with human children. Through the magic of puppetry, children learn about accepting differences in others and ways to deal with bullying, anger management and conflict resolution.

Stone Soup

This is an inspirational and musical show based on the book by Marcia Brown. This performance is a sweet story which teaches children about the importance of caring and sharing and the magical gift of giving.

Ted The Wolf And The Three Pigs

“Ted the Wolf and the Three Pigs” is a heartfelt story about a very likeable but socially isolated fellow named Ted. He moves to “Swineville” and faces the challenges of being bullied by three pigs, This rock and roll musical program dispels the prejudice and the myths about wolves being “big and bad” and brings awareness and understanding to individual perspectives in a conflict. The pigs and the wolf magically experience what it is like to literally “walk in each other’s shoes.” The performance and follow up discussions focus on teaching the skills necessary for resolving differences, dispelling stereotypes, compassionately communicating, being empathetic, managing anger and resolving conflicts.

Healthy Smiles

This fun musical program is a magical tale about a visit from the tooth fairy. It is designed to teach children proper dental care and the importance proper nutrition. Beautiful giant puppets are used to convey these messages.

Mr. Gumpy's Outing

This show is a musical story about cooperation and friendship based on the book by John Burningham. Children have the opportunity to create the characters and perform. The performance is enlightening, playful, and full of surprises.

B.A.R.K Program

The B.A.R.K. program (Be Aware Responsible and Kind) is an interactive humorous production. It shows children how to be safe around dogs and teaches proper pet care. The creation of this program was sponsored by the McClean Foundation and The Companion Animal Foundation.

Teaching Tolerance Workshops

Creating a caring compassionate climate in your classroom. Solutions to the problems of bullying behaviors in the school.

Puppetry Workshops

Join Puppeteers Yumi & Tanya for a fun time filled with movement, music and laughter. Learn the art of creating and developing your own puppets and puppet theatre performance.

Quack and Wabbit presents: Mortimus Returns