Peppermint Park at Texas Christkindl Market, Arlington

“It all starts with an idea and block of wood,” says John Hopkins, founder of Geppetto's Theater & Workshop. While that may be true for his meticulously hand-carved marionettes—which star in the full gamut of classic children’s stories from Hansel and Gretel to The Wizard of Oz—it took a little more for Geppetto's Theater & Workshop itself. John began his performances in a defunct bus station in Arlington, drawing in families with just the skill of his hands and voice, before achieving enough success to move to Dallas and expand his skilled team of puppeteers and voice actors.