The New York State Puppet Festival to Return to Perry, NY This Month

Puppets will take over Perry from June 20 to 30, 2024, as the New York State Puppet Festival makes its much-anticipated return to the region. Over 10 days, NYSPF will present performances, film screenings, and art exhibitions by some of the world's top puppeteers. This isn't your ordinary puppet show-it's cutting-Edge Theater at its best.

Headlining the 2024 NYSPF performances is BILL'S 44TH, a comedic puppet play by Dorothy James and Andy Manjuck. The 55-minute wordless show explores loneliness and self-acceptance through puppetry, an original score, raucous balloons, and a cheeky piece of crudité. If the production seems familiar to audiences, that's because an early version of BILL'S 44TH was one of the NYSPF@Home virtual shows during the fall of 2020 when the festival went online due to the pandemic.

Since that online debut, BILL'S 44TH has been a New York Times Critics Pick, and traveled the world! BILL'S 44TH was an audience darling at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and is returning to the festival after a U.S. run that starts at the NYSPF in Perry. Their 2024 return to Edinburgh has already been billed by the Guardian as "Edinburgh festival 2024: the best comedy, theatre and dance already reviewed." BILL's 44TH was awarded an UNIMA "Citation of Excellence," one of puppetry's top honors. It's also been nominated for two OFFIES (off-West End awards) following its run in London in 2023.

NYSPF audiences have four chances to see BILL'S 44TH: June 28 at 8 p.m., June 29 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and June 30 at 5 p.m. at Perry Elementary/Middle School Auditorium.

In addition to performances, the New York State Puppet Festival is thrilled to host featured festival artist TARISH PIPKINS aka JEGHETTO, nationally renowned puppeteer and visual artist. As the featured festival artist, JEGHETTO is headlining THE PUPPETRY ART & ARTISTRY of JEGHETTO visual art exhibit at the Arts Council for Wyoming County (31 South Main Street, Perry, NY), in display June 20-July 20. Known as a self-taught master builder and puppeteer, JEGHETTO creates puppets that are abstract moving sculptures made of mostly found and recycled materials.

In addition to his visual arts exhibit, JEGHETTO is performing THE AUTOBIPUPPETRY OF JEGHETTO, a one-man show that explores his life through projections and puppetry. This extraordinary event is on June 27 at 7 p.m., June 28 at 6:30 p.m., and June 29 at 5 p.m. at Theatre@37 (37 South Main Street, Perry, NY).

Five other full-length puppet theater pieces will be featured at NYSPF, showcasing a range of puppet styles from the traditional to the experimental.

• MINE: Performance artist and puppeteer Shayna Strype performs her solo-piece that Thinking Theater NYC described as "A quirky, unconventional hour of theater, MINE sparkles like one of the diamonds whose commodification it critiques." (June 21, June 22, June 23 at Theatre@37)

• ERNIE'S SECRET LIFE: Concrete Temple Theatre returns to NYSPF with an musical and humorous puppet piece that follows a man on an epic journey to find his son but in the process finds himself (June 22 and June 23 at Perry High School Auditorium)

• THE GREAT ZODIAC ANIMAL RACE: NYSPF favorite Tom Lee returns with this family-friendly shadow puppet celebration the Lunar New Year (June 22 and June 23 at Theatre@37)

• LATE NIGHT PUPPET SHOW WITH SPECIAL GUEST: Dorothy James and Andy Manjuck who headline BILL'S 44TH bring their pack of puppet friends to an R-Rated improv comedy variety show (June 29 at 10 p.m. at Theatre@37)

• NYSPF'S PUPPET SLAM: Multiple puppet artists take the stage with short puppetry pieces in this program curated by NYSPF and funded through the Puppet Slam Network. (June 26 at 7 at Theatre@37)

In addition to live puppetry, there is a short film program highlighting six short films in the NYSPF first-ever PUPPETS ON FILM: SHORT FILM PROGRAM. The program is hosting a variety of puppeteering styles featured in films from international and national puppeteers. This program is being screened at The Little Theatre in Rochester (June 17 at 7 p.m.), Opening Night of NYSPF (June 20 at 7:30 p.m. at Theatre@37), and at David A. Howe Library in Wellsville (September).

"There's a breadth and scope of puppetry that audiences don't know about. We're thrilled to bring such a spectacular variety of puppetry back to Perry," says Josh Rice, a nationally renowned puppetry artist who founded NYSPF in 2018. "Whether you're an avid puppetry enthusiast or totally new to the world, you'll find something interesting at NYSPF."

Reserving tickets in advance is strongly recommended. See the full calendar of performances and reserve tickets or an all-festival pass at the NYSPF website NewYorkStatePuppetFestival.org.

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