Chicago Puppet Fest presents:
Language, music, and soundscapes are especially important elements in numerous works of puppetry this festival. Artists will discuss how the sounds that arise from manipulation of material, the dialogue, the soundscape, and musical accompaniment complement the puppet as a visual object. In this panel Craig Leo (Life and Times of Michael K), Yael Rasooly (The House by the Lake, Edith and Me), Paula Riquelme (Organismo), and Anthony Michael Stokes (The Scarecrow), respond to the question: What do sounds and words contribute to the emotional journey of each story? Moderated by Dr. Paulette Richards.
The Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium brings together practicing Festival artists with scholars to consider the intersection of puppetry with other disciplines and ideas. Before 1912, the year the Little Theater of Chicago was founded in the historic Fine Arts Building, the term “puppeteer” did not even exist. Little Theater director Ellen Van Volkenburg needed a program credit for the actors she had trained to manipulate marionettes while speaking the text of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and she coined the word “puppeteer.” That marked the dawn of the movement that has brought us to the rich art form now practiced around the world.
This year’s theme is: Puppets Doing and Being. In her 2024 book, Reading the Puppet Stage: Reflections on the Dramaturgy of Performing Objects, Claudia Orenstein notes that puppets enact being alive by doing rather than through written dialogue. The 2025 Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium series explores the dramaturgical elements that distinguish puppet theater and actively engage audiences in endowing material with life.
Dates/Times:
Saturday, January 25 at 10 am
Location: Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building, 410 S. Michigan Ave.
Cost: FREE
Running Time: 120 mins
ADA Accessible? Yes
January 18, 2025 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
January 19, 2025 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
January 26, 2025 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
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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:
Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival
410 S Michigan Ave, Studio 310
Chicago, IL 60605
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