Randal Metz
Director, Storybook Puppet Theater
At age 10, San Leandro native Randal Metz won an audition to become a Fairyland Personality. He spent the next year portraying the Mad Hatter at Fairyland—and he never really left. While still in grade school he apprenticed with Lewis Mahlmann, the creator of Fairyland’s Storybook Puppet Theater, who taught him how to construct puppets, write scripts, and design sets. Later, he studied with TV puppeteer Lettie Shubert, Disneyland window designer Bob Baker, and Muppets head writer Jerry Juhl. From 1979 through 1999, as Fairyland’s artistic director, Randal designed play sets, taught the Children’s Theatre Program, created publicity, and managed staff. Today, Randal takes great pride in directing America’s longest-running puppet theater and bringing high standards of creative excellence to every production. To kids who think they might enjoy a career in puppetry, he says, “Stick to your dream and learn everything you can!” Randal has a B.A. in theater arts from San Francisco State University.


 
Lewis Mahlman
Storybook Puppet Theater Director, 1967-1990
Lewis Mahlmann has been a guiding light of Fairyland’s puppet theater since its early years. Already a prominent Bay Area puppeteer when the Storybook Puppet Theater opened in 1956, he served as puppetry consultant, a builder of puppet shows, and a designer of many Fairyland features, including the Japanese Tea Garden (a popular area for catered birthday parties) and the Emerald City Stage. In 1967 he left a successful real-estate career to become the puppet theater’s fourth director. His puppet-show creations—“Alice in Wonderland,” “Aladdin,” “Cinderella,” “Thumbelina,” “Beauty and the Beast,” and many others—are among Fairyland’s most beloved puppet productions. Lewis grew up in Chicago and began collecting puppets as a child; he says he loves all types of puppets, but has a special fondness for hand puppets. Although he retired from his director’s post in 1990, Lewis still stages puppet-theater productions at Fairyland, usually working with a young apprentice. “I especially enjoy it when children come backstage after the shows,” he says. “It’s all part of the joy of working with kids.”