Devils Footprint Puppet Show
The Devils Footprint Puppet Show brings one of Ipswich best known legends to life through puppetry, storytelling, humor, and audience participation. The performance is part of the Devils Footprint Annual Event
Sunday, October 4, 2026
11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Meeting House Green
First Church in Ipswich, UCC
Make a Puppet. Rewrite the Legend.
Put on the Show.
What happens when a group of kids gets handed the Devils Footprint story, a pile of blank townspeople, and permission to make the legend their own.
During the 2026 Devils Footprint Annual Event, young participants can create their own Ipswich townspeople puppets, join a team, personalize a short script, and perform their version of the Devils Footprint legend on our puppet stage.
No theater experience is needed. No puppet experience is needed. You just need some imagination and a willingness to tell a very old story in a new way.
Build Your Version of the Story
Youth who want to perform can form teams of three or four.
Every team will begin with the same short Devils Footprint script. The basic events of the legend will stay in place, but parts of the script will include fill in the blank choices that let each team create its own version.
Teams might choose what a character shouts, how someone reacts when the Devil appears, or what strange thing happens during the confrontation!
The puppeteer playing ONLY the devil or an adult is asked to fill in the script
PRIOR to Ms. Allen, Rev. Rogers or Rev. Whitefield seeing the script.
The result should be the same legend, told completely different ways.
Because performers will be reading from a script, participation in a performance team is recommended for youth age seven and older who are comfortable reading aloud.
Participation
• Puppet making is open to children of all ages.
• Performance teams will have three- four youth participants.
• Performers should be comfortable reading a short script aloud.
• Age seven and older is recommended for performance teams.
• Participants do not need to register to make a townsperson puppet.
• Performance opportunities will depend on available time and the number of teams participating.
— October 4, 2026
Create & Interact
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Make Your Own Ipswich Townsperson
Any child can stop by during the activity hour and make a townsperson puppet.
We will provide blank townsperson figures, sticks, art supplies, and glue. Kids provide the faces, clothing, expressions, names, attitudes, and personalities.
Your townsperson can be shocked by the Devil, fascinated by the sermon, completely unimpressed by George Whitefield, or just wondering why everyone on Meeting House Green is yelling.
Kids do not have to participate in the performance to make a puppet.
3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Puppet Show Performances
Youth teams will take over the puppet stage and perform their versions of the Devils Footprint story.
The short shows will start on the quarter hour. Every team will use the same basic story and the same stage, but nobody knows exactly what version of Ipswich folklore will emerge until the puppets start talking.
Families and visitors are invited to gather around, watch the performances, and discover what happens when a story told for generations gets handed to the next group of storytellers.
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. - Optional Puppet Show Performances.
If there are more that 4 teams that would like to perform additional time after the official end of the event will be made available for groups to perform for family and friends during break down and clean up.
The Story Keeps Changing
Nobody knows exactly what happened on Meeting House Green in 1740.
That has never stopped Ipswich from telling the story.
For generations, people have changed details, added characters, moved the Devil around the church, argued about George Whitefield, and imagined exactly how one mysterious mark ended up in a piece of stone.
For one afternoon, the next version belongs to the kids.
The rock is still there.
The story is still told.
RSVP for Oct. 4, 2026
The Devils Footprint Annual Event is a free community celebration of Ipswich folklore, history, arts, and storytelling. Join us on Sunday, October 4, 2026, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Meeting House Green at First Church in Ipswich, UCC, 1 Meetinghouse Green, Ipswich, Massachusetts. Reserve a free RSVP ticket to help us plan for attendance. No payment is required. Guests may make an optional donation to support the event.
Meet the 1740 'Revolution' Cast
George Whitefield really preached in Ipswich on September 30, 1740. The earliest published version of the footprint legend dates to about 1845;
Whitefield was not connected to the story in print until 1880. Mercy Allen is a fictional character based on (vaguely) plausible Quaker women and lace workers of the period.
The Rev. George Whitefield, Traveling Preacher
The Rev. George Whitefield, Traveling Preacher
George Whitefield is twenty five years old, famous, ambitious, theatrical, and very good at filling a field with people.
Born in Gloucester, England, educated at Oxford, and ordained in the Church of England, Whitefield has become one of the most recognizable preachers of the Great Awakening. He travels through Britain and the American colonies preaching outdoors to crowds that sometimes number in the thousands.
On September 30, 1740, Whitefield arrives in Ipswich and preaches to a large gathering. His sermons focus on conversion, salvation, and the urgent need for spiritual rebirth.
Whitefield expects opposition. He probably does not expect quite this much of it.
Mercy Allen, Lace Worker and Quaker Widow
Mercy Allen, Lace Worker and Quaker Widow
Mercy Allen is a widow in her thirties who supports herself through sewing, household work, and fine lace making. She lives in Ipswich but worships with Friends in Salem, traveling on First Day to join the Quaker meeting there.
Mercy comes from a family that remembers when Friends in Massachusetts could be arrested simply for gathering to worship. She believes that every person can experience the presence of God directly; clergy, status, and religious spectacle do not impress her much.
Mercy respects faith. Powerful men claiming to speak for God are another matter.
The Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, Minister of Ipswich
The Rev. Nathaniel Rogers, Minister of Ipswich
Nathaniel Rogers is thirty nine years old and the settled Congregational minister in Ipswich. Born in town, educated at Harvard, and ordained in 1727, Rogers serves at North Congregational Church and continues a long family tradition of ministry in Ipswich.
Unlike the traveling Whitefield, Rogers knows the people in his congregation personally. He baptizes their children, buries their relatives, hears their worries, and lives with the consequences of whatever happens in his pulpit.
Rogers is no stranger to passionate preaching or religious revival. He is also responsible for what happens after the famous preacher leaves town.
The Devil, Adversary and Tempter
The Devil, Adversary and Tempter
The Devil prefers persuasion to brute force.
During the Great Awakening, preachers described The Devil as subtle, deceptive, malicious, envious, and endlessly interested in human weakness. Pride, fear, division, vanity, and carefully chosen lies are far more useful than obvious wickedness.
The Devil can sound reasonable. The Devil can sound righteous. The Devil can even sound like the person in the room who understands you best.
Ipswich legend eventually places The Devil at North Congregational Church during George Whitefield's visit in 1740, where a confrontation ends badly for at least one participant.
The Devil has a different version of events.