“…filled with wonder, humor and oodles of warmth.”
– The Edinburgh Festival for Kids
“A show that tackles important and serious themes with whimsy, humor and some darn cute puppets.”
– Chicago Tribune
Leonardo is a terrible monster. He tries so hard to be scary, but he just…isn’t. Then Leonardo finds Sam, the most scaredy-cat kid in the world. Will Leonardo finally get to scare the tuna salad out of someone? Or will it be the start of an unlikely friendship? The plot thickens when this pair meets Kerry and Frankenthaler, an even scaredier-cat and her monster friend. Kerry and Sam need to make a big decision: will they just be scaredy cats or can they become friends? Chicago’s Manual Cinema brings two of Mo Willems’ popular children’s books to life with hundreds of illustrated paper puppets, book pages, two-dimensional props, furry monster puppets and original songs.
Dates/Times:
Friday, January 26 at 5 pm
Saturday, January 27 at 3 pm
Sunday, January 28 at 1 pm
Location: The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, 740 E. 56th St.
Cost: $40/$30 students & seniors
Ages: All ages
Running Time: 45 mins
ADA Accessible? Yes
Manual Cinema is an Emmy Award-winning performance collective, design studio and film/video production company founded in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller and Kyle Vegter. Manual Cinema tours internationally, combining handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive stories for stage and screen. Using vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design, and a live music ensemble, Manual Cinema transforms the experience of attending the cinema and imbues it with liveness, ingenuity, and theatricality. Recent productions include Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster, co-commissioned by Chicago Children’s Theatre and The Kennedy Center, and Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol. manualcinema.com
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The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival advances the art of puppetry by presenting sophisticated programs vital to the cultural life of Chicago. Engaging and inspiring the largest and most diverse audiences for puppetry possible, the Festival is the biggest event dedicated to puppetry in North America and traditionally offers more than 100 activities annually including performances, workshops, artist instensives, free neighborhood events and symposia to audiences up to 14,000 over 11 days each January. The organization is also home to other key initiatives, including the Chicago Puppet Studio and Chicago Puppet Lab, that nurture the development of puppeteers and deepen the field locally, nationally and internationally with the ultimate goal of promoting peace, equality, mutual understanding, and justice locally and globally.
Administrative Office:
312-753-3234
info@chicagopuppetfest.org
Mailing Address:
Fine Arts Building
410 S Michigan Ave, Studio 310
Chicago, IL 60605
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