“I kept remembering, ‘OK, but if they can’t see
it, how can we bring it to life? What do we need
to do to keep children engaged?’” she said.
Foley, a new character, is voiced by Lindsey
“Z” Briggs, a professional puppeteer since
2004 who, with her puppeteer husband, Chad
Williams, created the company WonderSpark
Puppets. She previously gave life to the
Muppet Dalia for Sesame Workshop.
“I’ve always loved making different voices,”
she said by phone from her family’s home in
Springville, New York. “My whole life, I was
always making funny sounds.”
Since her new gig is just voice work, Briggs
doesn’t have to worry about manipulating
puppets, lip synching or coordinating with a
TV monitor. “For me, it’s super freeing,” she said.
“Not having to think about almost half of that
stuff is awesome.”
Briggs, as well as her husband and their two
boys, 7, and 5, fled New York City during the
lockdown to western New York. They’ve found
an unusual place to create the podcast — their
town’s fallout shelter. But they’ve made it work.
The podcast kicked off last week and there are
15 episodes, released Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Sesame Workshop hopes families will listen
together, whether in the car, making dinner or
before bedtime.
“It’s been an absolute bright spot in the midst
of everything that’s been happening. It’s been
this one thing that I can look at and say, ‘But
you know what? We did this amazing thing,’”
Briggs said.