The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival and Théâtre de l’Entrouvert present
Anywhere
In collaboration with HERE Arts Center and Dream Music Puppetry
FEBRUARY 6 – MARCH 2, 2025
Created by Théâtre l’Entrouvert (France)
Performed by the Anywhere U.S. Company
A Co-presentation of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival and Théâtre l’Entrouvert in collaboration with HERE Arts Center.
Artistic Direction
Élise Vigneron
Scenography & Design
Élise Vigneron
Original Staging
Élise Vigneron and Hélène Barreau
U.S. Stage Direction
Claire Saxe
Puppeteer
Mark Blashford
Performer/Dancer
Ashwaty Chennat
Ice Puppet Technician
Mark Blashford
Lighting & Technical Direction
Richard Norwood
Sound & Run Crew
Corey Douglas Smith
Audio Engineer
Chikadibia Ebirim
Text Excerpts from Oedipe sur la route
Henry Bachau
Music
Pascal Charrier
Original Technical Design & Production
Thibaut Bosilève & Corentin Abeille
Puppet Design
Vincent Debuire and Hélène Barreau, assisted by Alma Rocella
Artistic Coordination
Blair Thomas
Managing Producer
Sandy Smith Gerding
Production Manager
Julie Le Corre
Project Advocacy
Julie Moller
US Representation by Pemberley Productions. For more information about touring, please contact Doreen Sayegh at doreen@pemberleyproductions.com
Anywhere U.S. Company
Mark Blashford (Puppeteer and Puppet Builder) specializes in marionette, shadow, rod, and hand puppetry. Formerly based in Chicago, IL, Mark now lives in Reykjavík, Iceland. He is an instructor in the online Academy of the Wooden Puppet with Bernd Ogrodnik. While in Chicago, Blashford was an Associate Artist with the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival and the Chicago Puppet Studio building commissioned puppets for stage and film for many clients including Lookingglass, The Art Institute of Chicago, The House Theatre, Rough House Theater, and Ma-Yi Theater (New York). Mark performs around the world as Rootstock Puppet Co. and in Iceland as Flóki Brúðuleikhús. Recent puppet shows conceived, built, and performed include TIMBER!, Kisi Gengur Laus, and Búkolla. Blashford has trained as a puppeteer in Germany, France, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, and Iceland. He holds a BA in Theatre from Pennsylvania State University and an MFA in Theatre (Puppet Arts) from the University of Connecticut.
Ashwaty Chennat (Performer) Ashwaty Chennat is an interdisciplinary performing artist and facilitator based in Chicago. She grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she studied bharatnatyam with Sudha Chandrasekhar, ballet and jazz with a studio family, and heritage dance and music forms with her amma and master community artists. Ashwaty’s background in abhinaya, a pantomime component of dance theater forms from the Indian subcontinent, has been part of her own research and practice as a performer. Ashwaty’s work and performance has been seen on stage and on the experimental screen, most memorably at Harris Theater for Music and Dance, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, her artistic home at the Music Box Theater (where she premiered “Moods of Nayika” a drag and dance film in collaboration with Abhijeet), every single school audience, and now HEREarts with Anywhere!
Claire Saxe (U.S. Production Director) Claire Saxe (she/her) is a puppeteer, performer, and theater maker driven by work that stretches forms, genres and expectations. As an independent artist and Co-Artistic Director of Rough House Theater Company her practice interweaves elements of puppetry and physical theater. Recent credits include the U.S. remount of Théâtre de l’Entrouvert’s Anywhere (Director), Out With it at Links Hall (Creator & Performer), We Missed the Train and Had to Wait as part of Steppenwolf Theater’s LookOut series (Creator & Performer), Rough House’s House of the Exquisite Corpse (Co-Director), Invitation to a Beheading (Co-Creator & Performer), and others. As an actor Claire has performed on the Steppenwolf mainstage (Anne Frank, 2007 Jeff Nominee, Actress in a Principal Role), and in storefronts, on festival stages and in DIY spaces across the U.S. and U.K. Claire holds a BS in Theater and Classical Studies from Skidmore College and an MA in Physical Theater Directing & Actor Training from the University of Exeter, UK.
Corey Smith is a composer, writer, and performer from Chicago, Illinois. Their work explores critical regionalism, sensuality in performance, and queer sonic ecology. Smith’s work has been seen at venues such as the Steppenwolf Theater, Hyde Park Art Center, the Mattress Factory, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Emil Bach House, the Rotterdam Film Festival, and the Bath Fringe Festival. They have been an artist in residence at High Concept Labs, the University of Illinois Springfield, Light Box Detroit, the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, and Grin City. Their work has been featured by Hyperallergic, Architectural Digest, and the Chicago Reader. They hold a BM in Music Composition from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Richard Norwood (Lighting and Technical Direction) is a lighting designer and theatre craftsman having worked in Chicago for the last 30 years with such acclaimed companies as Trap Door Theatre, Defiant Theatre, Congo Square Theatre, Remy Bumppo Theatre, Zephyr Dance and nationally with Hershey Felder Productions. Richard previously held the position of production manager with the Museum of Contemporary Art’s Performance Programs. Richard holds a BFA in Lighting Design and Stage Technology from University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.
The original production of ANYWHERE was created by Théâtre de l’Entrouvert, a French puppet company
First produced in 2016, this exquisite, landmark string-marionette work was made by the French puppetry company Théâtre de l’Entrouvert with original creation for the stage by Elise Vigneron and Hélène Barreau. Freely inspired by the novel ‘Oedipus on the road’ by Henry Bauchau, ANYWHERE evokes the long wandering of Oedipus accompanied by his daughter Antigone.
The fallen Oedipus appears in the form of an ice puppet that gradually melts, then appears as mist and finally disappears in the forest, the place of clairvoyance. ANYWHERE traces with gentleness and strength a poetic journey, in black and white, of fire and ice, which speaks to us about our bodies, our environment, our fragilities, and our wanderings in the infinite circle of renewal.
Setting the work on a US team for touring
The origins of the U.S. team began in 2019 when Artistic Director & Festival Founder Blair Thomas and Artistic Director Elise Vigneron met at the Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes in Charleville-Mézières where Théâtre de l’Entrouvert’s work L’Enfant was presented. In March 2020 The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival and Théâtre de l’Entrouvert worked in close collaboration to develop a US-based ensemble to perform the work. This included a development period in France in November 2022 followed by a residency period in Chicago in January 2023. The work then premiered at The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival in January 2023 and was presented again in January 2025 at the Chopin Theater to sold out audiences, and standing ovations.
The U.S. production of ANYWHERE was made possible thanks to visionary funding support granted to Théâtre de l’Entrouvert and The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival from: The Ferdi Foundation, Jentes Family Foundation, Justine Jentes and Dan Karuna, Manaaki Foundation, and FACE Contemporary Theater, a program of Villa Albertine and the FACE Foundation, in partnership with the Embassy of France in the United States. Additional support from the Ford Foundation, Ministry of Culture, the French Institute’s IF Export program, the AVIAMA, the Cratère, scène national d’Alès, the Vélo Théâtre in Apt, Consulate General of France in Chicago, Villa Albertine, the French Institute for Culture and Education, a division of the French Embassy in the United States, and private donors.
This NY Tour was made possible by generous underwriting from civic leaders received by The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival from: Ferdi Foundation/Julie Moller, The Marshall Frankel Foundation, Scott Moller, Jordan Shields & Sarah Donovan, and Andy & Deb Wolkstein.
The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival extends a Special Thanks to the following individuals: Jesse Cameron Alick, Barbara Busackino, Yolanda Cesta Cursach Montilla, Annalisa Dias, Lanxing Fu, Sue Crothers-Gee and Bill Gee, Cheryl Henson, Heather Henson, Lauren Miller, Beth Richards, and Basil Twist.
