he Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, the largest of its kind in North America, is returning in a big way, January 18-29, 2023, at venues large and small throughout the city.
This year, the Chicago Puppet Fest has “gone annual,” launching a new era for Chicago as an international destination for the art and study of puppetry.
5th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival image by Saverio Truglia
For 12 consecutive days in January, Chicago will be the puppetry capital of the world, home to more than 100 performances and events around the city that promise to astonish and delight. From bunraku, to shadow, to crankie scroll, pageant-style puppets and more, puppets will take over Chicago for 12 amazing days and nights of inspiration and invention.
Tickets go on sale Wednesday, November 23 at chicagopuppetfest.org.
Artistic Director and Festival Founder Blair Thomas and Executive Director Sandy Smith Gerding have built a diverse roster of top contemporary puppets acts and artists from Chicago, the U.S. and around the world to be presented at theaters and community venues throughout the city. Ten countries are represented this year, including Brazil, Canada, Czechia, Finland, France, Norway, Japan, South Africa, Spain and the United States, specifically, New York, Boston and Chicago.
New in 2023 is establishment of a “Puppet Hub” with site-specific events activating various spaces in the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue for all 12 days of the festival. Meanwhile the Fine Arts Building’s newly renovated Studebaker Theater will the site of of two monster productions, opening with Moby Dick, a spectacle production by Plexus Polaire (Norway/France) featuring a whale-sized whale, January 18-21, closing with Frankenstein from Chicago’s own Manual Cinema, January 27-29.
Also at the Studebaker, the Chicago Puppet Festival will present its first-ever film screening of Basil Twist’s Symphonie Fantastique Film on January 24. Add a Puppet Hub photo exhibit celebrating him, one of two featuring the work of photographer Richard Termine, plus Twist’s live presentation of his amazing sliding Japanese panel show, Dogugaeshi (January 26-29, Logan Center for the Arts), and this year boasts a Mini-Basil Twist Fest within a fest.
Elsewhere in the Fine Arts Building, check into MOTEL, a puppet show by Dan Hurlin that doesn’t move. And stop in at the Chicago Puppet Festival Pop-Up Cafe, a central meeting place inside the Fine Arts Building suite 433 cooked up in partnership with sponsor Spoke & Bird Cafe, serving coffee, tea, winter soups and baked treats in a cozy, puppet-inspired setting.
Returning in 2023 are the FREE Neighborhood Tour, puppetry workshops, two days of free symposiums in the Studebaker Theater, co-presented by the School of the Art Institute, presented in-person and live streamed via Howlround, and two weekends of the Catapult Artist Intensive.
“Chicago demands more puppetry and the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival is delighted to oblige! Our 5th edition is our most ambitious to date, and audiences will experience the full range of puppetry style, story, and theatricality,” said Thomas. “While most shows are for adults, we have expanded offerings for children. This year also marks the welcome return to presenting international puppet theater, many pieces being adaptations of classic literature. We have added this year the Puppet Hub to a robust schedule of shows, exhibitions, our first film screening, two days of symposiums, and the Catapult Artist Intensive. Puppeteers from around the world, nation and Chicago are absolutely prepared to astonish audiences.”
Blair Thomas, Founder and Artistic Director Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival Credit: Saverio Truglia
Past festivals have attracted over 14,000 audience members, including Chicago residents enjoying a puppet-filled staycation, to national and international guests who travel to Chicago every January to enjoy world-class puppetry from here and abroad.
There’s even an Official Hotel of the Chicago Puppet Festival, the Warwick Allerton Hotel on Michigan Avenue, offering a discounted rate during festival dates with the promo code PUPPETFEST.
Visit chicagopuppetfest.org to purchase tickets and for full festival information. Sign up for the festival’s e-newsletter to receive first notice on special events, exclusive offers, and behind-the-strings scoop. Or, follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, hashtag #ChiPuppetFest.
5th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival: A summary of shows
OPENING NIGHT
Moby Dick by Plexus Polaire (Norway/France), January 18-21 at the Studebaker Theater, with Opening Night receptions before and after. Herman Melville’s monster work of literature is also a monster in puppetry in this Chicago premiere. Seven actors, 50 puppets, video projections on smoke, an octobass, and a whale-sized whale all play a part in this dizzying dive into the inexplicable mysteries of life.
MORE SHOWS! (ALPHA BY TITLE)
AKUTAKAWA by The Koryū Nishikawa V Troupe (Japan/Chicago). A world premiere by Chicago-based puppet artist Tom Lee and Japanese traditional puppeteer Koryū Nishikawa V combining traditional kuruma ningyo puppetry with contemporary staging to share a Western perspective on Ryunosuke Akutagawa, father of the Japanese short story form. The Chopin Theatre Mainstage, January 28-29.
Anywhere by Théâtre de L'Entrouvert (France/Chicago). A marionette made of ice will melt your heart in this exquisite, landmark string-marionette work, inspired by Henry Bauchau’s novel “Oedipus on the Road.” The Chopin Theatre Mainstage, January 19-22. Co-presented by Théâtre de L'Entrouvert and The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, with support for the production and subsequent planned U.S. tour from Ferdi Foundation and Jentes Family Foundation.
as though your body were right by Khecari (U.S./Chicago). An audience of seven in a room within a room. A micro-theater. A puppet theater. The performer’s body as a landscape. Live bodies witnessing live bodies is at the heart of this work created by Jonathan Meyer, with puppets designed by Tom Lee. The Fine Arts Building, January 19-29.
Choo. Choo. Whistle. Woof! by Naive Theatre (Czechia). This classic boy meets girl story, playfully retold as dog meets dog, unfolds in continual tabletop puppetry delight full of garden railings, railway yards, steam locomotives and dogs in cars. Chicago Children’s Theatre, January 25-29.
Dogugaeshi by Basil Twist (U.S./New York). A feast for the eyes, heart and soul, this Chicago premiere by internationally acclaimed master puppeteer Basil Twist is influenced by “Dogugaeshi,” a rarefied tradition of Japanese sliding screen stage technique, and Twist’s own encounters with the remaining rural caretakers of this once popular art form. Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, The University of Chicago, January 26-29.
Frankenstein by Manual Cinema (U.S./Chicago). Love, loss, and creation merge in unexpected ways when Manual Cinema presents its thrilling version of Mary Shelley’s classic Gothic tale, “Frankenstein.” This Chicago-based performance collective imaginatively combines shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, sound effects, and live music to create an unexpected story about the beauty and horror of creation. Studebaker Theater, January 27-29.
FREE Neighborhood Tour - My Night at the Planetarium by Little Uprisings (U.S./Boston). This all-ages show, based on the award-winning book by Innosanto Nagara, is a child’s view introduction to Indonesia, a story about colonialism, and a message about the power of creativity. FREE. Thursday, January 19 at 4:30 p.m. at Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center; Friday, January 20 at 4:30 p.m. at Marshall Field’s Garden Apartments/Art on Sedgwick; Saturday January 21 at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. at Navy Pier; Sunday, January 22 at 11 a.m. at ETA Creative Arts Foundation.
Go Home Tiny Monster by The Gottabees (U.S./Boston). 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 find it. Featuring The Gottabees’ trademark mix of puppetry, joyously absurd silliness, physical theater, live music, and surprising poignancy. Chicago Children’s Theatre, January 19-22.
Grand Panorama by Theodora Skipitares (U.S./New York). Using her trademark larger-than-life size puppets and featuring music by Mazz Smith, Skipitares blends artforms with panorama, magic lantern, shadow theater and crankies to articulate Frederick Douglass’s belief that “Rightly viewed, the whole soul of man is a sort of picture gallery, a grand panorama.” Harold Washington Cindy Pritzker Auditorium, January 22-24.
Hamlet by Janni Younge (South Africa). Humans and puppet creatures coil, tangle, knot and mesh together in celebrated South African artist Janni Younge’s new adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Told through beautifully crafted life-size puppets, this captivating production explores the complex psychological facets of humanity facing an onslaught of challenges.The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, January 26-28.
Invisible Lands by Livsmedlet Theater (Finland). Across the desert. Behind our back. Up the mountain. Down our spine. Over the sea. Under our nose. Geography and politics extend and transform to create organic performance platforms – bodies. This mix of performance, projection and puppetry takes a closer, empathetic look at refugee travels and what presence, connection and endurance are really all about. Chopin Theatre Basement, January 19-22.
Invitation to a Beheading by Rough House Theatre Co. (U.S./Chicago). 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. Alternately disorienting, hysterical and hopeful, Vladimir Nabokov’s novel is brought to the stage by Michael Brown and Rough House with their signature combination of playfulness and strangeness. Chopin Theatre Basement, January 27-29
Macbeth Muet by La Fille du Laitier (Canada). 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. Entire scenes are reduced to a single look, as Shakespeare’s complex and beautiful poetry is rendered mute, and searing. Chopin Theatre Basement, January 23-25.
Macunaíma Gourmet by Pigmalião Escultura que Mexe (Brazil). 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. The piece discusses the storm that Brazilian and global society faces with distinctive raucous imagery, unforgettable Brazilian style, and the urgency with which puppets can make political points. MCA Chicago, January 26-28.
Nasty, Brutish & Short (Chicago/U.S./International), presented by Links Hall, Rough House Theatre Co. and the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Extend your festival experience by hitting Chicago’s favorite late-night puppet cabaret. Home to raucous, raunchy, dark, sassy, sad and mostly hilarious puppet theater, this special festival edition highlights more experimental work by out of towners as well as local favorites in four different nights of puppet revelry. Links Hall, Friday and Saturday, January 20 and 21, and January 27 and 28 at 10:30 p.m.
New Shoes by Tian Gombau (Spain). Internationally recognized Tian Gombau creates large experiences from very little. In this one-man show, a local event at a Mediterranean town takes audiences of all ages on a universal journey into the child’s world with a gentle flow of popular songs, nature, and the sands of time, speaking with simplicity and poetry about the fact of growing up. Chicago Children's Theatre, January 25-29.
R.A.G.E. by Les Anges au Plafond (France). This spectacular blending of magic, puppetry, gesture and manipulation 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. Join miles of threads, dozens of puppets, a trumpeter, a singer and a man as they weave a plot of resistance with maternal love in a desperate attempt to re-enchant the world. MCA Chicago, January 19-21.
Squirrel Stole My Underpants by The Gottabees (Boston). 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. When Sylvie gives chase, an entire world emerges from her laundry basket, and curious characters show her the way through mysterious lands. Chicago Children’s Theatre, January 19-22.
Symphonie Fantastique Film, a full-length film by Basil Twist (U.S./New York). In 2018, Basil Twist revisited his legendary, boundary-breaking work Symphonie Fantastique in its original home, the HERE Arts Center in NYC, with live accompaniment by Christopher O'Riley playing the exquisite Liszt transcription for concert piano. The performance was captured on film in front of, behind, and inside Twist’s set, a 1,000-gallon water tank. The result is not just a document of a performance but an artistic expression in its own right. Studebaker Theater, Tuesday, January 24, 6 p.m.
THE “PUPPET HUB”
In addition to opening night parties, two spectacle productions, and a film screening in the Fine Arts Building’s Studebaker Theater, the Chicago Puppet Festival will activate the 4th floor of the historic building, expanding beyond its current footprint of office, education, puppet fabrication and performance spaces, to create a “Puppet Hub” bursting with an exciting slate of site-specific events and exhibits.
For instance, check into MOTEL, a puppet show that doesn’t move, created by Dan Hurlin. Or, stop in at the Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe, a central meeting place cooked up with sponsor Spoke & Bird Cafe, serving coffee, tea, winter soups and baked treats in a cozy, puppet-inspired setting.
Next door to the cafe, explore Vancouver, an exhibit showcasing the original storyboards, puppet characters, and miniature sets and props designed and crafted by the Chicago Puppet Studio for the multi-award winning, made-for-film puppet theater collaboration with Ma-Yi Theater Company.
Vancouver images
In addition, New York-based photographer Richard Termine has documented American puppet theater for over 30 years. The Puppet Hub will be the host site for two exhibitions, American Puppet Theater Today: The Photography of Richard Termine and The Art of Basil Twist, both presented with support from Cheryl Henson and The Jim Henson Foundation.
It’s fitting that the Fine Arts Building is home again to one of the most influential puppetry organizations in the world, the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. In 1912, Ellen Van Volkenburg famously founded the Little Theater of Chicago in the Fine Arts Building. Legend has it she needed a name for the actors she had trained to manipulate marionettes while performing Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. So she credited them in the program with a new word, “puppeteer.” Many agree this marked the initial intersection of traditional puppetry with contemporary theater still practiced today, and now flourishing around the world.
EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY BUILDING
Continuing education and community building always play big roles at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. The Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium will hold court in the Studebaker Theater both weekends, presenting a series of free discussions, open to the public, around the intersection of puppetry with other disciplines and ideas.These symposiums will also be live streamed via HowlRound.
The Catapult Artist Intensive also returns both weekends, offering practicing artists of all disciplines an opportunity to join an intimate cohort for a guided experience including eight performances in three days, discussions, backstage access and more.
Visit chicagopuppetfest.org for tickets and information about the 5th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival.
VENUES AND PARTNERS
Festival partners in 2023 include The Chopin Theatre, DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center, ETA Creative Arts Foundation, FACE Foundation, French Cultural Services of the Consulate of France, The Fine Arts Building, Harold Washington Library, Links Hall, Rough House Theatre Co., Marshall Field Garden Apartments/Art on Sedgwick, MCA Chicago, Navy Pier, Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts and Theater and Performance Studies at The University of Chicago, Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and UChicago.
The Warwick Allerton Hotel Chicago, 701 N. Michigan Ave. on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, is the Official Hotel of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. The Allerton will serve as home base for all visiting artists, and offer a special rate for the fest’s growing base of out-of-town fans and area residents looking to book a Chicago Puppet Festival “Staycation.” Visit warwickhotels.com/warwick-allerton-chicago or call (312) 440-1500 to inquire. Use promo code PUPPETFEST2023 when making reservations for a discount.
Behind the scenes of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival
Originally founded as a project of Blair Thomas & Co., the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival has evolved to become an organization in its own right, presenting four biennial, multi-week, citywide festivals in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2022.
Already, the Chicago Puppet Festival has grown to be the largest of its kind in North America, attracting more than 14,000 audience members every iteration to dozens of Chicago venues large and small to enjoy an entertaining and eclectic array of puppet styles from around the world.
Last year, the festival tripled its footprint in Chicago’s historic Fine Arts Building, moved 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. The Lab’s mission is to incubate more works of boundary-breaking puppetry in Chicago, expand equity in the field of puppetry, and encourage interdisciplinary experimentation in puppet theater.
Expanded operations are being overseen by Artistic Director and Festival Founder Blair Thomas, Executive Director Sandy Smith Gerding, with Taylor Bibat, Festival Coordinator; Zachary Sun, Studio Coordinator; Tom Lee, Co-Director, Chicago Puppet Lab and Studio; and Grace Needlman, Coordinator, Chicago Puppet Lab.
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, Marshall Frankel Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, The Reva and David Logan Foundation, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation and Walder Foundation – Audience Engagement and Digital Archive. 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.