Look! Look! A Work in Development by Vanessa Valliere
CREATIVE TEAM:
Co-Creators & Performers: Vanessa Valliere & Lindsey Noel Whiting
Puppet makers: Carol Trobe designed and fabricated the head of the blonde and bonneted puppet and the burlesque balloon humanette. She assembled several existing doll parts to create the doll puppets in this show. Maddy Low designed and fabricated the Amazing Slug. Lizi Breit designed and fabricated the humanette, Terry and the Amazing Slug poster. Vanessa Valliere created the slides for The Life and Times of Terry.
Outside Eye: Blair Thomas
Composer: Jon Steinmeier (also the vocalist for Terry’s cover of Wind Beneath My Wings)
Lyrics to the Dirty Song: Vanessa Valliere, Lindsey Noel Whiting & Katy Amazing Collins
Other Music: Larrons en Foire by Raphael Beau
Thunder and Blazes by South Shore Concert Band
Il Fado by Amalia Rodrigues
Up, Up and Away by the 5th Dimension
Babalu by Desi Arnaz
Light Designer: Spencer Meeks
Costume Designer: Maddy Low
Stage Manager: Richie Schiraldi
Production Manager: Anastar Alvarez
Grant Writing Support: Diedre Huckabay
SPECIAL THANKS: John Gregorio, Sandy Gerding, Taylor Bibat Lee, Charlie Malave, Megan Hovany, Dan Kerr-Hobert, Samuel Taylor, Wilder Taylor Whiting, Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Julia Miller, Carol Trobe and Charles Kite.
We extend a big open hearted thank you to The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival for their unbelievable support and encouragement.
A big thank you to Blair Thomas for his time, his patience, his expertise and his suitcases.
This project is partially supported by an Individual Artists Program Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, as well as a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency, from federal funds through the National Endowment for the Arts.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
Vanessa S. Valliere is a Chicago performer, puppeteer and clown. She has presented her devised solo puppetry/clown work at all six previous Chicago Puppet Festivals, including its Free Neighborhood Tour in 2019 and its Living Room Tour in 2022. She tours nationally with her own work and in 2024 she was invited by Heather Henson’s Green Feather Foundation and the Puppet Slam Network to bring one of her slam pieces to Skupova Plzen, a puppet festival in the Czech Republic. Valliere was also the recipient of a Green Feather Foundation grant for Gut Feelings, a short puppet film that was screened and awarded at several national and international film festivals. She was in the original cast of Manual Cinema’s The End of TV, and toured internationally as Ada in Manual Cinema’s Ada/Ava. In 2022 and 2023, she completed two residencies at Nordland Visual Theater in Stamsund, Norway as assistant director to Neville Tranter on Yael Rasooly’s solo puppet show, Edith and Me, also on stage at this year’s festival. Valliere will return with her own work to Nordland Visual Theater in 2026 to develop a new project. Valliere has also performed locally with the Neo-Futurists, The New Colony and Theater Unspeakable. Outside of Chicago, she performed at the National Puppet Slam in 2017 and 2018, and its online streaming version, Slamdemic, in 2020. She remains a proud nerd-cheerleader for Chicago’s own 30-piece circus punk marching band, Mucca Pazza, featured on The Conan O’Brien Show and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts. From 2011 to 2016, she was a member of an ensemble of clowns/performers/creative content creators for Tour De Fat, a touring festival sponsored by New Belgium Brewery. For more, visit vanessavalliere.com.
Lindsey Noel Whiting is an actor specializing in physical storytelling, spectacle, and visceral emotional risk. She was a long-time collaborator with Redmoon Theatre, where she performed in large scale spectacle productions like Sink, Sank, Sunk and The Golden Truffle, as well as more intimate jewel box productions like The Cabinet and The Secret Language of Birds. She is also an Artistic Associate of Lookingglass Theatre, where she has performed in a number of productions such as Mr. & Mrs. Pennyworth, The Great Fire, and perhaps most notably, as the titular character in Lookingglass Alice in ten productions and seven different cities. Additionally, she is an Associate Artist with Actors Gymnasium where she has written, directed and performed in 15 circuses, and she originated the role of Leonardo in Manual Cinema’s Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster. Most recently, Whiting served as Puppetry Director for the US premiere of Lord of the Rings: A Musical Tale at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre. lindseynoelwhiting.com