Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium
The Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium
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.
Artist Panel Discussions
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 at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival explores the dramaturgical elements that distinguish puppet theater and actively engage audiences in endowing material with life.
Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium Panel 1 – The Puppet that Brings Us Together: Thoughts on Intercultural Puppetry Arts
Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United StatesThis event centers on the experiences of the following artists: Peter Balkwill (Old Trout Puppet Workshop, Canadian Academy of Masks and Puppetry, University of Calgary, Canada), Ty Defoe (writer, actor, interdisciplinary artist, Ojibwe + Oneida Nations), Teng Teng Lam + Kevin Chio (Rolling Puppet Alternative Theater, Macau), and Dr. Paulette Richards. Moderated by Gabrielle Houle (University of Lethbridge, Canada).
Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium Panel 2 – Humans and Objects
Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United StatesIn this panel Pam Arciero (Aanika’s Elephants), Julian Crouch (Birdheart), Choiti Ghosh (Maati Katha), and Gildwen Peronno (I Killed the Monster) extend this reflection by commenting on how their shows interrogate humans’ roles in a variety of ecosystems. Moderated by Dr. Paulette Richards.
Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium Panel 3 – Notes on Sounds and Words
Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United StatesIn 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.
Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium Panel 4 – The Image Aspect of the Puppet
Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United StatesIn this panel Alex Bird (Concerned Others), Giulia De Canio (Untold), Plexus Polaire (Dracula), and Josh Rice (Kayfabe) will address the question of how the puppet as kinetic object and the puppet as visual image work together. Moderated by Dassia N. Posner.
