Next Festival: January 18-28, 2024. Tickets on Sale Now!

Pop-Up Puppet Hub

The Fine Arts Building 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

The Spoke & Bird, Fine Arts Building, and Chicago Puppet Fest present, Pup-Up Puppet Hub. Your Puppetry Destination: Food, Drink, and Exhibitions. Bursting with site-specific activities, it’s the perfect place to relax between shows, meet up with friends and make some new ones?

Free

The Gottabees: Squirrel Stole My Underpants

Chicago Children's Theatre 100 S. Racine Ave., Chicago, Illinois

Chicago Puppet Fest presents Squirrel Stole My Underpants
. In this poignantly silly adventure tale for families, Sylvie is sent to the backyard to hang up the laundry. The moment her back is turned, a mischievous squirrel steals her favorite piece of clothing and runs off.

$20 – $25

The FREE Neighborhood Tour with Little Uprisings

Various Locations Chicago, IL, United States

Navy Pier and Chicago Puppet Fest present the Free Neighborhood Tour. My Night at the Planetarium is based on the award-winning book by Innosanto Nagara, a graphic artist and acclaimed author/illustrator of “A Is for Activist” and “Counting on Community.”

Free

The Gottabees: Go Home Tiny Monster

Chicago Children's Theatre 100 S. Racine Ave., Chicago, Illinois

Chicago Puppet Fest presents Go Home Tiny Monster
. What happens when a girl and her family of homespun creatures suddenly find themselves in need of a new home? They look for help and, luckily, they find it.

$20 – $25

Théâtre de L’Entrouvert: Anywhere

Chopin Theatre (mainstage) 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, IL, United States

Théâtre de L'Entrovert & Chicago Puppet Fest present Anywhere. A marionette made of ice will melt your heart in Anywhere, an exquisite, landmark string-marionette work created by the French company Théâtre de l’Entrouvert.

$30 – $40

Khecari: as though your body were right

The Fine Arts Building 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

Chicago Puppet Fest presents as though your body were right, an invitation to confront the bodiliness of being human – a shared experience of the vulnerability of being a body, and of the power of being a body.

$30 – $40

Nasty, Brutish & Short (Wknd 1)

Links Hall 3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

Links Hall, Rough House & Chicago Puppet Fest present Nasty, Brutish & Short. Extend your festival experience by hitting Chicago’s favorite late-night puppet cabaret.

$15 – $18

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Boundless Bodies

The School of the Art Institute Performance Dept. and Chicago Puppet Fest present: Boundless Bodies. Moderated by Dr. Paulette Richards with panelists Ishmael Falke (Invisible Lands), Elise Vigneron (Anywhere), and Camille Trouvé (R.A.G.E.).

Free

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Grand Narratives and Petits Récits

The School of the Art Institute Performance Dept. and Chicago Puppet Fest present: Grand Narratives and Petits Récits. Moderated by Dr. Paulette Richards with panelists Yngvild Aspeli (Moby Dick), Sarah Fornace (Frankenstein), Michael Brown (Invitation to a Beheading) and Theodora Skipitares (Grand Panorama).

Free

La Fille du Laitier: Macbeth Muet

Chopin Theatre (mainstage) 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, IL, United States

Chicago Puppet Fest presents Macbeth Muet. Performed entirely without words, Macbeth Muet completely deconstructs this Shakespeare Tragedy into a fast paced, visceral theater experience, using the body, objects as imagery, and a ton of fake blood.

$30 – $40

Basil Twist: Symphonie Fantastique Film

Chicago Puppet Fest presents Symphonie Fantastique. In 1998, puppeteer Basil Twist debuted his boundary-breaking response to Berlioz's 1830 "Symphonie Fantastique" to universal acclaim. In the two decades since, Twist became an internationally recognized artist in opera, ballet, and on Broadway, winning countless awards including the illustrious MacArthur Fellowship.

$10 – $15

Tian Gombau: New Shoes

Chicago Children's Theatre 100 S. Racine Ave., Chicago, Illinois

Chicago Puppet Fest presents New Shoes. Internationally recognized Tian Gombau creates large experiences from very little. In this one-man show, a local event at a Mediterranean town takes you on a universal journey, speaking with simplicity and poetry about the fact of growing up.

$20 – $25

The Naive Theatre Liberec: Choo. Choo. Whistle. Woof!

Chicago Children's Theatre 100 S. Racine Ave., Chicago, Illinois

Chicago Puppet Fest presents Choo. Choo. Whistle. Woof! A charming and ingenious series of events full of garden railings, railway yards, steam locomotives and dogs in cars, Choo. Choo. Whistle. Woof! unfolds in continual tabletop puppetry delight as the classic boy meets girl story is playfully retold as dog meets dog, dog loses dog and hopefully, finds her again!

$20 – $25

Nasty, Brutish & Short (Wknd 2)

Links Hall 3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

Links Hall, Rough House & Chicago Puppet Fest present Nasty, Brutish & Short. Extend your festival experience by hitting Chicago’s favorite late-night puppet cabaret.

$15 – $18

Rough House Theater Co.: Invitation to a Beheading

Chopin Theatre (mainstage) 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, IL, United States

Chicago Puppet Fest presents Invitation to a Beheading. In a bizarre and irrational world, a man is condemned to death for an absurd crime and sent to a surreal prison to await his execution. But the prison may not be what it seems…

$20 – $30

The Koryū Nishikawa Troupe: AKUTAGAWA

Chopin Theatre (mainstage) 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, IL, United States

Chicago Puppet Fest presents AKUTAGAWA. The Koryū Nishikawa Troupe brings a collaborative puppet performance by Chicago-based puppet artist Tom Lee and Japanese traditional puppeteer Koryū Nishikawa V.

$30 – $40

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Maya: the Uses of Illusion

The School of the Art Institute Performance Dept. and Chicago Puppet Fest present: Maya: The Uses of Illusion. Moderated by Dr. Paulette Richards with panelists Eduardo Felix (Macunaima Gourmet), Janni Younge (Hamlet), Jonathan Meyer (as though your body were right) and Michaela Homolová (Choo. Choo. Whistle. Woof!).

Free

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Building New Worlds: Emerging Voices

The School of the Art Institute Performance Dept. and Chicago Puppet Fest present: Emerging Voices. Moderated by Dr. Dassia N. Posner with panelists: Graduate students from University of Chicago, University of Connecticut, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Northwestern University.

Free

The Puppet Hub

Fine Arts Building Studio 433, 4th floor 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

Chicago Puppet Fest presents Puppet Hub

Free

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Book Talks

Fine Arts Building Little Studio, 7th Floor 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

Chicago Puppet Fest presents The Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium Book Talks, featuring talks by puppet scholars of four new U.S. publications released this year.

Free

Nasty, Brutish & Short (Wknd 1)

Links Hall 3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

Rough House, UChicago, and Chicago Puppet Fest present Nasty, Brutish & Short

$15 – $18

Figurentheater Wilde & Vogel: Spleen

The Biograph's Richard Christiansen Theater 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

Chicago Puppet Fest presents Spleen

$20 – $30

Workshops with Festival Artists

Various Locations Chicago, IL, United States

Study the art and practice of puppetry, hands-on, with top local and visiting puppet artists by enrolling in a Chicago Puppet Festival workshop.

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Panel 1 – Mechanisms

Fine Arts Building Little Studio, 7th Floor 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

Chicago Puppet Fest presents the Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium which will feature Festival Artists on four different artist panels discussing the materiality of the puppet in both theory and practice.

Free

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Panel 2 – Materials

Fine Arts Building Little Studio, 7th Floor 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

Chicago Puppet Fest presents the Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium which will feature Festival Artists on four different artist panels discussing the materiality of the puppet in both theory and practice.

Free

Loco7 Dance Puppet Theater: Lunch with Sonia

Dance Center Columbia College Chicago 1306 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago & Chicago Puppet Fest present Lunch with Sonia

$30 – $40

Nasty, Brutish & Short (Wknd 2)

Reva & David Logan Center for the Arts, Performance Penthouse 915 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL, United States

Rough House, UChicago and Chicago Puppet Fest present Nasty, Brutish & Short

$15 – $18

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Panel 3 – Manipulation

Fine Arts Building Little Studio, 7th Floor 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

Chicago Puppet Fest presents the Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium which will feature Festival Artists on four different artist panels discussing the materiality of the puppet in both theory and practice.

Free

Logan Center Family Puppet Cabaret

Reva & David Logan Center for the Arts, Performance Penthouse 915 E. 60th St., Chicago, IL, United States

Reva & David Logan Center for the Arts presents Logan Center Family Puppet Cabaret

$15 – $18

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Panel 4 – Construction Techniques

Fine Arts Building Little Studio, 7th Floor 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

Chicago Puppet Fest presents The Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium which will feature Festival Artists on four different artist panels discussing the materiality of the puppet in both theory and practice.

Free

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