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Show towns ut SECTION jDrtiltu&Hcrnto MONDAY. FEBRUARY 11, 2008 METRO EDITOR I Amie Rose 344-253- 0 aroseheraldextra.com MONDAY CLOSE-U- P Puppet maker IS TO RY AND PH OTOS B Y CRAIG DILGE R Whether family, friends or strangers, one thing binds us together: Utah Valley is home. Here is the story of one of us, Nat Reed. Nat Reed plays with two of the marionette puppets that he made for a production of The Sound of Music. ... Nat Reed sculpts the head for Alice from "Alice in Wonderland" to be used in an upcoming puppetry show. guess that deep down want to be a performer and am too afraid to get up in front of an audience so let my puppets do the acting." I I I .'V Nat Reed, puppet maker - Craig Dilger DAILY HERALD at Reed's base- ment is lit by two small windows and series of tiny lamps arranged on his cluttered workbench. A thin layer of clay dust covers everything. In this basement, Nat spends hours every evening breathing life into his handmade puppets. "I love puppetry and I love theater," Reed said. "I just love making things. I just want to share that with other people." Nat runs a puppetry class at the Lehi City Arts Council. There, he teaches kids not only how to operate a marionette, but how to make their own and use it. This year his students will perform in the upcoming production of "Alice in Wonderland." "I like the mechanics of seeing how things work and actually seeing it happen on stage," Reed said. "To me a puppet really shows that because you get to see the stings being pulled and making things happen. Then if it is really good you start to forget that the strings are there and you are only seeing this amazing puppet." All around Nat '5 basement are puppets that he has built and collected over the years. They hang limp from shelves and sit lifeless atop boxes in the corner. But as soon as Nat pulls one from its hook, it takes on a personality. Suddenly, what looked like a forgotten toy becomes a complex character living out a scene from Nat's imagination. "I guess that deep down I want to be a performer and I am too afraid to get up in front of an audience so I let my puppets do the acting." Puppetry is only a part-tim- e hobby for Reed. He has a regular Trolly Square survivor remembers one year later THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and his father killed that evening. n A year ago Tuesday, Talovic walked into the Salt Lake City mall and opened fire, killing five people and injuring four others before he was gunned down by police. A ceremony is planned at the mall to remember what happened last Feb. 12. For Hanson and Walker, it's something they'll never forget. Despite their Sule-jma- In the past year, Stacy Hanson has beaten every prognosis he faced. Once on the brink of dying, Hanson lived. Doctors then expected him to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, yet he walked again. One year after the Trolley Square shootings, Hanson's life has changed dramatically, but it's not over. A fellow victim of the shootings, A.J. Walker has spent the last year trying to live a "new normal" since he was critically injured SALT LAKE CITY struggles to recover over the past year, Walker and Hanson remain positive and not bitter. "You've got to roll with the punches and just be happy," Walker told The Salt Lake Tribune. student at Bingham The High School still isn't as mentally sharp as he was before he and his father, grabbed a couple of sandwiches that night and were shot qn their way out of the mall. A.J. survived, but his father did not and Vickie Walker was left mourning her husband while not knowing if their teenage son would recover. "There is not a day that we don't think about him," A.J. said of his father. Jef-fer- "We still feel like he is here." See TROLLEY, B2 day job and a family, but they all spill over into his passion for puppetry. Nat works full time as an exhibits designer, which he says stems from his early days of making theater sets. Currently, his two daughters are both in his class and are heavily involved in the Utah Marionette Theatre. Nat regards his collection of puppets very highly, taking special care of his first designs despite great improvements in craft and materials. But his real passion seems to be in the process of creating new puppets and watching them take on roles in a performance. As he slowly sculpts the face of his most recent puppet project he says, "I always wish I could do this full time." More information about upcoming performances and classes at the Utah Marionette Theatre can be found at www.utahmarionette. org. Army reservist pinned with Bronze Star Michael Rigert NORTH COUNTY STAFF Army Reserve Spec. Scott Baird may never know the effects his initiative to streamline and organize ammunition and supply protocols within his division had during his deployment to Iraq. Though he didn't pull a comrade from a burning vehicle or defend his unit from a road-sid- e ambush, his actions may have led to better prepared units in the field or ultimately saved American lives. But what Spec. Baird does know is that someone rec- - ' ognized his efforts and, on Sunday afternoon, it resulted in the Army reservist of three and a half years receiving the coveted Bronze Star for service at a ceremony of the See BRONZE STAR, B2 |