Hi, I'm sorry if this has been covered somewhere on the forum already. I did a search and I couldn't find anything. I'm interested in studying puppetry and was wondering if anyone here can recommend any schools.

I'm particularly interested in getting a diploma at this school: londonschoolofpuppetry.com. Although it's a bit out my reach financially, especially since it's across the ocean from me. Is there anyone here who has been to this school?

I know there is one university in the US that offers degrees. West Virgina University - Bachelor of Fine Arts – Puppetry/Creative Dramatics.
http://theatre.wvu.edu/future_students/undergraduate/bfa_puppetry

LJ's son graduated from there.

Myself I have been considering applying to the MA (or MFA) program at UConn.  They also have a BFA.

http://www.drama.uconn.edu/Puppetry/Puppet_bfa_appl.htm#

On the link that Billy gave you there was a link for Toronto School of Puppetry that was broken.  I did a search and came up with this. http://puppetmongers.com/School-Adult.html  I don't think they offer any degrees but may be something you are interested in and at least it is in Canada. Although it looks like it is going to be about a 24 hour drive.

Now I did find out something of interest that is in your city. WAG (Winnipeg Art Gallery) has classes it looks like and one of the instructors is actually a member here at Puppets and Stuff! Go figure! http://wag.ca/learn/meet-our-instructors Asa Nodelman aka Abdolos. You can see his gallery of puppet here.

The UNIMA USA website has a good list of schools/courses (incl. international stuff). www.unima-usa.org

I don't know anyone specifically who's attended, but I've heard the London School of Puppetry is good.

Also, try
http://unima-canada.blogspot.com/
http://www.onpuppet.ca/
http://www.aqm.ca/

All Canadian puppetry organisations (first is UNIMA, the other two are regional guilds).

Thank you very much for the links. Does anyone have any first hand experiences that they would be willing to share? Reviews? Testimonials? It's very difficult to tell which of these schools are worth while from their websites alone.

I just happened to visit a fellow Australian puppeteer's site today, and what did she have on her blog but a post about how she went to LSP. It's not really a review, but she does have a short video (and some pics?) of her experience there.

http://www.pupperoos.com/?p=749

Maybe if you email her she might be willing to answer some questions about the course.

My son did graduate from WVU's puppetry program. He even got a full tuition scholarship based on his puppetry skills. He now works for Animax Design studio and has found that his education from there (and his professors) have been very valuable in obtaining his job. He LOVES working at Animax! Don't know about any of the other schools but that is our experience with WVU.

Thank you. That's very helpful.