The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival returns with in-person performances January 20-30

Organizers of the 4th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival announced today the line-up of contemporary puppet acts and artists from Chicago and the U.S. to be presented at venues large and small throughout the city, January 20-30, 2022.

Founded to establish Chicago as a center for the advancement of the art of puppetry, the citywide Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival will showcase an entertaining and eclectic array of puppet styles.While travel restrictions are preventing the participation of international artists in 2022, festival organizers are forging ahead ready to present during these extraordinary times a live, diverse line-up of over 100 performances of more than 20 national and local shows and events at venues around the city.

Following is more information about each presentation, including venues, dates, times, ticket prices, estimated run time and video links. Visit chicagopuppetfest.org or follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, hashtag #ChiPuppetFest, to learn more about this pageant of puppet artists and shows for residents and visitors to experience in January.

The Plastic Bag Store  by Robin Frohardt (US/New York)

• A public art installation with timed entries for an immersive puppet film 
• The Wrigley Building, 410 N. Michigan Ave., ground level storefront on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile   
• January 20-30
• Thursday, January 20: Opening Night immersive puppet film at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
• All other dates: Tuesdays-Fridays: Store open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Immersive puppet film at 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• Saturdays: Store open 1 to 3 p.m.; Immersive puppet film at 11 a.m., 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m.
• Sundays: Store open 1 to 3 p.m.; Immersive puppet film at 11 a.m., 4 p.m. and 6 p.m.
• Store visits are free
• Tickets to timed puppet film screenings: $30, $20 students
• Run time: 60 minutes
• For ALL AGES, Recommended for 8+

theplasticbagstore.com

Hungry? Don't eat these groceries! Robin Frohardt’s critically acclaimed, interactive installation The Plastic Bag Store will be open on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile throughout the festival, ready to inspire new perspectives on the perils and problems of single-use plastic. 

Popping up in Chicago’s landmark Wrigley Building, The Plastic Bag Store is an incredible imitation of a grocery store, but it’s stocked with thousands of original, hand-sculpted items, each made entirely of plastic. Patrons will be greeted by rotisserie chickens, cupcakes, sushi and popular products such as Yucky Shards cereal and Bagorade sports drink all made from discarded, single-use plastics. Marvel at aisles of merchandise of perplexingly permanent, plastic proportions, or attend a timed screening of Frohardt's immersive puppet film featuring puppetry, shadow play, and intricate handmade sets that tell a tender and darkly funny story of the environmental disaster of plastic. 

Co-produced by Frohardt and Pomegranate Arts, The Plastic Bag Store premiered in the heart of New York’s Times Square, a surprise success story in the midst of COVID-19 pandemic. The Plastic Bag Store was created over several years by Frohardt in collaboration with her puppetry ensemble and features original music by long-time creative collaborator, the award-winning composer Freddi Price. The Plastic Bag Store film segments were commissioned by UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance with additional support by the Adelaide Festival.

Robin Frohardt is an award-winning artist, puppet designer, and director living in Brooklyn, NY. She received a Creative Capital Award and a DisTil Fellowship from Carolina Performing Arts for The Plastic Bag Store, which was presented in partnership with Times Square Arts in 2020 and was named to the NY Times Best of 2020 Theater list. Frohardt’s performance and puppetry-based work has been presented at St. Ann’s Warehouse and HERE in New York City, as well as national venues including the Pittsburgh International Festival of Firsts and the NEXTNOW Festival in Maryland. Her films have been screened at the Telluride Film Festival, Aspen Shortsfest, Maritime Film Festival at the Parish Museum and Puppets on Film Festival at BAM. Her original play The Pigeoning, which debuted in 2013 and was hailed by the New York Times as “a tender, fantastical symphony of the imagination,” has been translated into German, Greek, Arabic and Turkish. She has been the recipient of Made In NY Women’s Fund Grant Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She is a MacDowell Fellow and a member in good standing of both the Walgreens and CVS Rewards Programs. robinfrohardt.com

Founded in 1998, Pomegranate Arts is an independent production company dedicated to the development of international performing arts projects. As creative producers, Linda Brumbach and Alisa Regas work in close collaboration with contemporary artists and arts institutions to bring bold and ambitious artistic ideas to fruition. hey produced the Olivier Award winning production of Einstein on the Beach (Philip Glass, Robert Wilson, Lucinda Childs), Shockheaded Peter (The Improbably Theater), Came so far from Beauty (Hal Willner, Leonard Cohen), Available Light (John Adams, Frank Gehry, Lucinda Childs), 24-Decade History of Popular Music (Toran Bregovic, Bassem Youssef, Batsheva, Sankai Juku, Machine Dazzle and Taylor Mac). In 2020, they launched Favorite Fruit, a new company dedicated to the production of performance objects and released their first object Taylor Mac’s Holiday Sauce record.

Bill’s 44th 

• By Andy Manjuck and Dorothy James (US/New York)
• Chopin Theatre Mainstage, 1543 W. Division St. in Wicker Park
• January 25-27
• Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7 p.m.
• Tickets: $35, $25 students
• Run time: 55 minutes
• For ages 16 and up

The streamers are strung, the punch has been spiked, and the cake is just waiting to be eaten. Now all Bill has to do is wait for his guests to arrive. But waiting is hard.

RSVP now for Bills' 44th, an original comedy by Andy Manjuck and Dorothy James, two Brooklyn-based puppeteers who together create one very worried protagonist. Many styles of puppetry, raucous balloons, and a cheeky piece of crudité all collide in this “poignant, comic puppet play...as much about the ingenuity of the mind as it is about loneliness.” (New York Times Critics' Pick). bills44th.com

Andy Manjuck (co-creator and puppeteer) is a Brooklyn-based puppeteer, director and voiceover artist. Recent work/puppetry: Chimpanzee (Nick Lehane); The Plastic Bag Store; The Pigeoning (Robin Frohardt); Made in China; Baby Universe; Saga (Wakka Wakka); UAE 48th National Day (Betty Productions); and Petrushka (NY Philharmonic Orchestra, Giants Are Small) Manjuck plays Dale on 9 Years to Neptune, a new puppet television show on BYUtv. He's also an intern on the Late Night Puppet Talk Show with Special Guest, a 100% live, 100% improvised puppet catastrophe on Saturday nights at 10 p.m. ET on twitch.tv/talkpuppet2me. andymanjuck.com 

Dorothy James (co-creator and puppeteer) is a Brooklyn-based puppeteer, educator, and maker of tiny things. She’s performed with Basil Twist (Hansel & Gretel, Michigan Opera Theatre), Wakka Wakka (Made In China, The Immortal Jellyfish Girl), the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (Petrushka, Giants Are Small), the Rockettes (The New York Spectacular, Radio City), and is a puppeteer for the new children’s series Moon and Me (BBC, Andrew Davenport). Her work has also been seen at the Kennedy Center, Arena Stage, the Jim Henson Carriage House, St. Ann’s Warehouse, 59E59, Dixon Place, La MaMa, and overseas in Norway and the Czech Republic. She is co-creator/intern of the Late Night Puppet Talk Show With Special Guest, a 100% live, 100% improvised puppet catastrophe on twitch.tv/talkpuppet2me. dorothy-james.com 

The Bluest Eye

• Co-created and directed by Margaret Laurena Kemp and Janni Younge (US/California and South Africa)
• Adapted by Lydia Diamond from Toni Morrison’s 1970 book
• The DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Place in Hyde Park 
• January 28-30
• Friday and Saturday, January 28 and 29 at 7:30 p.m., Sunday, January 30 at 3 p.m.
• Tickets: $30, $20 students
• Run time: 120 minutes
• For ages 16 and up

Innovative puppetry brings Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison’s coming of age novel into a contemporary context. Picola is a black girl caught in tragic circumstances. Her best friend narrates her search for the source of responsibility and for an understanding of her own part in the story. The production interrogates how identity is shaped, using a synthesis of puppets, puppeteers and actors. Celebrated South African artist Janni Younge’s puppetry highlights the formation and fragility of self, literally building the self as it is held and supported (or not supported) by a community at large.

Margaret Laurena Kemp is an actor, multidisciplinary performing artist, writer and teaching artist, and Associate Professor of Theatre and Dance at UC Davis. Her 2018 production of The Bluest Eye with Janni Younge, performed by UC Davis students, was hailed “a revelation.” She trained at George Washington University at The Shakespeare Theatre and has a B.S. in Interdepartmental Studies from the School of Speech at Northwestern University. She has performed at Arena Stage, Mark Taper Forum, Yale Repertory, South Coast Repertory, La Mama Theatre (Melbourne), Theatre of Changes (Athens), Red Pear Theatre (Antibes) and The Magnet Theatre (Cape Town). She won worldwide praise for her starring role in Children of God. Her visual work has been shown in solo and group shows in Los Angeles, Nassau and Detroit. mlkemp.space

Janni Younge is a director and producer of multimedia, theatrical and visual performance works, with an emphasis on puppetry arts. She was the Grenada Artist in Residence, UC Davis in 2018, where she collaborated with Kemp on The Bluest Eye. Her work has been performed in North and South America, Africa, Europe, India and the East. Awards include the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Theatre, several Fleur du Cap awards for puppet design and the Nagroda award for direction. A director of Handspring Puppet Company for four years, she currently runs Janni Younge Productions and directs UNIMA SA (SA Puppetry). Her works include creation and direction of Ouroboros, The Firebird and Take Flight. With Handspring, she directed revivals of Woyzeck on the Highveld and Ubu and the Truth Commission and, with Handspring, worked on War Horse and on the Bristol Old Vic’s Midsummer Night’s Dream. She created and directed puppetry for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Tempest. She is a graduate of the French national school of puppet theater and has a B.A. in Fine Art and an M.A. in Theatre. janniyounge.com

Chimpanzee

• by Nick Lehane (US/New York)
• Instituto Cervantes of Chicago, 31 W. Ohio St. in River North
• January 22-24
• Saturday, January 22 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Sunday, January 23 at 2 p.m. and Monday, January 24 at 5 p.m.
• Tickets: $35, $25 students
• Run time: 60 minutes
• For ages 10 and up

From award-winning, Brooklyn-based puppet artist and theater maker, Nick Lehane, comes heartfelt, poignant, and stranger-than-fiction stories of chimpanzees raised as children in human homes in cross-fostering science experiments conducted in the United States. Exquisite bunraku style puppetry performances breathe in life and illuminate the need for humanity.

Nick Lehane is a Brooklyn-based puppet artist and theater maker. His puppet play Chimpanzee premiered at HERE Arts Center through Basil Twist’s Dream Music Puppetry Program, with the support of The Jim Henson Foundation and Cheryl Henson. It has since been presented at the World Puppet Theater Festival in Charleville-Mézières, by Casteliers at Théâtre Aux Écuries in Montreal, and by The London International Mime Festival at The Barbican Centre. His collaboration with Derek Fordjour, Fly Away, ran in 2020 at Petzel Gallery as part of Fordjour’s premiere solo exhibition, SELF MUST DIE. Lehane has collaborated with PigPen Theatre Co. as puppet designer for The Tale of Despereaux (The Old Globe, Berkeley Rep co-directed by Marc Bruni), as puppet designer for The Phantom Folktales (Virgin Voyages), and as the understudy for The Old Man and The Old Moon. He will be puppet designing Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn’s Hood (Asolo Rep., dir Mark Brokaw). His original work has shown at St. Ann’s Warehouse, Puppet BloK at Dixon Place, The Jim Henson Carriage House, Special Effects Festival at wild project, and Pillsbury House Theatre. Select performance credits are Robin Frohardt’s The Plastic Bag Store and The Pigeoning (HERE Arts Center, international tour), Petrushka (Giants Are Small, New York Philharmonic, Barbican Centre), Islamic Solidarity Games Opening Ceremonies (Baku, Azerbaijan), Doug Fitch’s El Retablo de Maese Pedro (American Symphony Orchestra, Bard SummerScape), James Ortiz’s The Little Mermaid (Glass Bandits Theater, Strangemen Theatre Company), and Lore (Amazon). Lehane provided puppet and movement direction for SeaWife (Naked Angels). He studied at the Moscow Art Theatre School and received his B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. nicklehane.com

Festival Neighborhood Tour

The Festival Neighborhood Tour fosters an appreciation for puppetry throughout the city by bringing free, family-friendly performances to locations outside of Chicago’s theaters, but areas in the city where people may not have the chance to see puppetry very often. The tour offers a range of high-quality puppetry styles in order to create moments of community enjoyment while expanding the base of puppet enthusiasts.

This year, three nationally acclaimed puppet artists - Ty Defoe, Jerrell L. Henderson and Joshua Holden - will tour to five locations around the city to present short works. Seats are first come first serve, or register online at chicagopuppetfest.org. Performances are free and open to all ages. Run time is approximately 45 minutes. Dates and locations are:

Thursday, January 20 at 4:30 p.m.

• Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center
• 4048 W. Armitage Ave. in Hermosa

Friday, January 21 at 4:30 p.m.

• Art on Sedgwick, Marshall Field Garden Apartments
• 1408 N. Sedgwick St. in Old Town

Saturday, January 22 at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.

• Navy Pier, The Crystal Garden
• 700 E. Grand Ave. in downtown Chicago

Sunday, January 23 at 4 p.m.

• 345 Art Gallery
• 345 N. Kedzie Ave. in Humboldt Park

Festival Neighborhood Tour artists and shows

The Joshua Show

• By Joshua Holden (New York)
• With live music by Jeb Cowell 

Joshua Holden debuted The Joshua Show at Nasty, Brutish & Short in Chicago in 2012. He then took it to the Puppeteers of America’s National Festival, where it was awarded “Best Performance” and “Fan Favorite.” He has been touring the show internationally ever since. “An unabashed ambassador of joy” (New York Times), Holden also performed in the national tour of Avenue Q, was lead puppeteer in Peter Pan 360, and worked with Banksy on Sirens of the Lambs. He currently lives in Brooklyn and works for The Jim Henson Company as a puppet wrangler on Sesame Street. joshuashow.com

I Am the Bear

• By Jerrell L. Henderson (Chicago)

A wintery morning. A walk to work. A curious encounter. A terrifying exchange. An allegory of what it means to be Black in America. Chicago’s Jerrell L. Henderson performs I Am the Bear, based on his experience being racially profiled by police on Chicago's North Shore. Henderson is a director, puppeteer, and an assistant professor of performance studies. Directing credits include Mlima’s Tale with Griffin Theatre (Jeff Award Nominations, Direction and Best Play), Thurgood with Walnut Street Theatre and The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show at Chicago Children’s Theatre. jerrell-henderson.com

Watch the WTTW-TV Ch. 11 Chicago Tonight feature on Jerrell L. Henderson and I Am the Bear, produced by Marc Vitali in May, 2021.

Eagle Dance

• Ty Defoe (Wisconsin/New York)

Inspired by the wisdom gained from eagles, Eagle Dance embraces the interconnectedness of all living things; the two legged, the four legged, the winged, the finned and the rooted. Stemming from the Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee teachings, this movement honors the past, celebrates the present, and provides inspiration for future generations.

Grammy Award winner Ty Defoe is a writer, actor and interdisciplinary artist of the Oneida and Ojibwe Nations of Wisconsin. Defoe co-created with IBEX Puppetry the unforgettable 2019 Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival opening production, Ajijaak on Turtle Island, an eco-focused, First Nation origin story and spectacle that featured giant animal puppets and performers of the Ojibwe, Lakota, and Cherokee Nations. tydefoe.com

I OBJECT! 30 Neo-Futurist Puppet Plays

• The Neo-Futurists (US/Chicago)
• The Neo-Futurarium, 5153 N. Ashland Ave. in Andersonville
• January 21-23 and January 28-30
• Fridays and Saturdays at 10:30 p.m.; Sundays at 7 p.m.
• Tickets: $30, $20 students
• Run time: 100 minutes
• For ages 16 and up

From Chicago's celebrated Neo-Futurists comes this all original, all new series of short works by local theater makers giving audiences a dunk into object performance and high-speed theater. The folks that made 30 plays in 60 minutes famous bring you the same energy, intellect, craft and humor, this time of course, with puppetry at the core. Be amazed as The Neo-Futurists perform 30 short puppet works, in random order, chosen by the audience. It’s chaotic, irreverent, honest and messy. In addition to The Neo-Futurist ensemble, a guest artist will be featured each night.

The Neo-Futurists are a Chicago-based collective of wildly productive writer/director/performers who create theater that is a fusion of sport, poetry and living-newspaper; non-illusory, interactive performance that conveys our experiences and ideas as directly and honestly as possible; immediate, unreproducible events at head-slappingly affordable prices; and, work that embraces those unreached or unmoved by conventional theater – inspiring them to thought, feeling and action. theneofuturists.org

Invitation to a Beheading

• Rough House Theater Co. (US/Chicago)
• Chopin Theatre Basement, 1543 W. Division St. in Wicker Park
• January 27-29
• Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. 
• Tickets: $30, $20 students
• Run time: 80 minutes
• For ages 12 and up

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, absurd, hysterical and hopeful, this great novel by 20th century master Vladimir Nabokov is brought to the stage by Michael Brown and Rough House with their signature combination of playfulness and strangeness. Full of surprising twists and turns, the novel comes to life through a combination of puppetry, masks and imaginative storytelling. “a brilliant, impeccable, and weird event” - Newcity

Rough House Theater Co. is on a mission to connect individuals and communities through art that celebrates the weird things that make us unique and the weirder things that bring us together. Rough House creates theater that captures the heart through the eye. Their shows use puppetry, music and human performance to tell intimate stories, as strange as they are sincere. Through performances, presentations of work by fellow artists, and artist training, Rough House aspires to make Chicago a national hub of contemporary puppet theater, comprising a diverse and ever-growing community of audiences and artists. Their work has appeared in the National Puppetry Festival, the Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival, punk houses, funeral parlors, a lotion factory and the woods of Appalachia. roughhousetheater.com

Nasty, Brutish & Short: A Puppet Cabaret

• Rough House Puppet Co. (US/Chicago)
• Links Hall, 3111 N. Western Ave. in Roscoe Village
• January 21-22 and January 28-19
• Friday and Saturday, January 21 and 22 at 10:30 p.m.
• Friday and Saturday, January 28 and 29 at 11 p.m.
• Tickets: $10, $8 students
• Run time: 85 minutes
• For ages 16 and up

This is your chance to double or triple down on an evening of puppetry by hitting the late show to round out your puppetry day. The wild rumpus continues into the night with this special edition of Nasty, Brutish & Short, the quarterly cabaret curated by Rough House. This is home for raucous, raunchy, dark, sassy, sad and mostly hilarious puppet theater, featuring Chicago's charming and furry host, Jamison. During the festival, the series will highlight the high flying out of towners, joining local legends in a night of revelry, followed by friendly unwinding at the Links Hall/Constellation Lounge afterward.

Rough House Theater Co. connects individuals and communities through art that celebrates the weird things that make us unique and the weirder things that bring us together. Their shows use puppetry, music and human performance to tell intimate stories, as strange as they are sincere. roughhousetheater.com

New Mony!

• By Maria Camia (MARICAMA) (US/New York)
• Chopin Theatre Mainstage, 1543 W. Division St. in Wicker Park
• January 21-22
• Friday, January 21 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, January 22 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
• Tickets: $35, $25 students
• Run time: 80 minutes
• For ages 12 and up

In the human cloning family business, Allimah lives a quiet, regimented life with her parents. But while recovering in a hospital, her dreams slowly become reality and she finds herself connected to the prestigious Utopian planet called Aricama, a land of practice, play, and healing. New Mony! is a spiritual sci-fi puppet production exploring duality and ancestry that questions our current paradigm and visualizes our highest reality. 

Maria Camia (MARICAMA) is a Filipino American visual theater artist who creates spiritual theater, visual art and fashion with the intention to globally inspire healing and play. She has performed original work for the Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival, Dixon Place, La Mama, Concrete Temple Theater, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, The Object Movement Residency, The Henson Company, The Puppet Slam Network, Coney Island USA, Great Small Works, Jalopy Theater, and The International Puppet Fringe Festival. maricama.com

Object of Her Affection

• Marsian De Lellis (US/Los Angeles)
• Links Hall, 3111 N. Western Ave. in Roscoe Village
• January 27-29
• Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m.
• Tickets: $30, $20 students
• Run time: 60 minutes
• For ages 16 and up

In childhood, Andrea finds solace in her first love, a baby blanket. Through adolescence, she is attracted to a bad-boy hunting rifle and later becomes infatuated with a controversial wall. In adulthood, Andrea seeks companionship with monumental structures: a high-profile statue, tragic twin skyscrapers, an unfaithful bridge, and a crumbling tenement, which ultimately fails her. Part puppetry, part performance art, Object of Her Affection is a visual narrative about objectsexuals - humans who form intimate relationships with inanimate objects.

Marsian De Lellis is a Los Angeles-based visual and interdisciplinary performance artist, who constructs visual narratives, spectacles and installations, centered on seemingly “weird” people that illuminate something essential about contemporary life. De Lellis’ performances have toured throughout the United States, Canada, and Edinburgh, with installations that have been featured in Scar of Visibility: Medical Performances and Contemporary Arts and Women and Performance: A Journal of Feminist Theory. marsiandellis.com

The Persians 

• Bread and Puppet Theater (US/Vermont)
• Epiphany Center for the Arts, 201 S. Ashland Ave. in the West Loop
• January 28-30
• Friday and Saturday, January 28 and 29 at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, January 30 at 3 p.m.
• Tickets: $40, $30 students
• Run time: 80 minutes
• For all ages

A new adaptation of Aeschylus’ tragedy from famed Bread and Puppet Theater, presented in a magnificent sanctuary. Founded in 1963 by Elka and Peter Schumann, Bread and Puppet is known for creating radical puppet spectacle and pageantry in America. Their spectacles and 10-foot puppets were a mainstay of U.S. political protests. In Chicago, their gorgeous pageant adaptation of a famous Greek drama will be set to live music inside the stunning new Epiphany Center for the Arts.

Bread and Puppet Theater is one of the oldest, nonprofit, political theater companies in the country. It was founded in 1963 by Peter Schumann on New York City’s Lower East Side. Besides rod-puppet and hand puppet shows for children, the concerns of the first productions were rents, rats, police, and other neighborhood problems. More complex theater pieces followed, in which sculpture, music, dance and language were equal partners. The puppets grew bigger and bigger. Annual presentations for Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and Memorial Day included children and adults from the community as participants. Many performances were done in the street. During the Vietnam War, Bread and Puppet staged block-long processions and pageants involving hundreds of people. In 1974 Bread and Puppet moved to a farm in Glover, Vermont. The 140-year old hay barn was transformed into a museum for veteran puppets. The company makes its income from touring new and old productions in the US and abroad, and from sales of Bread and Puppet Press’ posters and publications. The traveling puppet shows range from tightly composed theater pieces presented by members of the company, to extensive outdoor pageants which require the participation of many volunteers. breadandpuppet.org

Sea Change

• Cabinet of Curiosity (US/Chicago)
• MCA Chicago, 205 E. Pearson St., Chicago 
• January 20-22
• Thursday, January 20 at 7 p.m.; Friday, January 21 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, January 22 at 2 p.m.
• Tickets: $40, $30 students
• Run time: 60 minutes
• For ages 8 and up

Cabinet of Curiosity transforms Sea Change, their celebrated outdoor exploration of the power of the sea and the feminine divine for the MCA mainstage. It is a series of wild, strange, lovely puppet shows written by emerging female playwrights and lyricists Liz Chidester, Kasey Foster, Bethany Thomas, and Lindsey Noel Whiting, with original music by Manae Hammond and Charlie Otto, additional text by Seth Bockley, and the searcher performed by Time Brickey. Giant puppets, mechanical devices, and original, live music weave together to create an evening of pageantry, puppetry, wonder and hope.

Cabinet of Curiosity, founded in 2017, is a nonprofit theater that creates original celebrations and productions. Cabinet uses sophisticated puppetry and handmade devices to develop interactive experiences and events. We believe that the act of celebration is a social imperative. We use celebration to tackle isolation, facilitate dialogue, inspire hope and humor, create beauty where others may fail to see it, and ignite sincere collaborations. We focus on creating new gatherings, ceremonies, and rituals that promote connection amongst people from different backgrounds and lived experiences. cocechicago.org

Skeleton Canoe

• Ty Defoe (US/NY/Wisconsin)
• Created by Ty Defoe, Mark Denning, Katherine Freer, and Blair Thomas
• American Indian Center
• 3401 W. Ainslie St. in Albany Park
• January 29 and 30
• Saturday and Sunday at 5 p.m.
• Tickets: Free
• Run time: 45 minutes
• For all ages

Experience an exciting new work-in-progress by Ty Defoe, writer and co-creator of the unforgettable opening production of the 2019 Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, Ajijaak on Turtle Island.

Skeleton Crew is the story of young Nawbin as they leave home and set out on a rites of passage through a season of their life. Join their journey along the water to discover their truth and way back to themselves and ancestral knowledge. Along the way they discover unexpected friends, weather storms, and gain a canoe! Through the use of puppetry, traditional Anishinaabe lifeways, and multimedia design, Skeleton Canoe makes known what is just below the water’s surface.

Defoe (Giizhig) is a Grammy-winning writer, actor and interdisciplinary artist of the Oneida and Ojibwe Nations of Wisconsin. He has an integral approach to artistic projects pulling in social justice messages rooted through words, music, literature, theater, the present, film with digital media components. Some of his favorite places to tour (virtually or physically) are in Native communities across Turtle Island. Created with Heather Henson of IBEX Puppetry, Ajijaak on Turtle Island is an eco-focused, First Nation origin story and spectacle featuring giant animal puppets and performers of the Ojibwe, Lakota, and Cherokee Nations. Other works include Red Pine, The Way They Lived and Hear Me Say My Name. Broadway credits include performing in Young Jean Lee’s Straight White Men and choreographing The Minutes by Tracy Letts. Awards include the Robert Rauschenberg Artist in Residence and Jonathan Larson Award. With All My Relations Collective (DTWG, Public Theater, GIZHIBAA GIIZHIG | Revolving Sky at Under the Radar's Incoming!) Defoe is creating interactive media by gathering star stories in a digital app. Defoe has degrees from CalArts, Goddard College and NYU Tisch. tydefoe.com

TIMBER!

• By Rootstock Puppet Co. (US/Chicago)
• Instituto Cervantes of Chicago, 31 W. Ohio St. in River North
• January 29-30
• Saturday, January 29 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.; Sunday, January 30 at 2 p.m.
• Tickets: $30, $20 students
• Run time: 45 minutes
• All ages

Featuring hand-carved marionettes and original music, TIMBER! is about a forest: its wild inhabitants, its enemies, and the artist who defends it. Chicago-based puppeteer, Mark Blashford (Rootstock Puppet Co.), brings his special brand of delightful to this poetic work starring Paul Bunyan, Bigfoot, and the forest itself. Chicago-based music group, TV Dinners, provides live acoustic accompaniment to this brand new show made possible in part with a Jim Henson Foundation Production Grant.

Puppetry is an ancient story-telling form. Rootstock Puppet Co. and Artistic Director Mark Blashford continue the tradition of building and performing handcrafted puppets using natural materials that imbue each character with a deep-rooted sense of place. Rootstock is about telling great stories with a dose of environmental education because the art of puppetry can support both the health of a community and its natural environment. That’s why Rootstock partners with the National Forest Foundation and The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation. Proceeds from every wood-carved show go towards planting a tree for tomorrow’s puppeteer and protecting our precious natural resources. rootstockpuppet.com

Education and Community Building Programs

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium

• School of the Art Institute Ballroom, 112 S. Michigan Ave. in downtown Chicago
• Free

Named in honor of Little Theatre of Chicago director Ellen Von Volkenburg, who coined the term “puppeteer” in 1912, the festival's annual symposium brings together scholars, puppetry enthusiasts and festival artists from Chicago and the U.S. for free discussions around the intersection of puppetry with other disciplines and ideas. 

• Saturday, January 22, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.
• Staging the Non-Human Character; Animal, Alien, or Architecture

Featuring Maria Cama, New Mony; Marsian De Lellis, Object of Her Affection; Nick Lehane, Chimpanzee; and Basil Twist, Dogugaeshi

Saturday, January 22, 1-3 p.m.

• What We Leave Behind: The Plastic Object Geological Layer
• Featuring Robin Frohardt, The Plastic Bag Store

Saturday, January 29, 10-11:30 a.m.

• Race & Representation in Puppetry
• Featuring Torry Bend, Dreaming; Ty Defoe, Skeleton Canoe and Eagle Dance; and Margaret Laurena Kemp, The Bluest Eye

Saturday, January 29, 12-1:30 p.m.

• New Materialism/Object-Oriented Ontology
• Featuring graduate students from School of the Art Institute, Northwestern and UChicago

The Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium is co-curated by Paulette Richards and Chicago Puppet Festival Artistic Director Blair Thomas. Discussions are open to the public. No reservations required. 

The Catapult Artist Intensive

The Catapult Artist Intensive returns with two professional development weekends designed to advance the form and expand understanding of the field of puppetry in the United States.

Each weekend, practicing artists of all disciplines will be taken on a curated, guided experience of festival programming. Join an intimate cohort, escorted by a professional leader, for discussions, a performance workshop, backstage access to the shows and more. Each immersive weekend includes eight performances in three days, with a workshop, symposium and local transportation.  

Go to chicagopuppetfest.org/catapult for the full schedule and to sign up. Registration is $585 per weekend, including some meals. Limited capacity. Scholarships available. Discounted lodging is available with promo code PUPPETFEST at The Warwick Allerton Hotel Chicago, 701 N. Michigan Ave. on Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, the official hotel of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Visit warwickhotels.com/warwick-allerton-chicago or call (312) 440-1500 to reserve.

Visit chicagopuppetfest.org for tickets and information about the 4th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, or follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, hashtag #ChiPuppetFest, to learn more about this pageant of puppet artists and shows for residents and visitors to experience in January.