Chicago
Illinois
Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival 2024
Arts and Entertainment
December 30, 2023
From: Chicago International Puppet Theater FestivalSchedule :
January 16, 2024
10:00am to 5:00pm : Workshops with Festival Artists
The Beast Dance Adult Workshop or How to Raise an Untamed Avian Puppet
Register for hands-on workshops led by visiting festival artists. Some will be presented in their assigned venues so they can show their puppets. Others will happen in the festival’s education space in the Fine Arts Building, 7th floor. Workshops are designed for adult professional artists working in any discipline. Everyone welcome. No application required.
In addition to the events listed here, come make your own masks at FREE drop-in workshops on Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21 at 2:45 pm with Wakka Wakka.
Cost : $60 – $295
Ages : 18 and up
January 17, 2024
10:00am to 5:00pm : Workshops with Festival Artists
The Beast Dance Adult Workshop or How to Raise an Untamed Avian Puppet
Register for hands-on workshops led by visiting festival artists. Some will be presented in their assigned venues so they can show their puppets. Others will happen in the festival’s education space in the Fine Arts Building, 7th floor. Workshops are designed for adult professional artists working in any discipline. Everyone welcome. No application required.
In addition to the events listed here, come make your own masks at FREE drop-in workshops on Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21 at 2:45 pm with Wakka Wakka.
Cost : $60 – $295
Ages : 18 and up
January 18, 2024
10:00am to 5:00pm : Workshops with Festival Artists
The Beast Dance Adult Workshop or How to Raise an Untamed Avian Puppet
Register for hands-on workshops led by visiting festival artists. Some will be presented in their assigned venues so they can show their puppets. Others will happen in the festival’s education space in the Fine Arts Building, 7th floor. Workshops are designed for adult professional artists working in any discipline. Everyone welcome. No application required.
In addition to the events listed here, come make your own masks at FREE drop-in workshops on Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21 at 2:45 pm with Wakka Wakka.
Cost : $60 – $295
Ages : 18 and up
4:30pm : Free Neighborhood Tour with Krystal Puppeteers: Tears by the River
Tears by the River beautifully blends traditional Kenyan puppetry, artistry and vocals to tell this classic folktale about the brave monkey called Libendi. A great famine sends him seeking a far away river and a better life.
Crossing valleys, mountains, deserts, and barren land, Libendi risks everything and although many animals of the forest honor, respect and praise him, others will do anything for fame. Bring the family!
7:30pm : Wakka Wakka: The Immortal Jellyfish Girl
World Premiere of Wakka Wakka’s Animalia Trilogy
A gripping tale of humanity on the brink of annihilation and the unlikely hero who might just save them all. The year is 2555. Large swaths of earth’s surface are considered dead zones, and mass extinction has begun. There is a war (there is always a war). As both sides grow desperate, their thirst for destruction becomes more and more volatile.
An improbable meeting between an orphan and a jellyfish girl threatens to tip the balance forever, but in whose favor, and at what cost? A mysterious man in a homemade fox costume has seen this all before, has lived this tragedy too many times, but he is determined it will end differently. Hilarious, ridiculous and virtuosic, this puppet show blends innovative projection, original music and puppetry that soars through dimensions, unconfined by time, gravity or biology.
7:30pm : Matthew Gawryk and Dan Kerr-Hobert: Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities: A Toy Theater Atlas
Kublai Khan feels his empire slipping away, and only from the tales of his emissary Marco Polo can he grasp it.
A meditation on the nature and form of cities, of both their uniqueness and ubiquity, this toy theater adaptation of Italo Calvino’s novel compresses 18 cities into a menagerie of objects that articulate the narrative, using a variety of mediums including puppetry, object theater, paper mechanics and living sculpture.
8:45pm to 10:45pm : Opening Night Post-Show Party
Celebrate opening night with the artists and acts ready to astonish and delight you for the next 12 days of the festival.
Enjoy drinks, dessert, live performance, and the regionally-inspired Mexico City ensemble Los Héroes del Desfierro’s wind and brass band music.
Get tickets for the opening night performance of Immortal Jellyfish Girl separately.
5:30pm to 7:15pm : Opening Night Prelude Reception
Join top supporters, festival leadership, artistic directors, and staff to toast the opening of the 6th edition of the festival at this exclusive, pre-show reception including early access to opening night seating.
Prelude receiption immediately followed by the opening night performance of Wakka Wakka’s Immortal Jellyfish Girl.
January 19, 2024
10:00am to 5:00pm : Workshops with Festival Artists
The Beast Dance Adult Workshop or How to Raise an Untamed Avian Puppet
Register for hands-on workshops led by visiting festival artists. Some will be presented in their assigned venues so they can show their puppets. Others will happen in the festival’s education space in the Fine Arts Building, 7th floor. Workshops are designed for adult professional artists working in any discipline. Everyone welcome. No application required.
In addition to the events listed here, come make your own masks at FREE drop-in workshops on Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21 at 2:45 pm with Wakka Wakka.
Cost : $60 – $295
Ages : 18 and up
10:00am to 1:00pm : Workshops with Festival Artists
Krystal Puppeteers Theatre Master Class
Register for hands-on workshops led by visiting festival artists. Some will be presented in their assigned venues so they can show their puppets. Others will happen in the festival’s education space in the Fine Arts Building, 7th floor. Workshops are designed for adult professional artists working in any discipline. Everyone welcome. No application required.
In addition to the events listed here, come make your own masks at FREE drop-in workshops on Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21 at 2:45 pm with Wakka Wakka.
Cost : $60 – $295
Ages : 18 and up
10:00am to 10:00pm : The Puppet Hub
In addition to the incredible pageant of international and U.S. puppetry artists, the Puppet Hub is back and open throughout the festival.
It’s the perfect place to relax between shows, get a bite to eat, meet up with friends, make new ones, and learn more about contemporary puppetry.
Attractions include :
The Materiality of the Puppet
A special exhibit showcasing design renderings from the 2024 festival productions.
The Beasts wait inside
An up-close look at the preliminary drawings and wild animal puppets in The Beast Dance by visiting company La Liga Teatro Elástico, Mexico. Catch their free spectacle production, The Beast Dance, one-show-only, Saturday, January 20 at 2 p.m. at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St., Pilsen.
Pop-Up Puppet Shop
The perfect spot to stock up on your newest Chicago Puppet Fest swag and all of the books featured in the Book Talks.
The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe
Stop by The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe if you’re coming to a show at the Studebaker Theater, workshops, readings and special events in the Fine Arts Building, or any Puppet Fest show downtown. Enjoy coffee, tea, winter soups and baked treats in a cozy, puppet-inspired setting, and check out the surrounding exhibits.
1:30pm : Wakka Wakka: The Immortal Jellyfish Girl
World Premiere of Wakka Wakka’s Animalia Trilogy
A gripping tale of humanity on the brink of annihilation and the unlikely hero who might just save them all. The year is 2555. Large swaths of earth’s surface are considered dead zones, and mass extinction has begun. There is a war (there is always a war). As both sides grow desperate, their thirst for destruction becomes more and more volatile.
An improbable meeting between an orphan and a jellyfish girl threatens to tip the balance forever, but in whose favor, and at what cost? A mysterious man in a homemade fox costume has seen this all before, has lived this tragedy too many times, but he is determined it will end differently. Hilarious, ridiculous and virtuosic, this puppet show blends innovative projection, original music and puppetry that soars through dimensions, unconfined by time, gravity or biology.
4:00pm : Matthew Gawryk and Dan Kerr-Hobert: Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities: A Toy Theater Atlas
Kublai Khan feels his empire slipping away, and only from the tales of his emissary Marco Polo can he grasp it.
A meditation on the nature and form of cities, of both their uniqueness and ubiquity, this toy theater adaptation of Italo Calvino’s novel compresses 18 cities into a menagerie of objects that articulate the narrative, using a variety of mediums including puppetry, object theater, paper mechanics and living sculpture.
4:30pm : Free Neighborhood Tour with Krystal Puppeteers: Tears by the River
Tears by the River beautifully blends traditional Kenyan puppetry, artistry and vocals to tell this classic folktale about the brave monkey called Libendi. A great famine sends him seeking a far away river and a better life.
Crossing valleys, mountains, deserts, and barren land, Libendi risks everything and although many animals of the forest honor, respect and praise him, others will do anything for fame. Bring the family!
5:00pm : Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium
5:00pm : Author Colette Searls: A Galaxy of Things: The Power of Puppets and Masks in Star Wars and Beyond
A Galaxy of Things explores the ways in which all puppets, masks, makeup-prosthetic figures are “material characters,” using iconic Star Wars characters like Yoda and R2-D2 to illustrate what makes them so compelling.
7:00pm : Wakka Wakka: Dead as a Dodo
World Premiere of Wakka Wakka’s Animalia Trilogy
Deep within the underworld, a skeleton Dodo and a skeleton Neanderthal are tirelessly digging for fresh bones; their ancient skeletal forms are quickly deteriorating and they are afraid of disappearing completely.
One day, a peculiar occurrence disrupts their routine…without warning, the Dodo miraculously sprouts a new bone! A maelstrom of transformation begins to unravel within the realm of bones, shattering the established order.
The great reversal has begun. Infused with a blend of puppetry, projections, and humor, Dead as a Dodo offers a fantastical glimpse into a future that harkens back to the distant past.
Cost: $45/$40 students & seniors
Ages: 8 and up
Running Time: 75 mins
7:00pm : Tarish Jeghetto Pipkins: The Hip Hopera of 5P1N0K10
Set in an Afro-futuristic post-apocalyptic realm, The Hip Hopera of SP1N0K10 (pronounced “Spin-o-kio”) is a science fiction tale about an android who wants to be a real B-Boy.
It’s co-written by Pierce Freelon and Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins, and performed with Tarish’s two sons, Divine and Tarin. Featuring an original score by hip-hop producer Hir-O, video, and emceeing, Jeghetto’s magical plywood marionettes share his “artivism” as the title character encounters racism, oppression and police brutality on their path toward a better future.
Cost : $30/$20 students & seniors
Ages : 10 and up
Running Time : 45 mins
7:30pm : Hamid Rahmanian: Song of the North
Song of the North, adapted from the “Book of Kings” (Shahnameh), is a visually breathtaking, large-scale, cinematic play of shadow puppetry and projected animation. It tells the classic Persian tale of the courageous Manijeh, a heroine from ancient Persia, who must use all her strengths and talents to rescue her beloved, Bijan, from a perilous predicament of her own making to help prevent a war. This epic love story employs a cast of 500 handmade puppets and a talented ensemble of nine actors and puppeteers, which come together to create a spectacular experience that advances themes of unity, collaboration and experimentation through performance and story.
Cost: $45/$35 students & seniors
Ages: All ages
Running Time: 80 mins
7:30pm : Papermoon Puppet Theatre: A Bucket of Beetles
Wehea lives in a big rainforest where even the smallest of beings are his friends.
Inspired by the drawings of a four-year-old and imbued with the exquisite puppetry of Indonesia’s Papermoon Puppet Theatre, comes a story of a beautiful friendship, of enchanting creatures and of the delicate connection between humans and nature.
Cost: $40/$30 students & seniors
Ages: 5 and up
Running Time: 50 mins
9:00pm : Figurentheater Wilde and Vogel: Spleen
Spleen is a kaleidoscope of pictures, songs and miniatures, inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s collection of poems “Le Spleen de Paris,” published posthumously in 1869. Mankind on the threshold to modernity is described in scenes played out between thirst for life and longing for death, between a romantic search for infinity and a brutal triviality.
The performers are on the stage with puppets and musical instruments, while Baudelaire’s texts are spoken by children recorded on tape. The magic of this kaleidoscope develops in the imagination between actors, material and audience – a sequence of pictures and live music that wants to counterpoint Baudelaire’s vision of the world and open it for a new understanding for the present.
Cost: $30/$20 students & seniors
Ages: 16 and up
Running Time: 70 mins
9:30pm : Wakka Wakka: Animal R.I.O.T.
World Premiere of Wakka Wakka’s Animalia Trilogy
Animal R.I.O.T (Animal Resurgence In Our Time) is an anonymous anthropomorphic organization, founded by the Fantastic Mr. Fox (the non-fictional one). Can you believe it?
The human species will come together and save all animals from extinction (including ourselves)! Become a real life masked avenger answering the CALL of the WILD and join the BIO-ECCENTRIC PACIFIST FIGHT CLUB! Join us or die out!
Cost : $40/$30 students & seniors
Ages : 13 and up
Running Time : 75 mins
10:30pm : Nasty, Brutish and Short
Hit the fan-favorite late show to take your puppetry experience from the highest heights to the best kind of lows.
Enjoy Chicago’s long-standing puppet cabaret with your host Jameson and somewhat furry friends for a naughty night of raucous, raunchy, dark, sassy, sad and mostly hilarious puppet theater.
The best part? Fancy out-of-towner puppeteers are invited to join local legends in a bawdy night of revelry followed by friendly unwinding.
January 20, 2024
9:00am to 8:00pm : The Puppet Hub
In addition to the incredible pageant of international and U.S. puppetry artists, the Puppet Hub is back and open throughout the festival.
It’s the perfect place to relax between shows, get a bite to eat, meet up with friends, make new ones, and learn more about contemporary puppetry.
Attractions include :
The Materiality of the Puppet
A special exhibit showcasing design renderings from the 2024 festival productions.
The Beasts wait inside
An up-close look at the preliminary drawings and wild animal puppets in The Beast Dance by visiting company La Liga Teatro Elástico, Mexico. Catch their free spectacle production, The Beast Dance, one-show-only, Saturday, January 20 at 2 p.m. at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St., Pilsen.
Pop-Up Puppet Shop
The perfect spot to stock up on your newest Chicago Puppet Fest swag and all of the books featured in the Book Talks.
The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe
Stop by The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe if you’re coming to a show at the Studebaker Theater, workshops, readings and special events in the Fine Arts Building, or any Puppet Fest show downtown. Enjoy coffee, tea, winter soups and baked treats in a cozy, puppet-inspired setting, and check out the surrounding exhibits.
10:00am to 5:00pm : Workshops with Festival Artists
The Beast Dance Adult Workshop or How to Raise an Untamed Avian Puppet
Register for hands-on workshops led by visiting festival artists. Some will be presented in their assigned venues so they can show their puppets. Others will happen in the festival’s education space in the Fine Arts Building, 7th floor. Workshops are designed for adult professional artists working in any discipline. Everyone welcome. No application required.
In addition to the events listed here, come make your own masks at FREE drop-in workshops on Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21 at 2:45 pm with Wakka Wakka.
Cost : $60 – $295
Ages : 18 and up
10:00am to 1:00pm : Workshops with Festival Artists
Papermoon Puppet Theatre Master Class
Register for hands-on workshops led by visiting festival artists. Some will be presented in their assigned venues so they can show their puppets. Others will happen in the festival’s education space in the Fine Arts Building, 7th floor. Workshops are designed for adult professional artists working in any discipline. Everyone welcome. No application required.
In addition to the events listed here, come make your own masks at FREE drop-in workshops on Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21 at 2:45 pm with Wakka Wakka.
Cost : $60 – $295
Ages : 18 and up
10:00am : Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Panel 1 - Mechanisms
This year’s Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium will feature Festival Artists on four different artist panels discussing the materiality of the puppet in both theory and practice.
Panel 1 – Mechanisms explores the question: How do mechanisms, both digital and mechanical, ingenious and simple work to animate the material characters and performance?
Panelists:
Matthew Gawryk & Dan Kerr-Hobert, Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities: A Toy Theater Atlas
Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins, The Hip Hopera of SP1N0K10
Michael Vogel, Spleen
1:00pm : Hamid Rahmanian: Song of the North
Song of the North, adapted from the “Book of Kings” (Shahnameh), is a visually breathtaking, large-scale, cinematic play of shadow puppetry and projected animation. It tells the classic Persian tale of the courageous Manijeh, a heroine from ancient Persia, who must use all her strengths and talents to rescue her beloved, Bijan, from a perilous predicament of her own making to help prevent a war. This epic love story employs a cast of 500 handmade puppets and a talented ensemble of nine actors and puppeteers, which come together to create a spectacular experience that advances themes of unity, collaboration and experimentation through performance and story.
Cost: $45/$35 students & seniors
Ages: All ages
Running Time: 80 mins
1:00pm : Tarish Jeghetto Pipkins: The Hip Hopera of 5P1N0K10
Set in an Afro-futuristic post-apocalyptic realm, The Hip Hopera of SP1N0K10 (pronounced “Spin-o-kio”) is a science fiction tale about an android who wants to be a real B-Boy.
It’s co-written by Pierce Freelon and Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins, and performed with Tarish’s two sons, Divine and Tarin. Featuring an original score by hip-hop producer Hir-O, video, and emceeing, Jeghetto’s magical plywood marionettes share his “artivism” as the title character encounters racism, oppression and police brutality on their path toward a better future.
Cost : $30/$20 students & seniors
Ages : 10 and up
Running Time : 45 mins
1:30pm : Wakka Wakka: Dead as a Dodo
World Premiere of Wakka Wakka’s Animalia Trilogy
Deep within the underworld, a skeleton Dodo and a skeleton Neanderthal are tirelessly digging for fresh bones; their ancient skeletal forms are quickly deteriorating and they are afraid of disappearing completely.
One day, a peculiar occurrence disrupts their routine…without warning, the Dodo miraculously sprouts a new bone! A maelstrom of transformation begins to unravel within the realm of bones, shattering the established order.
The great reversal has begun. Infused with a blend of puppetry, projections, and humor, Dead as a Dodo offers a fantastical glimpse into a future that harkens back to the distant past.
Cost: $45/$40 students & seniors
Ages: 8 and up
Running Time: 75 mins
2:00pm : Matthew Gawryk and Dan Kerr-Hobert: Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities: A Toy Theater Atlas
Kublai Khan feels his empire slipping away, and only from the tales of his emissary Marco Polo can he grasp it.
A meditation on the nature and form of cities, of both their uniqueness and ubiquity, this toy theater adaptation of Italo Calvino’s novel compresses 18 cities into a menagerie of objects that articulate the narrative, using a variety of mediums including puppetry, object theater, paper mechanics and living sculpture.
2:00pm : La Liga Teatro Elástico: The Beast Dance or The Secret Spell of the Wild
La Liga Teatro Elástico celebrates the important role of the wildest predators within our natural ecosystem using spectacle and community interaction in reverence to the wolf with The Beast Dance (or The Secret Spell of the Wild). This spectacle revives the ancient dance of the hunter and the prey to the rhythm of festive traditional sounds.
Workshop participants young and old who have spent the prior week building puppet-beasts will assemble the production right in front of the audience and then release it into the public space.
It’s been performed more than 50 times in streets, squares and parks on three continents, where people have participated to the rhythm of Oaxacan sones, Basque trikitritxas or Otomi tunditos on beaches, mountains, semi-deserts or snow. Now Chicago will take its turn continuing to evolve and enrich this community spectacle featuring the live band, Los Héroes del Desfierro.
Ages: All ages
Running Time: 75 mins
3:00pm : Papermoon Puppet Theatre: A Bucket of Beetles
Wehea lives in a big rainforest where even the smallest of beings are his friends.
Inspired by the drawings of a four-year-old and imbued with the exquisite puppetry of Indonesia’s Papermoon Puppet Theatre, comes a story of a beautiful friendship, of enchanting creatures and of the delicate connection between humans and nature.
Cost: $40/$30 students & seniors
Ages: 5 and up
Running Time: 50 mins
4:00pm : Free Neighborhood Tour with Krystal Puppeteers: Tears by the River
Tears by the River beautifully blends traditional Kenyan puppetry, artistry and vocals to tell this classic folktale about the brave monkey called Libendi. A great famine sends him seeking a far away river and a better life.
Crossing valleys, mountains, deserts, and barren land, Libendi risks everything and although many animals of the forest honor, respect and praise him, others will do anything for fame. Bring the family!
5:00pm : Figurentheater Wilde and Vogel: Spleen
Spleen is a kaleidoscope of pictures, songs and miniatures, inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s collection of poems “Le Spleen de Paris,” published posthumously in 1869. Mankind on the threshold to modernity is described in scenes played out between thirst for life and longing for death, between a romantic search for infinity and a brutal triviality.
The performers are on the stage with puppets and musical instruments, while Baudelaire’s texts are spoken by children recorded on tape. The magic of this kaleidoscope develops in the imagination between actors, material and audience – a sequence of pictures and live music that wants to counterpoint Baudelaire’s vision of the world and open it for a new understanding for the present.
Cost: $30/$20 students & seniors
Ages: 16 and up
Running Time: 70 mins
5:30pm : Hamid Rahmanian: Song of the North
Song of the North, adapted from the “Book of Kings” (Shahnameh), is a visually breathtaking, large-scale, cinematic play of shadow puppetry and projected animation. It tells the classic Persian tale of the courageous Manijeh, a heroine from ancient Persia, who must use all her strengths and talents to rescue her beloved, Bijan, from a perilous predicament of her own making to help prevent a war. This epic love story employs a cast of 500 handmade puppets and a talented ensemble of nine actors and puppeteers, which come together to create a spectacular experience that advances themes of unity, collaboration and experimentation through performance and story.
Cost: $45/$35 students & seniors
Ages: All ages
Running Time: 80 mins
7:00pm : Wakka Wakka: The Immortal Jellyfish Girl
World Premiere of Wakka Wakka’s Animalia Trilogy
A gripping tale of humanity on the brink of annihilation and the unlikely hero who might just save them all. The year is 2555. Large swaths of earth’s surface are considered dead zones, and mass extinction has begun. There is a war (there is always a war). As both sides grow desperate, their thirst for destruction becomes more and more volatile.
An improbable meeting between an orphan and a jellyfish girl threatens to tip the balance forever, but in whose favor, and at what cost? A mysterious man in a homemade fox costume has seen this all before, has lived this tragedy too many times, but he is determined it will end differently. Hilarious, ridiculous and virtuosic, this puppet show blends innovative projection, original music and puppetry that soars through dimensions, unconfined by time, gravity or biology.
7:00pm : Tarish Jeghetto Pipkins: The Hip Hopera of 5P1N0K10
Set in an Afro-futuristic post-apocalyptic realm, The Hip Hopera of SP1N0K10 (pronounced “Spin-o-kio”) is a science fiction tale about an android who wants to be a real B-Boy.
It’s co-written by Pierce Freelon and Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins, and performed with Tarish’s two sons, Divine and Tarin. Featuring an original score by hip-hop producer Hir-O, video, and emceeing, Jeghetto’s magical plywood marionettes share his “artivism” as the title character encounters racism, oppression and police brutality on their path toward a better future.
Cost : $30/$20 students & seniors
Ages : 10 and up
Running Time : 45 mins
7:30pm : Papermoon Puppet Theatre: A Bucket of Beetles
Wehea lives in a big rainforest where even the smallest of beings are his friends.
Inspired by the drawings of a four-year-old and imbued with the exquisite puppetry of Indonesia’s Papermoon Puppet Theatre, comes a story of a beautiful friendship, of enchanting creatures and of the delicate connection between humans and nature.
Cost: $40/$30 students & seniors
Ages: 5 and up
Running Time: 50 mins
9:00pm : Figurentheater Wilde and Vogel: Spleen
Spleen is a kaleidoscope of pictures, songs and miniatures, inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s collection of poems “Le Spleen de Paris,” published posthumously in 1869. Mankind on the threshold to modernity is described in scenes played out between thirst for life and longing for death, between a romantic search for infinity and a brutal triviality.
The performers are on the stage with puppets and musical instruments, while Baudelaire’s texts are spoken by children recorded on tape. The magic of this kaleidoscope develops in the imagination between actors, material and audience – a sequence of pictures and live music that wants to counterpoint Baudelaire’s vision of the world and open it for a new understanding for the present.
Cost: $30/$20 students & seniors
Ages: 16 and up
Running Time: 70 mins
9:30pm : Wakka Wakka: Animal R.I.O.T.
World Premiere of Wakka Wakka’s Animalia Trilogy
Animal R.I.O.T (Animal Resurgence In Our Time) is an anonymous anthropomorphic organization, founded by the Fantastic Mr. Fox (the non-fictional one). Can you believe it?
The human species will come together and save all animals from extinction (including ourselves)! Become a real life masked avenger answering the CALL of the WILD and join the BIO-ECCENTRIC PACIFIST FIGHT CLUB! Join us or die out!
Cost : $40/$30 students & seniors
Ages : 13 and up
Running Time : 75 mins
10:30pm : Nasty, Brutish and Short
Hit the fan-favorite late show to take your puppetry experience from the highest heights to the best kind of lows.
Enjoy Chicago’s long-standing puppet cabaret with your host Jameson and somewhat furry friends for a naughty night of raucous, raunchy, dark, sassy, sad and mostly hilarious puppet theater.
The best part? Fancy out-of-towner puppeteers are invited to join local legends in a bawdy night of revelry followed by friendly unwinding.
January 22, 2024
7:00pm : Alex and Olmsted: MAROONED! A Space Comedy
An astronaut traveling 87,000 light years into space crash-lands on an uncharted planet, where she must resort to emergency measures to seek rescue.
From the award-winning team Alex & Olmsted, elegant puppetry design meets joyful, meaningful storytelling. Live performance, shadow puppetry and marionettes shine to delightful effect. This is puppetry life support of the best kind – at just the right moment.
Cost: $40/$30 students & seniors
Ages: All ages
Running Time: 60 mins
7:30pm : Wakka Wakka: Animal R.I.O.T.
World Premiere of Wakka Wakka’s Animalia Trilogy
Animal R.I.O.T (Animal Resurgence In Our Time) is an anonymous anthropomorphic organization, founded by the Fantastic Mr. Fox (the non-fictional one). Can you believe it?
The human species will come together and save all animals from extinction (including ourselves)! Become a real life masked avenger answering the CALL of the WILD and join the BIO-ECCENTRIC PACIFIST FIGHT CLUB! Join us or die out!
Cost : $40/$30 students & seniors
Ages : 13 and up
Running Time : 75 mins
January 23, 2024
10:00am to 6:00pm : The Puppet Hub
In addition to the incredible pageant of international and U.S. puppetry artists, the Puppet Hub is back and open throughout the festival.
It’s the perfect place to relax between shows, get a bite to eat, meet up with friends, make new ones, and learn more about contemporary puppetry.
Attractions include :
The Materiality of the Puppet
A special exhibit showcasing design renderings from the 2024 festival productions.
The Beasts wait inside
An up-close look at the preliminary drawings and wild animal puppets in The Beast Dance by visiting company La Liga Teatro Elástico, Mexico. Catch their free spectacle production, The Beast Dance, one-show-only, Saturday, January 20 at 2 p.m. at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St., Pilsen.
Pop-Up Puppet Shop
The perfect spot to stock up on your newest Chicago Puppet Fest swag and all of the books featured in the Book Talks.
The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe
Stop by The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe if you’re coming to a show at the Studebaker Theater, workshops, readings and special events in the Fine Arts Building, or any Puppet Fest show downtown. Enjoy coffee, tea, winter soups and baked treats in a cozy, puppet-inspired setting, and check out the surrounding exhibits.
5:00pm : Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium
5:00pm : Author Dr. Paulette Richards: Object Performance in the Black Atlantic
Given that slaveholders prohibited the creation of African-style performing objects, is there a traceable connection between traditional African puppets, masks, and performing objects, and contemporary African American puppetry?
This study approaches the question by looking at the whole performance complex surrounding African performing objects and examines the material culture of object performance.
7:00pm : Alex and Olmsted: MAROONED! A Space Comedy
An astronaut traveling 87,000 light years into space crash-lands on an uncharted planet, where she must resort to emergency measures to seek rescue.
From the award-winning team Alex & Olmsted, elegant puppetry design meets joyful, meaningful storytelling. Live performance, shadow puppetry and marionettes shine to delightful effect. This is puppetry life support of the best kind – at just the right moment.
Cost: $40/$30 students & seniors
Ages: All ages
Running Time: 60 mins
7:30pm : Wakka Wakka: Animal R.I.O.T.
World Premiere of Wakka Wakka’s Animalia Trilogy
Animal R.I.O.T (Animal Resurgence In Our Time) is an anonymous anthropomorphic organization, founded by the Fantastic Mr. Fox (the non-fictional one). Can you believe it?
The human species will come together and save all animals from extinction (including ourselves)! Become a real life masked avenger answering the CALL of the WILD and join the BIO-ECCENTRIC PACIFIST FIGHT CLUB! Join us or die out!
Cost : $40/$30 students & seniors
Ages : 13 and up
Running Time : 75 mins
January 24, 2024
10:00am to 6:00pm : The Puppet Hub
In addition to the incredible pageant of international and U.S. puppetry artists, the Puppet Hub is back and open throughout the festival.
It’s the perfect place to relax between shows, get a bite to eat, meet up with friends, make new ones, and learn more about contemporary puppetry.
Attractions include :
The Materiality of the Puppet
A special exhibit showcasing design renderings from the 2024 festival productions.
The Beasts wait inside
An up-close look at the preliminary drawings and wild animal puppets in The Beast Dance by visiting company La Liga Teatro Elástico, Mexico. Catch their free spectacle production, The Beast Dance, one-show-only, Saturday, January 20 at 2 p.m. at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St., Pilsen.
Pop-Up Puppet Shop
The perfect spot to stock up on your newest Chicago Puppet Fest swag and all of the books featured in the Book Talks.
The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe
Stop by The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe if you’re coming to a show at the Studebaker Theater, workshops, readings and special events in the Fine Arts Building, or any Puppet Fest show downtown. Enjoy coffee, tea, winter soups and baked treats in a cozy, puppet-inspired setting, and check out the surrounding exhibits.
5:00pm : Alex and Olmsted: MAROONED! A Space Comedy
An astronaut traveling 87,000 light years into space crash-lands on an uncharted planet, where she must resort to emergency measures to seek rescue.
From the award-winning team Alex & Olmsted, elegant puppetry design meets joyful, meaningful storytelling. Live performance, shadow puppetry and marionettes shine to delightful effect. This is puppetry life support of the best kind – at just the right moment.
Cost: $40/$30 students & seniors
Ages: All ages
Running Time: 60 mins
6:00pm : Free Neighborhood Tour with Krystal Puppeteers: Tears by the River
Tears by the River beautifully blends traditional Kenyan puppetry, artistry and vocals to tell this classic folktale about the brave monkey called Libendi. A great famine sends him seeking a far away river and a better life.
Crossing valleys, mountains, deserts, and barren land, Libendi risks everything and although many animals of the forest honor, respect and praise him, others will do anything for fame. Bring the family!
January 25, 2024
10:00am to 6:00pm : The Puppet Hub
In addition to the incredible pageant of international and U.S. puppetry artists, the Puppet Hub is back and open throughout the festival.
It’s the perfect place to relax between shows, get a bite to eat, meet up with friends, make new ones, and learn more about contemporary puppetry.
Attractions include :
The Materiality of the Puppet
A special exhibit showcasing design renderings from the 2024 festival productions.
The Beasts wait inside
An up-close look at the preliminary drawings and wild animal puppets in The Beast Dance by visiting company La Liga Teatro Elástico, Mexico. Catch their free spectacle production, The Beast Dance, one-show-only, Saturday, January 20 at 2 p.m. at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St., Pilsen.
Pop-Up Puppet Shop
The perfect spot to stock up on your newest Chicago Puppet Fest swag and all of the books featured in the Book Talks.
The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe
Stop by The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe if you’re coming to a show at the Studebaker Theater, workshops, readings and special events in the Fine Arts Building, or any Puppet Fest show downtown. Enjoy coffee, tea, winter soups and baked treats in a cozy, puppet-inspired setting, and check out the surrounding exhibits.
10:30am : Free Neighborhood Tour with Krystal Puppeteers: Tears by the River
Tears by the River beautifully blends traditional Kenyan puppetry, artistry and vocals to tell this classic folktale about the brave monkey called Libendi. A great famine sends him seeking a far away river and a better life.
Crossing valleys, mountains, deserts, and barren land, Libendi risks everything and although many animals of the forest honor, respect and praise him, others will do anything for fame. Bring the family!
7:00pm : Figurentheater Wilde and Vogel and Grupa Coincidentia: Krabat
Based on the classic German children’s book “Krabat and the Sorcerer’s Mill,” a stray war orphan finds shelter with eleven millers and their Master. Strict rules, dark practices, black magic…anything can be endured as long as the bowl is full and the bed is dry. Krabat grows closer and closer to the Master. Finally, it is not heroism, but disobedience – the motive of gaining a friend and a girl who loves him – that breaks the power of the spell.
A play about hard times, human falls and the power of first love, Krabat goes straight to the heart with penetrating clarity, power of image, stage humor and a minimum of words. Dark, bold and at the same time incredibly light, it’s a carousel of feelings spinning among great musical landscapes.
Cost: $45/$35 students & seniors
Ages: 13 and up
Running Time: 70 mins
7:30pm : Loco7 Dance Puppet Theater: Lunch with Sonia
Lunch with Sonia is inspired by Loco 7 founder and artistic director Federico Restrepo’s true-life experience with his Aunt Sonia, who at the age of 72, asked her family to gather for lunch.
Lyrical storytelling, dance, projection and a team of talented puppeteers tell the story of this larger-than-life, unapologetic and robust woman. It’s a piece of incredible intimacy proposing the idea that dying is the final event of living a self-actualized, individual human life.
Cost : $40/$30 students & seniors
Ages : 12 and up
Running Time : 55 mins
January 26, 2024
10:00am to 6:00pm : The Puppet Hub
In addition to the incredible pageant of international and U.S. puppetry artists, the Puppet Hub is back and open throughout the festival.
It’s the perfect place to relax between shows, get a bite to eat, meet up with friends, make new ones, and learn more about contemporary puppetry.
Attractions include :
The Materiality of the Puppet
A special exhibit showcasing design renderings from the 2024 festival productions.
The Beasts wait inside
An up-close look at the preliminary drawings and wild animal puppets in The Beast Dance by visiting company La Liga Teatro Elástico, Mexico. Catch their free spectacle production, The Beast Dance, one-show-only, Saturday, January 20 at 2 p.m. at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St., Pilsen.
Pop-Up Puppet Shop
The perfect spot to stock up on your newest Chicago Puppet Fest swag and all of the books featured in the Book Talks.
The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe
Stop by The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe if you’re coming to a show at the Studebaker Theater, workshops, readings and special events in the Fine Arts Building, or any Puppet Fest show downtown. Enjoy coffee, tea, winter soups and baked treats in a cozy, puppet-inspired setting, and check out the surrounding exhibits.
7:30pm : Basil Twist: Book of Mountains and Seas
Midwest Premiere
Book of Mountains and Seas examines our modern-day relationship with the natural world. Four fables centered around the creation and destruction of the earth are uniquely told by a company of 12 singers, two percussionists, and six puppeteers with staging by internationally celebrated puppeteer Basil Twist.
Huang Ruo’s vibrant and inventive score, which draws inspiration from Chinese folk music, breathes new life into the ancient stories. This is a powerful and extraordinary work that will challenge the way audiences interact with nature and the environment.
Music & Libretto by Huang Ruo
A Beth Morrison Projects Production
Chinese and Invented language with English subtitles
Cost: $45/$40 students & seniors
Ages: 12 and up
Running Time: 80 mins
January 27, 2024
10:30pm : Nasty, Brutish and Short
Rough House heads south to Hyde Park on the festival’s final weekend for two more nights of its Nasty, Brutish & Short puppet cabaret. It’s an evening of raucous, raunchy, dark, sassy, sad and mostly hilarious puppet theater.
The best part? Fancy out of towner puppeteers will join local legends in two final nights of puppet revelry.
Cost: $18/$15 students & seniors
Ages: 16 and up
Running Time: 60 mins
9:00pm : Figurentheater Wilde and Vogel and Grupa Coincidentia: Krabat
Based on the classic German children’s book “Krabat and the Sorcerer’s Mill,” a stray war orphan finds shelter with eleven millers and their Master. Strict rules, dark practices, black magic…anything can be endured as long as the bowl is full and the bed is dry. Krabat grows closer and closer to the Master. Finally, it is not heroism, but disobedience – the motive of gaining a friend and a girl who loves him – that breaks the power of the spell.
A play about hard times, human falls and the power of first love, Krabat goes straight to the heart with penetrating clarity, power of image, stage humor and a minimum of words. Dark, bold and at the same time incredibly light, it’s a carousel of feelings spinning among great musical landscapes.
Cost: $45/$35 students & seniors
Ages: 13 and up
Running Time: 70 mins
January 28, 2024
3:00pm : Belova - Iacobelli Theatre Company: Chayka
In the backstage of a theater, an aging actress named Chayka struggles to remember why she is there. A young woman arrives to remind her: tonight she must play the part of Arkadina in Chekhov’s The Seagull.
As her memory fades, not knowing quite who she is nor the part she is meant to be playing, Chayka is determined at least to give this last performance. In her struggle and descent, reality and fiction intersect.
This multi-award winning production, told in a dreamlike style, is a duo performance for one actress and one puppet, and is the first piece from the Belgo-Chilean company Belova - Iacobelli.
Cost: $40/$30 students & seniors
Ages: 13 and up
Running Time: 60 mins
6:00pm : Closing Night Cabaret
Featuring the world-celebrated vocalist, actress, puppeteer, director: Yael Rasooly with incomparable accordionist, Iliya Magalnyk.
Join us for a French cabaret scene and revel in the virtuosic talents of these exceptional, classically-trained artists who are also wildly entertaining. There may even be a surprise appearance by a very special, Edith Piaf.
Cost: $35 – $2,000
Date : January 16, 2024 - January 28, 2024
Location : Various Location
Click Here to View for More Information