The next Festival is coming right up: January 19-29, 2023

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Robin Frohardt: The Plastic Bag Store

The Wrigley Building North Tower 410 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL

Chicago Puppet Fest presents The Plastic Bag Store. The Festival's “anchor attraction” is open for the duration of the festival in a street-level storefront in Chicago’s Wrigley Building. New York artist Robin Frohardt’s tragi-comic ode to the foreverness of plastic appears to be a storefront grocery, but it’s actually stocked with hundreds of hand-made items—all crafted from organic NYC trash.

Free
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Robin Frohardt: The Plastic Bag Store Immersive Puppet Film

The Wrigley Building North Tower 410 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL

Chicago Puppet Fest presents The Plastic Bag Store. The Festival's “anchor attraction” is open for the duration of the festival in a street-level storefront in Chicago’s Wrigley Building. New York artist Robin Frohardt’s tragi-comic ode to the foreverness of plastic appears to be a storefront grocery, but it’s actually stocked with hundreds of hand-made items—all crafted from organic NYC trash.

$20 – $30

Cabinet of Curiosity

MCA Chicago 205 E Pearson St, Chicago, Chicago, IL

Chicago Puppet Fest presents Sea Change. Cabinet of Curiosity transforms their celebrated outdoor exploration of the power of the sea and the feminine divine for the MCA mainstage.

$30 – $40

Free Neighborhood Tour

Various Locations Chicago, IL

Navy Pier & Chicago Puppet Fest present the Free Neighborhood Tour. The Neighborhood Tour fosters an appreciation of puppetry outside of traditional mainstage settings all around the city. Free performances from: Ty Defoe, Jerrell L. Henderson, and Joshua Holden.

Free
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Prelude Reception

The Nature Conservancy 400 N. Michigan Ave. Suite 1100, Chicago, IL

Join Festival Directors, lead artists and VIPs for a special prelude to the opening night performances. Enjoy hors d'oeuvres and toast the opening of the 4th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival prior to heading over to one of the three theaters hosting an opening night show. Show tickets sold separately.

$100

Neo-Futurists

The Neo-Futurarium 5153 N Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL

The Neo-Futurists & Chicago Puppet Fest present I, OBJECT! 30 Neo-Futurist Puppet Plays. From Chicago's celebrated Neo Futurists comes this all original, all new series of short works by local theater-makers giving you a dunk into object performance and high-speed theater.

$20 – $30

Nasty, Brutish & Short

Links Hall, Studio A 3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago, IL

Links Hall, Rough House & Chicago Puppet Fest present Nasty, Brutish & Short. This is your chance to double or triple down on an evening of puppetry by hitting the late show to round out your puppetry day.

$8 – $10
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Maria Camia

Chopin Theatre 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, IL

Chicago Puppet Fest presents New Mony!. In the human cloning family business, Allimah lives a quiet, regiment life with her parents. But while recovering in a hospital, her dreams slowly become reality and she finds herself connected to the prestigious Utopian planet called Aricama.

$25 – $35
Featured Featured

Nick Lehane

Instituto Cervantes Chicago 31 W. Ohio St., Chicago, IL

Instituto Cervantes Chicago & Chicago Puppet Fest present Chimpanzee. From award-winning, Brooklyn-based puppet artist and theater maker, Nick Lehane, comes the heartfelt, poignant, and stranger-than-fiction story of a chimpanzee raised as a child in a human home.

$25 – $35

Andy Manjuck and Dorothy James

Chopin Theatre 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, IL

Chicago Puppet Fest presents Bill's 44th. Bill's 44th is an original comedic show that brings two puppeteers together to create one (very worried) protagonist. Many styles of puppetry, raucous balloons, and a cheeky piece of crudité all collide to examine the pitfalls of impatience and the wonder of loneliness.

$25 – $35

Marsian De Lellis

Links Hall, Studio A 3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago, IL

Links Hall & Chicago Puppet Fest present Object of Her Affection. Part puppetry, part performance art, a visual narrative about objectsexuals - humans who form intimate relationships with inanimate objects.

$20 – $30

Joshua Holden

Chopin Theatre 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, IL

Chicago Puppet Fest presents The Joshua Show. Joshua Holden debuted The Joshua Show at Nasty Brutish and Short in Chicago in 2012. He then took it to the Puppeteers of America’s National Festival, where it was awarded “Best Performance” and “Fan Favorite.”

$20 – $30
Featured Featured

Bread & Puppet Theater

UChicago & Chicago Puppet Fest present The Persians. A new adaptation of Aeschylus' Tragedy created in 1962/3 by Elka and Peter Schumann with radical spectacle puppetry style that became a mainstay of U.S. political protests with their 10 foot puppets.

$30 – $40

Nasty, Brutish & Short

Links Hall, Studio A 3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago, IL

Links Hall, Rough House & Chicago Puppet Fest present Nasty, Brutish & Short. This is your chance to double or triple down on an evening of puppetry by hitting the late show to round out your puppetry day.

$8 – $10

Neo-Futurists

The Neo-Futurarium 5153 N Ashland Ave., Chicago, IL

The Neo-Futurists & Chicago Puppet Fest present I, OBJECT! 30 Neo-Futurist Puppet Plays. From Chicago's celebrated Neo Futurists comes this all original, all new series of short works by local theater-makers giving you a dunk into object performance and high-speed theater.

$20 – $30

Margaret Laurena Kemp / Janni Younge

The DuSable Museum of African American History 740 East 56th Place, Chicago, IL

DuSable Museum of African American History & Chicago Puppet Fest present The Bluest Eye. Director Margaret Laurena Kemp brings Lydia R. Diamond's dramatization of Morrison's literary classic, "The Bluest Eye" to life exploring the destructive power of racism and the strength of a community attempting to embrace an era of change.

$20 – $30

Ty Defoe

American Indian Center 3401 W. Ainslie St., Chicago, IL

Chicago Puppet Fest presents Skeleton Canoe: A work-in-progress. The story of young Nawbin as they leave home and set out on a rites of passage through a season of their life. Their journey along the water to discover their truth and way back to themselves and ancestral knowledge.

Free

Rootstock Puppet Co.

Instituto Cervantes Chicago 31 W. Ohio St., Chicago, IL

Instituto Cervantes Chicago & Chicago Puppet Fest present TIMBER!. Featuring hand-carved marionettes and original music, TIMBER! is about a forest: its wild inhabitants, its enemies, and the artist who defends it.

$20 – $30

Online Symposium – Race & Representation in Puppetry

Live Stream Event

The School of the Art Institute Performance Dept. & Chicago Puppet Fest present The Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium. The Symposium brings together practicing Festival artists with scholars to consider the intersection of puppetry with other disciplines and ideas.

Free

Online Symposium – How Objects Make Meaning on Stage: New Perspectives

Live Stream Event

The School of the Art Institute Performance Dept. & Chicago Puppet Fest present The Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium. The Symposium brings together practicing Festival artists with scholars to consider the intersection of puppetry with other disciplines and ideas.

Free

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About the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival

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.
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