Plexus Polaire: Moby Dick
Studebaker Theater 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, ILChicago 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.
Pop-Up Puppet Hub
The Fine Arts Building 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, ILThe 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?
Opening Night Prelude Reception (fundraiser)
The Fine Arts Building 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, ILJoin 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.
Opening Night Post-Show Party (fundraiser)
The Fine Arts Building 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, ILCome 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.
Les Anges au Plafond: R.A.G.E.
MCA Chicago 205 E Pearson St, Chicago, Chicago, ILChicago 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.
The Gottabees: Squirrel Stole My Underpants
Chicago Children's Theatre 100 S. Racine Ave., Chicago, IllinoisChicago 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.
Livsmedlet Theater: Invisible Lands
Chopin Theatre 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, ILChicago 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.
The FREE Neighborhood Tour with Little Uprisings
Various Locations Chicago, ILNavy 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.”
The Gottabees: Go Home Tiny Monster
Chicago Children's Theatre 100 S. Racine Ave., Chicago, IllinoisChicago 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’Entrouvert: Anywhere
Chopin Theatre 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, ILThéâtre 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.
Khecari: as though your body were right
The Fine Arts Building 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, ILChicago 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.
Nasty, Brutish & Short (Wknd 1)
Links Hall 3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago, ILLinks Hall, Rough House & Chicago Puppet Fest present Nasty, Brutish & Short. Extend your festival experience by hitting Chicago’s favorite late-night puppet cabaret.
Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Boundless Bodies
Studebaker Theater 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, ILThe 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.).
Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Grand Narratives and Petits Récits
Studebaker Theater 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, ILThe 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).
Theodora Skipitares: Grand Panorama
Harold Washington Cindy Pritzker Auditorium 400 South State Street, Chicago, IllinoisHarold 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.
La Fille du Laitier: Macbeth Muet
Chopin Theatre 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, ILChicago 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.
Basil Twist: Symphonie Fantastique Film
Studebaker Theater 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, ILChicago 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.
Tian Gombau: New Shoes
Chicago Children's Theatre 100 S. Racine Ave., Chicago, IllinoisChicago 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.
The Naive Theatre Liberec: Choo. Choo. Whistle. Woof!
Chicago Children's Theatre 100 S. Racine Ave., Chicago, IllinoisChicago 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!
Janni Younge: Hamlet
The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center 740 East 56th Place, Chicago, ILDuSable 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.
Pigmalião Escultura que Mexe: Macunaíma Gourmet
MCA Chicago 205 E Pearson St, Chicago, Chicago, ILChicago 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.
Basil Twist: Dogugaeshi
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, The University of Chicago 915 E. 60th St., ChicagoReva 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.
Nasty, Brutish & Short (Wknd 2)
Links Hall 3111 N. Western Ave., Chicago, ILLinks Hall, Rough House & Chicago Puppet Fest present Nasty, Brutish & Short. Extend your festival experience by hitting Chicago’s favorite late-night puppet cabaret.
Rough House Theater Co.: Invitation to a Beheading
Chopin Theatre 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, ILChicago 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…
Manual Cinema: Frankenstein
Studebaker Theater 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, ILChicago Puppet Fest presents Frankenstein. Love, loss, and creation merge in unexpected ways when Manual Cinema presents its thrilling version of the classic Gothic tale.
The Koryū Nishikawa Troupe: AKUTAGAWA
Chopin Theatre 1543 W. Division St., Chicago, ILChicago 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.
Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Maya: the Uses of Illusion
Studebaker Theater 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, ILThe 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!).
Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Building New Worlds: Emerging Voices
Studebaker Theater 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, ILThe 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.
