I did some intensive training with my team at our church for 4 months before we even picked up a puppet script and rehearsed a show. They had different homework each week and now they are an amazing team. We used playsoup's training video to get them started and i recommend it as a great tool. Dave and June are good friends of mine and they know their stuff!
here is the link: http://www.playsoup.com/store/video3.htm

Thanks for the reference, I'll be sure to check it out!