Four Georgia Southern students are traveling to Arkansas this week to participate in a festival where they will string together performances with puppets.

“Essentially it is a gathering of performance studies students, where we come to showcase what we have learned. We do workshops, activities and work together as a group to create a performance that we will show at the end of the week together,” Jade Howard, junior communication arts major, said.

Each year festival leaders who are scholars and performers in performance studies chose the theme of the event and provide two workshops for the students to participate in. The theme is some type of performance studies that the students can explore and build performances around.

“The theme this year was originally ghosts in performances but it was changed at the last minute to puppetry. So I imagine that we will be doing different forms of puppetry arts and just learning how to work with puppets in general,” Howard said.

Students also get to witness performances by invited groups and individual performers who work in that particular type or style of performance studies.

“Overall I hope to meet new people, network and learn. I hope to broaden my horizons as a performer by being around students and performers from across the country,” Howard said.

The Petit Jean Festival is a national event that began in 1981. It’s held at Petit Jean State Park and brings undergraduate and graduate students together with faculty to put performance studies to practice.

The entire festival takes place in the scenic wilderness, trails and cabins of the state park.

The students will be leaving at 4 a.m. and driving to Morrilton, Ark. and will not be back until Monday morning of next week.