Announcing the Chicago International
Puppet Theater Festival's 9th Edition Lineup!
January 21-30, 2027
The 2027 festival will span 12 days and dozens of Chicago venues, presenting an international pageant of puppet artists sharing more than 100 puppetry shows and events. Tickets go on sale soon for all-ages spectacle shows in landmark theaters, intimate works on smaller stages, the always popular, adults-only, late night puppet cabarets, and massive mainstage productions. And mark your calendar with a long list of free puppet happenings all over the city throughout the festival. Scroll down to see the lineup!
The Storyville Mosquito - Opening Night
Kid Koala (Canada)
January 20-24
at Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building
A young mosquito leaves his small town in the country to seek fame and fortune in the big city and fulfill his dream of playing in one of the greatest bands of all time, in this multimedia experience featuring miniature sets, live puppetry, cinematography, and live music by Kid Koala, fresh off his recent performance at United Center.
Puppet Up!
Brian Henson (New York)
January 29-31
at Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building
Our most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational show yet! Co-created by Brian Henson (Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Treasure Island), Puppet Up! blends unhinged feats of improv comedy, the unparalleled skill of Henson puppeteers, and recreations of classic pieces originally created by Jim and Jane Henson that haven’t been seen in decades.
Yoroboshi
Satoko Ichihara (Japan)
January 21-24
at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Edlis Neeson Theater
One of Japan’s most uncompromising playwright-directors makes her American debut with this utterly unpredictable feminist refashioning of this centuries-old Japanese fable about an abandoned, mistreated blind boy abandoned by his parents: a traffic-autonomaton father and a sex doll step-mother.
Hachiōji Kuruma Ningyō : 160 year old cart puppetry from Japan
The Koryū Nishikawa Troupe (Japan)
January 28-31
at Lookingglass Theatre
5th Generation Master Puppeteer Koryū Nishikawa presents a stunning program of traditional puppetry including Sanbaso (ritual puppet dance), the comedy Tokaidō-Chu Hizakurige (Shank’s Mare on the Tokaidō Highway) and Hidakagawa Iriai Zakura, a transformative tale of deadly obsession. With live music by master chanters and musicians.
The Ramayana Leather Shadow Puppet Show of Kerala
Harisree Kannan Tholpavakoothu Kalakendram (India)
January 22-28
at Epiphany Center for the Arts
Join these fourteenth generation puppeteers from the Kerala region in India as they employ traditional leather shadow puppets to share a one hour performance of a section from The Ramayana.
Tholpavakoothu Ramayana Ritual Installation Experience
Harisree Kannan Tholpavakoothu Kalakendram (India)
January 22-28
at Epiphany Center for the Arts
Traditionally performed as marathon rituals in India’s Bhadrakali temples that last as many as 64 nights, this company tells the story of The Ramayana while showcasing Tholpavakoothu shadow puppetry. This installation is a more open ended meditation and appreciation opportunity to come briefly or visit for all seven days to immerse yourself. Stay as long as you’d like.
LOCO
Compagnie Tchaïka (Belgium/Chile)
January 21-23
at the Biograph Theatre’s Začek-McVay Mainstage
Inspired by Nikolai Gogol’s “Diary of a Madman,” LOCO is an absurdist tale exploring the blurred boundary between sanity and madness in a wildly surrealist ballet that leaves audiences spellbound.
Une Traversée
Compagnie Tchaïka (Belgium/Chile)
January 26-28
at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Edlis Neeson Theater
Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass,” aided by puppets and the misappropriation of objects, Une Traversée explores how consciousness and imagination activate to face a world torn apart by war, as seen by the eyes of a child undertaking a very important crossing.
Stripes
Myra Su (Chicago)
January 21-24
at Chopin Theatre Mainstage
From the Walder Foundation’s Platform award-winning artist Myra Su comes a new work commissioned in part by the Festival. Newly innovated puppets built around barcode readers and light sensors navigate, process, and understand their environment, creating an immersive world and story where the sensorial experience of puppets bridge tech and life through music and light.
The Daemon
Manual Cinema (Chicago)
January 28-31
at Reva & David Logan Center for the Arts
In a genre-bending new production, Manual Cinema presents a triptych of stories about technology, language, history, and human connection. Told entirely without dialogue, and using Manual Cinema’s beguiling pastiche of shadow puppetry, live feed video, and original music, this darkly comic production explores the fight to be human in a digital age.
An Ocean of Love
Compagnie La Salamandre (France)
January 21-31
at Steppenwolf Theatre’s Merle Reskin Space
Two employees in grey smocks make paper boats to escape their work, which turns into a poetic, puppet-like odyssey across a stormy ocean, all immersed in a delicate world of paper.
The Y - feel like flying
Yldor Llach (Catalonia)
January 21-31
at CircEsteem
A nimble tamer becomes increasingly intent on training his beast – a bicycle – to fly him to the moon in this singularly unique, multidisciplinary street circus featuring puppets, magic, theatre, poetry, acrobatics and a lot of audience participation. Not to be missed.
Little Theater at the World’s Edge - Opus II
Théâtre de la Massue (France)
January 28-31
at Chopin Theatre Mainstage
The audience surrounds the stage, a hazy, rugged landscape emerges, gradually populated by puppets with sculpted faces, each meticulously participating in a clever little machine made of wood, salvaged objects and strings to create a moving metaphor for the human condition.
ConCordis
Nina Vogel (Brazil) and Chef Christopher Sullivan of Twilight Kitchen (Chicago)
January 21-24 + 28-31
at private Wicker Park location
Take a seat at this unique farm-to-table, family-style gourmet dinner for 12, paired with a short, intimate puppet show – performed for just one viewer at a time – that reveals what truly makes one’s heart beat.
On Call
Théâtre à Bout Portant (Canada)
January 20-31
Ten departures per day
Staged entirely inside a moving ambulance, On Call is an intensely powerful, one-of-a-kind theatrical experience staged for just three brave spectators at a time. Climb inside and witness the fragility of human life and the fears of EMTs everywhere in this 25-minute trip through time on the streets of Chicago.
If It Were a Movie
Macarena Recuerda Shepherd (Spain)
January 28-30
at The Dance Center at Columbia College Chicago
In this remarkable reconfiguring of puppetry as Foley artistry, audience members wearing high-tech earphones watch and listen as an impossible film is created in their own minds. Sound in cinema is entirely rethought in the theatrical scene. Sounds that dramatize, fictionalize or re-signify the images they touch, producing strangeness, humor, and becoming a metaphor for traveling from the plausible to the unreal.
Spa & Beauty
Geumhyung Jeong (South Korea)
January 21-24
at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Crown Room
This provocative exhibition turns into a hands-on demonstration by the artist guiding small groups through tutorials using beauty and body care products that touch our naked body on a daily basis. Brushes, sponges, soaps and other functional objects form a disconcerting display that invites onlookers to reconsider their ideas of beauty, intimacy, self-care and consumption.
Robot Dance Party
Kid Koala (Canada)
Sunday, January 24
at CircEsteem
Music. Robots. Bleeps and blorps—it’s a morning robot dance party for adults and for kids! Participants build custom, one-of-a-kind robot costumes from scratch using provided cardboard and craft materials, then hit the dance floor to show off their robot moves while Kid Koala spins his favorite tracks.
Sisypholia
Compagnie Tchaïka (Belgium/Chile)
January 22-24
at MCA Plaza and other locations TBA
An everyday Sisyphus rolls a giant ball of fast fashion through public spaces in Chicago until he returns to his starting point. And just like the legendary Sisyphus, he is deep in his absurd reality, igniting an ironic engine of chaos that promises to extract audiences and passersby from the compulsive rhythm of today’s consumer culture.
Nasty, Brutish & Short
Rough House Puppet Arts (Chicago / International)
January 22-23 + 29-30
at Constellation
Eyebrows meet lowbrows at Rough House’s adults-only late show where fancy international out-of-town puppet artists join fan favorite Noah Ginex and emcee Jameson with legendary Chicago puppeteers for a wild night of fellowship and experimental puppet revelry.
FILM SCREENING
Manipulate Festival Program A:
The Best of Scottish Stop Motion Short Films
January 26-27
at Film Row Cinema at Columbia College
From award-winning filmmakers to emerging talents, this “best of” line-up demonstrates why Scotland is a vibrant force in animated storytelling, showcasing an extraordinary diversity of stop‑motion techniques, spanning sand and stones, felt and clay, puppets, objects, machines and more.
FILM SCREENING
Manipulate Festival Program B:
The Best International Stop Motion Short Films
January 26-27
at Film Row Cinema at Columbia College
This international lineup celebrates the extraordinary diversity of stop‑motion technique with films from ten countries across four continents, each offering a distinct cultural and material approach to tell intimate, beautifully crafted tales of love, loss, memory and belonging.
FILM SCREENING
Project Hail Mary
With special guest James Ortiz (New York)
January 25
at Film Row Cinema at Columbia College
Enjoy an exclusive screening of the acclaimed 2026 sci fi epic Project Hail Mary with special guest James Ortiz, who voiced and co-puppeteered the film’s character, Rocky, giving star Ryan Gosling a run for his money as the film’s most lovable character.
FILM SCREENING
Dear Stranger
Followed by talkback with Blair Thomas
Date TBA
at Film Row Cinema at Columbia College
A Japanese man and Taiwanese-American wife’s immigrant lives unravel when their son disappears while she works as a theater puppet director. The kidnapping reveals hidden secrets, testing their emotional limits and moral boundaries. Featuring puppet direction by Blair Thomas, creations by the Chicago Puppet Studio and performances by celebrated actors Gwei Lun-Mei and Hidetoshi Nishijima.
More Festival Events:
Claire Saxe, Out With It
Free Neighborhood Tour
Chicago puppeteer Claire Saxe will pop up in different Chicago neighborhoods throughout the Festival to present free performances of Rough House’s new, family-friendly work Out With It, a playful collision of puppetry, clown, and the forces of chaos.
Ellen Van Volkenburg Symposium
Named in honor of Little Theatre of Chicago director Ellen Van Volkenburg, who coined the term “puppeteer” in 1912, the Festival’s annual symposium brings together puppetry enthusiasts, scholars and festival artists from Chicago, the U.S. and internationally for free discussions around the intersection of puppetry with other disciplines and ideas.
Opening + Closing Night Events
Join top supporters, festival leadership, staff and the Artistic Directors from the shows being presented this year in the Festival for drinks and hors d’oeuvres to toast the opening of the 9th edition of the Chicago Puppet Festival. Come back after the show to celebrate Opening Night with international puppet artists who have come to Chicago to share their astonishing and delightful acts for the next 12 days of the festival. The Closing Night Party is always the hottest ticket in town. Details coming soon.
Workshops + Catapult
Enjoy dozens of professional education workshops with visiting puppet artists or join the Catapult Artist Intensive, which returns bigger than before, with not two but three unique professional multi-day sessions to inspire and inform practicing artists of all disciplines. Over each three-day period, participants take a deep dive into puppetry with a curated, guided experience of the Festival programming. Join an intimate cohort, escorted by a professional leader, for discussions, backstage access and more.
New this year: the Festival introduces the Mid-Week Workshop Intensive, which offers three full days of workshops with Festival artists.
Puppetry, Delivered
When you create an account and add your mailing address, our gorgeous festival brochure will be delivered directly to your home.
2027 Key Festival Partners & Supporters
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How it Happens: With Your Support
The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival exists because of the generous donations of our partners and friends. To ensure the future vitality of the Festival, please make a donation online today!