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  • Wakka Wakka: Dead as a Dodo

    Featured
    Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

    Infused with puppetry, humor, and stunningly innovative visual effects, Dead as a Dodo is a mesmerizing musical odyssey about survival, transformation, and the power of true friendship.

    $40 – $48

  • Opening Night Prelude Reception

    Featured
    Fine Arts Building, 3rd Floor Balcony in the Studebaker Theater 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

    Join top supporters, festival leadership, staff and artistic directors from this year’s international companies to toast the opening of the 8th edition of the festival.

    $125 – $250

  • Opening Night Post Show Party

    Featured
    Fine Arts Building, Curtiss Hall, 10th Floor 410 S. Michigan Ave. 10th Floor, Chicago, IL, United States

    Celebrate opening night with the artists who have come to Chicago to share their astonishing and delightful acts for the next 12 days of the festival.

    $75

  • Alva Puppet Theater: The Harlem Doll Palace

    Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Theater East, UChicago 915 E. 60th St., Chicago

    Welcome to The Harlem Doll Palace, based on the true story of Lenon Holder Hoyt, better known as Aunt Len, a public school art teacher for 40 years who created a doll museum in her Harlem brownstone.

    $35 – $43

  • Plexus Polaire: A Doll’s House

    Featured
    DePaul's Merle Reskin Theatre 60 E. Balboa Dr., Chicago, IL

    A Doll’s House brings together puppets, actors, music and video projections in this eerie retelling of Henrik Ibsen’s 1879 play, one of the great Nordic classics.

    $40 – $48

  • Free Neighborhood Tour with Tian Gombau

    Various Locations Chicago, IL, United States

    The Puppet Festival’s annual Free Neighborhood Tour brings free, family-friendly performances to locations outside of Chicago’s theaters to foster an appreciation for puppetry throughout the city.

    Free

  • Manual Cinema: The 4th Witch

    Featured
    The Biograph's Začek McVay Theater Mainstage 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

    A new and fantastic tale from Chicago’s Manual Cinema, inspired by elements of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, in which a girl escapes war and flees into a dark forest.

    $40 – $48

  • KT Shivak: Rhynoceron

    Chopin Theatre Mainstage 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, IL, United States

    A Chicago premiere, Rhynoceron traces the true events surrounding the arrival of a one-horned rhinoceros to Renaissance Europe, sparking an obsession that continued for hundreds of years.

    $35 – $43

  • Laura Heit: The Matchbox Shows

    Constellation 3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago, IL

    Miniature raconteur and sequined pyro Laura Heit performs teeny tiny puppet shows inside matchboxes. “The smallest, greatest, bravest, show in the world!”

    $20 – $25

  • Kuruma Ningyō Technique with Master Puppeteer Koryū Nishikawa V

    Featured
    Chicago Puppet Studio, Fine Arts Building, Studio 433 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States
    Spring 2026 Workshop

    Spring 2026 Puppetry Workshop: Kuruma Ningyō Technique with Master Puppeteer Koryū Nishikawa V register now Kuruma Ningyō Technique with Master Puppeteer Koryū Nishikawa V Chicago Puppet Festival presents an extraordinary […]

    $288

  • Printmaking and Toy Theater (Level 1) with Roberto Rossi

    Summer 2026 Workshops

    This two-day workshop will open a window onto the origins of the Toy Theater in printmaking and give participants a chance to rehearse basic relief printing techniques so they can start their own journeys in printmaking and performance.

    $130

  • Worbla Techniques for the Puppet Maker (Level 1) with Chicago Puppet Studio

    Featured
    Chicago Puppet Studio, Fine Arts Building, Studio 433 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States
    Summer 2026 Workshops

    Chicago Puppet Studio artists take participants through a three day process in the use of Worbla, a unique and versatile thermoplastic that has incredible uses for puppet artists and puppet makers.

    $365

  • Toy Theater 1 (Level 1) with Roberto Rossi

    Summer 2026 Workshops

    Toy Theater 1 is an introduction to the form and the basic skills concluding with a showing. Make your first toy theater stage using recyclable materials.

    $250

  • Shadow Puppetry 1 (Level 1) with Chinese Theatre Works

    Summer 2026 Workshops

    Summer 2026 Puppetry Workshop:Shadow Puppetry 1 (Level 1) register now Shadow Puppetry 1 (Level 1) with Chinese Theatre WorksShadow Puppetry 1 is an introduction to the form for the beginning puppeteer. […]

    $250

  • 2026 Chicago Puppet Lab Showcase

    Raven Theatre 6157 N. Clark St., Chicago, IL

    The Chicago Puppet Lab is a puppet theater incubator and residency program that supports artists in bringing to life new works of puppet theater. Join us in August for a works-in-progress showing (details coming soon)

    $15 – $50