Ten incredible Chicago artists who have spent the past eight months creating new, original puppet theater shows while in residence at the Chicago Puppet Lab, will present a mini-festival of their works in progress, June 1-11 in the Chopin Theatre Basement, 1543 W. Division St. in Wicker Park.
Press play to screen and download the 2023 Chicago Puppet Lab promo video for editorial use. Video courtesy: Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival
(left) Work by August Boyne and Jacky Kelsey; (right) Jacky Kelsey, Tom Lee and Rachel Singer. Photos courtesy Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival.
The Chicago Puppet Lab Showcase has two rotating group shows, each featuring diverse works in progress by the Lab’s talented Year Two cohort, all mentored by Chicago Puppet Lab co-directors Tom Lee and Grace Needlman.
The 2023 Chicago Puppet Lab cohort: (top, from left) August Boyne (he/him) + Jacky Kelsey (they/she), Rocio “Chio” Cabrera (she/her), Gretchen Hasse (she/her), Sion Silva (he/they), (bottom) Rachel Singer (she/her), Jaerin Son (she/her) + Kevin Michael Wesson (he/they), Jacqueline Wade (she/her), and Claude Fethiere (he/him).
(left) Work by Gretchen Hasse. (right) work by Chio Cabrera-Coz.
Program A features new works by Rachel Singer, Gretchen Hasse, Jacqueline Wade and Chio Cabrera-Coz. Performances are Friday, June 2 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 3 at 2 p.m.; Sunday, June 4 at 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, June 8 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 10 at 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, June 11 at 3 p.m.
(from left) Works by Claude Fethiere, Collective SUMM (Kevin Michael Wesson and Jaerin Son) and Sion Silva.
Program B features works by August Boyne and Jacky Kelsey, Claude Fethiere, Sion Silva and Collective SUMM (Kevin Michael Wesson and Jaerin Son). Performances are Thursday, June 1 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 3 at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, June 4 at 3 p.m.; Friday, June 9 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, June 10 at 2 p.m.; and Sunday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets to each program are $20 regular/$15 student and seniors. Purchase tickets at chicagopuppetfest.org.
The Chicago Puppet Lab is the developmental arm of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. In addition to presenting the largest annual puppetry festival of its kind in North America, the Festival’s Chicago Puppet Lab is an education space that incubates new works of boundary-breaking puppetry in Chicago, expands equity in the field of puppetry, and encourages interdisciplinary experimentation in puppet theater.
(left) Work by Jacqueline Wade. (right) Work by Rachel Singer.
The 5th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival “blew it right out of the water”
The 5th edition of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, January 18-29, 2023, was a great return and the inaugural year of the Festival becoming an annual event. Chicago’s appetite for puppetry was proven yet again with more sold out shows than ever before and a delicious variety of international performances.
Though the Festival did coordinate a wonderful restart in the middle of Omicron in 2022, the 2023 Festival blew it right out of the water. Audiences returned to venues all over the city for the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, the Chicago Reader’s 2022 Best of Chicago Poll “Best Performing Arts Festival” runner-up, second only to Ravinia.
Over 105 performances and events astonished and delighted attendees. Artists came from Chicago, the nation and internationally from Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Iceland, Norway, South Africa, and Spain. From bunraku, to shadow, to crankie scroll, pageant-style puppets and more, puppets took over for 12 amazing days and nights of inspiration and invention.
For 14,000+ national and international guests, the 5th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival presented a substantial, in-person puppet festival, an oasis of fascination and artistry representing a breadth of style, quality of work and spectacular depth of artistic achievement from the U.S. The Festival boasted many new events this year notably a Puppet Hub at the Fine Arts Building complete with photography exhibitions, art installation and Pop Up Spoke & Bird Cafe. Although only in its 5th edition, the Festival was again the largest festival of its kind in the nation and remains celebrated for consistently excellent and unforgettable puppetry experiences.
Mark your calendar: Plan to come to Chicago for the 6th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, January 18-28, 2024!
Behind the Scenes: the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival
Originally founded in 2015 as a project of Blair Thomas & Co., the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival has evolved to become an organization in its own right. Already, the Chicago Puppet Festival is the largest of its kind in North America, attracting more than 14,000 audience members every edition to dozens of Chicago venues large and small to enjoy an entertaining and eclectic array of puppet styles from around the world.
In 2022, the Festival moved from a biennial to an annual event, while tripling its footprint in Chicago’s historic Fine Arts Building. The organization relocated into an expanded office suite, opened the Chicago Puppet Studio, which designs and fabricates puppets for theaters and special events around the U.S., launched online and in-person education programs, and inaugurated the new Chicago Puppet Lab, an education space and developmental residency and incubator for Chicago artists creating new, original puppetry work.
Today, expanded operations are being overseen by Artistic Director and Festival Founder Blair Thomas, Executive Director Sandy Smith Gerding, with Tom Lee, Co-Director, Chicago Puppet Lab and Studio; Grace Needlman, Co-Director, Chicago Puppet Lab; Cameron Heinze, Business Manager; Taylor Bibat, Festival and Education Coordinator; Zachary Sun, Chicago Puppet Studio Coordinator; Averly Sheltraw, Chicago Puppet Studio Assistant; and Lucy Wirtz, Administrative Support.
The Chicago Puppet Lab receives special funding from Kristy and Brandon Moran, and Pritzker Family Foundation.
Festival funders include Alphawood Foundation, American-Scandinavian Foundation, DCASE CityArts, FACE Foundation, Ferdi Foundation, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Jentes Family Foundation, The Jim Henson Foundation, MacArthur Fund for Culture, Equity, and the Arts at Prince, the Manaaki Foundation, Marshall Frankel Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Pritzker Family Foundation, The Reva and David Logan Foundation, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and Walder Foundation. Individuals include Ginger Farley and Robert Shapiro, Justine Jentes and Dan Karuna, Elizabeth Liebman, Cheryl Lynn Bruce and Kerry James Marshall, Julie Moller, Kristy and Brandon Moran, Nina and Steven Schroeder, David and Beatrice “Bici” Pritzker and Cheryl Henson.
For more information, visit chicagopuppetfest.org.