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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Chicago Puppet Fest presents Moby Dick. Herman Melville’s magnificent monster work of literature is also a monster in puppetry. Experience Moby Dick like never before at this Chicago premiere, direct from France and Norway, created by the masters that brought Chicago Ashes and Chambre Noire.
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?
Join top supporters, festival artists and staff to cheer the opening of the 5th Chicago Puppet Fest at this exclusive, pre-show reception, immediately followed by the opening night production, Moby Dick by Plexus Polaire.
Come back up for air after Moby Dick to toast Plexus Polaire and all of the amazing puppet artists and acts ready to amaze and delight audiences over the remaining 11 days of the 5th Chicago Puppet Fest.
Chicago Puppet Fest presents R.A.G.E. In a spectacular blending of magic, puppetry, gesture and manipulation, R.A.G.E. presents the outlandish story of a literary imposter who, to escape censorship, invents a new identity and plots one of the most beautiful deceptions of the 20th century.
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.
Chicago Puppet Fest presents Invisible Lands. Visual theater duo Livsmedlet brings a unique meeting of puppetry and choreography. Geography and politics extend and transform to create organic performance platforms – bodies.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
Links Hall, Rough House & Chicago Puppet Fest present Nasty, Brutish & Short. Extend your festival experience by hitting Chicago’s favorite late-night puppet cabaret.
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.).
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).
Harold Washington Library & Chicago Puppet Fest present Grand Panorama. Frederick Douglass is widely recognized as the most photographed person in the 19th century. In Grand Panorama, his obsession with photography takes center stage illuminating the power of image to “tell the truth” about humanity and the African-American experience during slavery.
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.
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.
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.
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!
DuSable Black History Museum & Education Center & Chicago Puppet Fest present Hamlet. Humans and puppet creatures coil, tangle, knot and mesh together in celebrated South African artist Janni Younge’s new adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic.
Chicago Puppet Fest presents Macunaima Gourmet. Met by standing ovations at its 2019 premiere, this reinterpretation of the popular Brazilian novel “Macunaíma” by Mário de Andrade is full of spectacle, outrageousness and political perspective that demanded expression through puppetry and object.
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts at The University of Chicago and the Chicago Puppet Fest present: Dogugaeshi. Recipient of the Rome Prize, master puppeteer, Basil Twist unfolds an intimate, abstract, contemporary journey of images and emotions influenced by the rarefied tradition of Japanese dogugaeshi stage mechanism technique.
Links Hall, Rough House & Chicago Puppet Fest present Nasty, Brutish & Short. Extend your festival experience by hitting Chicago’s favorite late-night puppet cabaret.
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…
Chicago Puppet Fest presents Frankenstein. Love, loss, and creation merge in unexpected ways when Manual Cinema presents its thrilling version of the classic Gothic tale.
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.
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!).
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.
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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.
Fine Arts Building
410 S Michigan Ave, Studio 310
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Administrative Office:
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info@chicagopuppetfest.org
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