The next Festival is coming right up: January 19-29, 2023
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Over 100 performances at dozens of venues across Chicago
A guided experience of the Festival programming
In-person workshops at the Festival's new studio space
Civic partnerships make the Festival possible
Festival artists and scholars in conversation
Family-friendly shows around the city
Don't miss The Plastic Bag Store, an immersive experience
View show-specific program PDFs
Semi-annual benefit event series offering intimate performances, dinner, and conversation in private homes
Monthly series which offers direct access to local artists through performances and hands-on demonstrations
Providing puppeteers structured support and community context for the development of their work
Providing high-quality puppetry design, fabrication and innovation for the local and national theater community
A series of videos sharing insights from local, national, and international puppeteers and puppet builders
Chicago Shakespeare Theater & Chicago Puppet Fest present:
Master puppeteer Basil Twist, recipient of the Rome Prize, hailed for his work on Broadway’s The Addams Family and The Joffrey Ballet’s Nutcracker, unfolds an intimate, abstract, contemporary journey of images and emotions in Dogugaeshi. The piece is influenced by the rarefied tradition of Japanese dogugaeshi stage mechanism technique and his own encounters with the remaining rural caretakers of this once popular art form. Winner of the 2005 Bessie Award and an UNIMA Award for Excellence in Puppetry, Dogugaeshi features original shamisen compositions created by authorized master musician Yumiko Tanaka and performed live by the highly accomplished, distinguished virtuoso of Japanese koto and shamisen in both traditional and contemporary music: Yoko Reikano Kimura.
Basil Twist, born in San Francisco, based in New York, studied at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette, becoming its first American graduate. He is Director of the Dream Music Puppetry Program at HERE, New York. He won a Drama Desk Award for his puppetry in Broadway’s The Addams Family, created puppets for Broadway’s Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, worked with Christopher Wheeldon on The Joffrey Ballet’s reimagined Nutcracker, and contributed to the film Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Askaban. His own productions include Symphonie Fantastique, Petrushka, Dogugaeshi, Behind the Lid and Arias with a Twist, a collaboration with Joey Arias. Theater work includes co-directing A Streetcar Named Desire with Lee Breuer for the Comédie-Française. Twist’s work in opera includes directing and designing Hansel and Gretel for Houston Grand Opera and Resphighi’s puppet opera La bella dormente nel bosco for Gotham Chamber Opera. basiltwist.com
A Regional Tony Award recipient, Chicago Shakespeare Theater produces a bold and innovative year-round season—featuring plays, musicals, world premieres, family productions, and theatrical presentations from around the globe—alongside education programming for students, teachers, and lifelong learners, and creative community engagement with artists and neighbors across the city. chicagoshakes.com
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Fine Arts Building
410 S Michigan Ave
Studio 310
Chicago, IL 60605
Administrative Office:
312 753 3234
info@chicagopuppetfest.org