Interview: Puppeteer Jordan Brownlee On Returning to JIM HENSON’S EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS at OFC Creations Theatre

Back by popular demand, OFC Creations Theatre presents JIM HENSON’S EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS, bringing the beloved Jim Henson television special to life on stage November 25 through December 12, 2026 at the OFC Creations Theatre Center in Rochester, NY. Set in Frogtown Hollow, the heartwarming musical follows Ma and Emmet Otter as they risk what little they have to make each other’s holiday dreams come true, featuring a score by Academy Award-winning songwriter Paul Williams that includes “When The River Meets The Sea” and “Our World” alongside new songs for the stage. Directed by Eric Vaughn Johnson, the production features official puppets from The Jim Henson Creature Shop and the full returning cast from last year’s sold-out run.

Returning to the production is puppeteer Jordan Brownlee, who plays Doc Bullfrog, Chuck Stoat, and Tiny Squirrel and also serves as puppet director. Brownlee has performed as an additional puppeteer for The Muppets’ “Mr. Blue Sky” music video, THE MUPPETS MAYHEM, and THE MUPPET SHOW special, where he operated Beaker and Marvin Suggs in crowd shots during the finale. He was first cast in the New Victory Theater production of EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS in 2021, reprising his roles in 2023 and 2025, and has also performed at Sesame Place San Diego.

BroadwayWorld spoke with Brownlee about the Sesame Street credits that sparked his career, the differences between puppeteering for camera and the stage, and the accidental breakout star of the show: a skunk named Stinky.

---

What first drew you to puppeteering, and how did that path eventually lead you to the world of Jim Henson’s characters?

I was always a fan of puppetry on TV; shows like SESAME STREET, BEAR IN THE BIG BLUE HOUSE, and BETWEEN THE LIONS were on all the time in my home. When I was about eight, the Sesame Street movie FOLLOW THAT BIRD was on TV, and during the credits, I read the names of the puppeteers who each played multiple characters, like Jim Henson, Frank Oz, and Caroll Spinney, and I wanted to learn more about who they were. From that moment, I started reading and watching everything I could find about these talented performers who brought many of my favorite characters to life. I didn’t know how I’d do it, but I knew I wanted to be a part of that world too.

I started building puppets and figuring out how to perform them and give each one a unique personality, and I kept doing that for over 10 years. When I was 19, I did a puppeteer workshop with Sesame Street, and that was the first time I met other puppeteers who shared my passion for the craft. After more workshopping, auditioning, and building connections within the community, my first gig with The Muppets was a music video in September 2021. I was so shy and nervous to be on an actual set, but everyone was so kind and inviting and made me feel like family. Since then, I’ve done a few music videos, TV series, and live shows between The Muppets and The Jim Henson Company.

What has it been like reprising the roles of Doc Bullfrog, Chuck Stoat, and Tiny Squirrel across multiple productions since 2021?

It’s been wild to think I’ve been playing these characters for five years now, especially considering I never thought I’d play them at all. When I first auditioned for the Off-Broadway production in 2021, it was a local hire, so being a relatively unknown San Diegan who was only a couple of months into my professional puppetry career, I honestly didn’t think it was realistic for them to pick me, but I auditioned anyway. When I got the part, I was excited, but understandably nervous about taking on iconic characters like Doc Bullfrog and Chuck. I had this responsibility to honor the choices made by their original performers (Jerry Nelson and Frank Oz), but I also had to figure out how to make the characters my own. Neither of those characters has very many lines in the TV special, so much of what I did that first year was informed by not only the vocal qualities, but the interesting physical choices, like Doc’s bouncing during the song “Ain’t No Hole in The Washtub” or Chuck’s shoulder-heavy walk. Playing Tiny Squirrel was a bit easier in the sense that he’s not from the TV special, so there were fewer expectations of how this character should be played. The other puppeteers told me what his previous performers had done, so I did my best guess as to what that might have been, and ran with that.

When we took the show to Chicago, I realized I’d spent that first production trying really hard to play the characters the way someone else had been playing them, but nobody really asked me how I wanted to play them, and frankly, I never asked myself either. We did a ton of press in Chicago, so that gave me the chance to improvise in character and find what really made each of them tick. I also let their voices adapt and become more comfortable while remaining recognizable.

When I joined the Rochester production with OFC Creations, it felt so easy jumping into character. I know all three of them so well now; they have intricate backstories, camaraderie with other actors backstage, and a special place in my heart. I realized a while ago that I’ve played each of these characters more times than anybody else, but I still don’t consider them mine. I’m holding the torch for now, but someday, someone else is going to take care of them, and I hope they find their footing and make the most of it the way I have these past five years.

How does your experience performing with the Muppets on screen inform the way you approach these roles on stage?

I think the secret is not to approach the characters as if they are just puppets. They are characters with wants, desires, needs, emotions, souls, families, dreams, homes, friends, etc., that you might find in any other character. Your job is to channel an earnest performance as you would any other acting role, but it needs to come through your arms instead. If you want to be a successful puppeteer, you need to be a strong actor first and foremost, and then you can build strong puppetry technique on top of that, but without either of those, a performance can fall apart quickly.

What are the technical or physical differences between puppeteering for film and television versus live theatre?

When you perform for film or TV, you almost always work to a monitor with a live feed from the camera so you can frame your character, check sight lines, and keep your own body out of the shot. That also means that you’re working to one perspective, so you only need to worry about what the camera is picking up. On top of that, if the puppet breaks or your head is in the shot, you can simply reshoot or fix it in post. In live theatre, you’re performing for hundreds of individual perspectives, so making a puppet look good from a fixed camera location isn’t always helpful because the character might look really awkward to someone seated elsewhere in the theatre.

When you want to see a puppet’s full body dance on television, usually a chroma key set is used with puppeteers decked head to toe in green or blue to digitally remove them from the shot. In theatre, the best solution is having us decked out in black against a black backdrop with side lighting to create the illusion that a woodchuck is dancing and playing the banjo all by himself. EMMET has a couple of moments with pre-recorded audio for logistical reasons, but otherwise all dialogue is live. There are a couple of moments when a puppeteer has two characters on stage at the same time or can’t physically be in place to play a character, so rather than dubbing a voice in post like we would for screen, we throw our voices and work with whomever is operating our character to make sure we sync up as best we can. It’s a fun challenge, but after a couple of rehearsals, it’s usually pretty seamless.

Can you walk us through your process of building and maintaining these characters each time you revisit the production?

The nice thing is these puppets are built and maintained by the fabulous team at The Jim Henson Creature Shop in New York between productions, but when we’re in production, we have someone called a puppet wrangler who takes care of the puppets. If you find a tear on your puppet’s mouth, an arm rod coming loose, or a dirty eyeball, a puppet wrangler has special tools on hand to fix it so the puppet can be back in the show as quickly as possible. As puppet director for the OFC production, I helped choose our wrangler, Richard Michael Gomez, and he’s an absolute delight to work with. Richard works quickly and loves to learn about how each puppet functions so he can fix any problem. Last year, Melissa Rabbit, half of a dancing rabbit duo, had a foot rod snap off in the middle of a performance. Luckily, this was right before a two-day break, and Richard was able to take both feet apart, recreate the interior foam shape, make new foot rods, and sew everything back up good as new. I’ve stitched up Tiny Squirrel a couple of times, but I’m so glad Richard is a part of the Emmet Otter family because he brings not only skill, but a warmth and enthusiasm that’s so contagious.

What is it about EMMET OTTER’S JUG-BAND CHRISTMAS that makes it such an enduring and beloved story for audiences?

It’s funny, I find if you ask a stranger about Emmet Otter, they’ve either never heard of it, or it’s their favorite thing to watch during the holidays. I know so many people who watched it every year with their parents or show it to their kids every year, and I think it’s because of how sincere these characters are. Ma and Emmet especially exude a warmth that invites you into their life. You feel like you could knock on their front door, and Ma would offer you a cup of tea, Emmet would go fetch you a basket of pinecones, and they’d sing songs with you around a fire. On top of the charming, everlasting characters we meet in the show, the music of Paul Williams is a character all its own. The songs are timeless gems that stay in your ears and heart long after the show is over, and I even know bluegrass musicians who love the show because of the representation of that genre of music. Everyone finds something to latch onto with this story, so I don’t see it going away any time soon.

How does it feel to be part of bringing this classic Jim Henson special to a whole new stage adaptation?

It’s a special honor to bring something like this to the stage, not only because people love the story, but I love bringing puppetry to the stage any chance I get. Now that the show is being licensed, other productions are starting to pop up around the country, but we are lucky enough to be using the official puppets from The Jim Henson Creature Shop. Although we aren’t using any puppets from the original special, we have recreations that greatly resemble the originals, and when people see them, it brings them back to the moment they first saw them on screen. During the overture, the Ma and Emmet puppets row their boat across the stage, and almost every time, people gasp and applaud because it’s a key memory being brought to life right in front of them. From iconic visuals like the treehouse rehearsal to iconic lines about mashed potatoes, it’s always fun hearing the audience react to something they are so familiar with.

On top of that, I also love when people who’ve never seen the special come to see the show because they get to form all new memories with us. I usually talk to audience members in the lobby after a show, and it’s gratifying when a newcomer finds a song or joke that really sticks with them or has a favorite puppet, and often, those same people decide they want to go home and watch the special. Being a part of this ongoing cycle of new and old fans is a real treat, and I can only hope the love for this story continues for many years to come.

What has surprised you most about audience reactions to this production during past runs?

In the first few productions, the show utilized various critters like weasels, possums, beavers, and rabbits as background characters during a few of the songs, but during the Chicago run, The Henson Company was also putting on their improv show, PUPPET UP!, and needed a few of those same puppets to round out their cast. Consequently, the EMMET team went to Henson to find some other puppets in storage that we could use instead. One of those puppets was a skunk named Stinky that had been used on a ’90s television series called THE ANIMAL SHOW WITH STINKY AND JAKE. We all immediately fell in love with Stinky and tried to find different points in the show that he could pop in. We realized he needed an act for the talent show, and it became this cool collaborative effort where everyone brought some idea to the table, and we ended up working really hard on this very short, silly bit. Because it wasn’t from the special, we had no idea how audiences would react to it, but every single show, it got a huge laugh and remains one of the funniest moments in the whole show.

I had the opportunity to rewrite a few scenes in the show last year, and I gave Stinky an arc with the squirrels based on ideas we tossed around in Chicago, and there’s usually at least one person after a show who makes a comment about Stinky and how they’re glad he got the love he deserves. Who knew the breakout star of the show would be a skunk who wound up in the cast by accident?

What do you hope families and longtime fans of Emmet Otter take away from this production when it opens in November 2026?

We watch these characters struggle and try to survive, but always make the best of their situation. I hope people walk away with gratitude for the amazing things in their lives and a sense of hope for what could happen tomorrow. Life’s not always going to hand you the victory you thought you wanted, but with the right friends and family around you, everything else seems so unimportant. Ma and Emmet make huge sacrifices just for the chance to get the other something they really want. Not a guarantee, just a chance. Having faith that everything will be alright in the end even though the odds are largely against them is what makes these characters remarkable.

I’m so happy the entire cast from last year’s run is coming back, bringing their indelible charm and humor that everyone admired. Everyone brings something special to the characters they play, and I’m excited to see what we can come up with this time around. The show’s script is notoriously loose, or as the book writer Tim put it, “a suggestion,” so hopefully we find some new jokes or bits that find their way into the show. What will they be? I guess you have to buy your tickets to find out, haha!

---