An entire bedroom in Spencer Lott’s house is filled with trash bags and plastic containers full of puppets. On a shelf, a replica of actor Don Knotts sits next to a green troll that hides under a bridge from the children’s story “Three Billy Goats Gruff.”

The room is Lott’s studio and it’s where he creates puppets of all shapes, sizes and colors.

Lott, Lawrence junior and puppeteer, will use a few of these puppets to narrate and act out some of Shel Silverstein’s poetry and short stories on Saturday at Oread Books in the Kansas Union in honor of National Poetry Month.

“It’s fun and challenging for me because it’s almost an improv,” said Lott, who described himself as a huge fan of children’s literature. “It’s a lot of audience participation and if I’m feeling that I’m doing a character and it’s working, then I keep it up.”

Lott, a theater and film major and the one-man show behind Squiggle Puppet Productions, has been presenting puppet shows for children at Oread Books since Spring 2007. In addition to Saturday’s show, he will present another show Saturday, May 2.

Lisa Eitner, general books buyer for Oread Books, said Lott’s past shows have ranged from his own stories to dramatic readings to stories with shadow puppets.

As many as 100 people have come to the shows in the past, Eitner said, and the shows had to be moved to a bigger space in the store for a larger than expected crowd.

“It’s something out of the ordinary and he is really quite talented and creates something that is worth experiencing,” Eitner said.

For Lott, creating something out of the ordinary starts with the ordinary. He uses soft-sculpture materials, such as foam, fleece and Styrofoam to create the puppets in his studio.

Lott said he always wanted to be a puppeteer, but he first became interested in it from watching “too much Sesame Street.” He started making his own puppets in fifth and sixth grade by converting stuffed animals into puppets.

Since then, he has made literally hundreds of puppets. Depending on the complexity, it can take Lott anywhere from a few hours to hundreds of hours to make one puppet.

“They’re never really done,” he said. “I just get tired of working on them to a certain point and then I move on.”

When Lott and his roommates were looking for a place to live, Lott said having a room for his puppets was a must. Lott pays twice the rent — he pays for one room for himself and one room for his puppets.

“It’s kind of absurd,” he said. “But this is my passion and this is how I pay for rent, building puppets and doing shows. It’s totally worth it.”

Matt Cain, Leawood junior and Lott’s roommate, said Lott was “spontaneous” and kept the house entertaining with his puppeteering and acting antics.

“He goes around doing different voices sometimes,” Cain said.

But for Lott, the different voices of characters are only one part of the creative process. He has presented other shows for libraries, schools and has held local workshops for children or interested students.

Two years ago, Lott was also one of 50 people chosen from the United States and Canada to attend a workshop with Sesame Street “muppeteers.” Last semester, he designed the puppets for “The King Stag,” a production by the University of Kansas Theatre for Young People.

He is currently creating two puppets — a depressed Russian horse and a Japanese bamboo spirit — for three one-act operas that KU Opera will perform at the end of the month.

When he graduates next May, Lott said he wanted to do a national tour like “Sesame Street Live” or “Walking with Dinosaurs” before possibly attending the University of Connecticut, which has a master’s program in puppetry.

For now, Lott plans to keep creating puppets and sharing his work with others. Lott said puppeteers are not like magicians, who might spend 20 years working on a trick and keep the secret of the trick from their audiences.

“Puppeteers are like ‘It’s taken me 20 years to learn this trick and I’m going to give it to you the first time I meet you so that you can take it and make it better,” he said.

— — Edited by Sam Speer