6th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival to Return in January

The 6th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival is back January 18-28, 2024, ready to heat up Chicago with its annual international pageant of puppet shows and artists at dozens of venues around the city.

Only in Chicago, over 11 consecutive days in January, do audiences turn out to experience an incredible range of puppetry styles from around the world, at what’s now the largest annual puppet festival of its kind in North America.

This year, Chicago welcomes international puppet artists and companies from Belgium, Chile, Norway, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Mexico and Poland.

Team U.S.A features puppeteers from Maryland, New York, North Carolina and two New York-based companies with international roots - New York/Colombia and New York/Persia.

Learn more about the out-of-town artists who will help transform Chicago into “the Puppetry Capital of the World” in January. For tickets and information, and to learn about more attractions by top Chicago puppeteers, visit chicagopuppetfest.org to purchase tickets or follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram or Vimeo, hashtag #ChiPuppetFest.

International presentations (chronological by start date)

Free Neighborhood Tour: Tears by the River

Krystal Puppeteers
Kenya
Presented by the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, Navy Pier the Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parksm and UChicago
January 18-28
10 performances at 9 locations throughout the city
35 minutes
All ages
Free


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 to enjoy one of 10 free public performances at nine sites around the city:

Thursday, January 18, 4:30 p.m.
Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, 4046 W. Armitage Ave., Hermosa

Friday, January 19, 4:30 p.m.
Marshall Fields Garden Apartments/Art on Sedgwick, 1408 N. Sedgwick St., Old Town

Saturday, January 20, 4 p.m.
Theater Y, 3611 W. Cermak Rd., North Lawndale

Sunday, January 21, 2 p.m.
345 Art Gallery, 345 N. Kedzie Ave., Garfield Park

Wednesday, January 24, 6 p.m.
Berger Park Coachhouse, 6205 N. Sheridan Rd., Edgewater

Thursday, January 25, 10:30 a.m. (school groups) and 7 p.m.
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts, Performance Hall, The University of Chicago, 915 E. 60th St., Hyde Park

Friday, January 26, 6 p.m.
Mandrake Park, 3858 S. Cottage Grove Ave., Bronzeville 

Saturday, January 27, Noon and 2 p.m.
Navy Pier, 600 E. Grand Ave., downtown Chicago

Sunday, January 28, 3 p.m.
South Shore Cultural Center Paul Robeson Theatre, 7059 S. South Shore Dr., South Shore
Krystal Puppeteers is a Kenyan-German puppetry and performing company established in 1995 in Mombasa, Kenya by puppeteers Fedelis Kyalo and Chrispin Mwashagha. Combining traditional and contemporary puppetry techniques with live music and dances, Krystal puppet shows are not only captivating and creative but also transfer the audience to another world where puppets come alive and become one with the audience. The company has taken part in puppet festivals all over the world including, Spain, Germany, Austria, Poland, Argentina, Ecuador, and Brazil. 

Wakka Wakka's Animalia Trilogy

Wakka Wakka
Norway/New York

The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival is proud to be the first to present the complete Animalia Trilogy from the remarkable Wakka Wakka company. Animal R.I.O.T. and The Immortal Jellyfish Girl have been widely celebrated, receiving rave reviews. 2024 Chicago Puppet Festival audiences are being treated to the world premiere of the newest of the three pieces: Dead as a Dodo. Whether you see each of these three works in one day or across several days, you will be as astonished and delighted.

The Immortal Jellyfish Girl

Steppenwolf's Downstairs Mainstage Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted St., Lincoln Park
January 18-21
Four shows: Thursday, January 18 at 7:30 p.m.; Friday January 19 at 1:30 p.m.; Saturday, January 20 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, January 21 at 1:30 p.m. 
80 minutes
Ages: 10 and up
Tickets: $40-$45
Note|Free events: Come make your own masks at free Wakka Wakka drop-in mask making workshops, Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21 at 2:45 p.m.

 
 
 

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.

World Premiere

Dead as a Dodo 

The Biograph Theater’s Začek-McVay Mainstage, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Lincoln Park

January 19-21

Three shows: Friday, January 19 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, January 20 at 1:30 p.m.; Sunday, January 21 at 7 p.m.

75 minutes

Ages: 8 and up

Tickets: $40-$45

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.

Animal R.I.O.T.

Steppenwolf's 1700 Theater, 1650 N. Halsted St., Lincoln Park
January 19-23
Five shows: Friday, Saturday and Sunday, January 19-21 at 9:30 p.m.;
Monday and Tuesday, January 22 and 23 at 7:30 p.m.
75 minutes
Ages: 13 and up
Tickets: $30-$40

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! animalriot.org 

Wakka Wakka Productions, Inc. is a non-profit visual theater company based in New York City and Oslo. Its mission is to push the boundaries of the imagination by creating works that are bold, unique and unpredictable. The company is led by Gabrielle Brechner, Kirjan Waage and Gwendolyn Warnock and supported by company members Andrew Manjuck and Peter Russo.
 
Since 2001 Wakka Wakka has created and produced 11 original works which have toured extensively throughout the U.S. and abroad. All of Wakka Wakka’s productions have been highly physical, overlapping in a wide range of styles and incorporating elements such as puppetry, object manipulation, masks and original music. Wakka Wakka has been honored with a Drama Desk Award, an Obie Award and two UNIMA Citations of Excellence, and nominated for four Drama Desk Awards, a Helen Hayes Award and a Hawes Design Award. wakkawakka.org


A Bucket of Beetles

Papermoon Puppet Theatre
Indonesia
Chopin Theatre (mainstage), 1543 W. Division St., Wicker Park
Four shows: Friday, January 19 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, January 20 at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, January 21 at 3 p.m. 
50 minutes
Ages 5 and up
Tickets: $30-$40

 
 
 

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.
Papermoon Puppet Theatre believes that anything can come alive. Every creature, every object, every single thing in the world holds life somewhere inside of it. The company was founded in 2006 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia by Co-Artistic Director Maria Tri Sulistyani (Ria). She has since nurtured, developed and expanded the company with Co-Artistic Director Iwan Effendi, a visual artist and Papermoon’s puppet designer. The company works with a collective of puppeteers including Anton Fajri, Pambo Priyojati, Beni Sanjaya, Muhammad Alhaq and Hardiansyah Yoga. To date, Papermoon Puppet Theatre has created more than 30 puppet performances and visual art installations and exhibitions, which have toured more than 10 countries, from Japan to the Netherlands, from Australia to the U.S. In 2008, the company launched Pesta Boneka, an international puppet biennale that welcomes puppeteers from around the world to their home in Indonesia. papermoonpuppet.com

Spleen

Figurentheater Wilde & Vogel
Germany
The Biograph's Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Lincoln Park
January 19-21
Four shows: Friday, January 19 at 9 p.m., Saturday, January 20 at 5 p.m. and 9 p.m.; Sunday, January 21 at 5 p.m.
70 minutes
16 and up
Tickets: $20-$30

 
 

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.

Figurentheater Wilde & Vogel was founded in 1997 by musician Charlotte Wilde and puppeteer and puppet maker Michael Vogel, first in Stuttgart, from 2003 in Leipzig, where Wilde and Vogel are co-founders of the International Centre for Animated Theatre Westflügel. Wilde, who studied music, English and history in Karlsruhe, arranges, composes and plays the music (violin, guitar and keyboard instruments). Vogel studied in Prague with Milos Kirschner and the Spejbl & Hurvinek Theatre, and studied puppet theater in Stuttgart at the University of Music and Performing Arts. Today, puppetry and live music are the artistic means of Wilde & Vogel’s theater, with a repertoire including classical drama, adaptations of novels, poetry and original works. Themes and dramatic material for the productions are manifold, and are always reduced to the essence, to open space for imagination beyond the visible for the audience. figurentheater-wildevogel.de

The Beast Dance (or The Secret Spell of the Wild)

La Liga Teatro Elástico
Mexico
Presented by the National Museum of Mexican Art and the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival
National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St., Pilsen
One show only: Saturday, January 20 at 2 p.m.
75 minutes
All ages
Free
 
 
 

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 Destierro.
La Liga Teatro Elástico is a theater company founded by actress/stage director Jacqueline Serafín and artist/puppet designer Iker Vicente, focused on objects and animated figures. Starting from an interdisciplinary approach, the company develops projects that exist somewhere between sculpture, theater, performance and teaching. Their work melds street theater with games and celebration as a strategy for a new set of foundations and meanings inside the theater, museum, or urban spaces where they occur. The company has presented plays, installations and workshops at international festivals in America, Africa and Europe, including frequent collaborations with other artists and companies. laligateatro.com


Krabat

Figurentheater Wilde & Vogel and Grupa Coincidentia
Germany/Poland
The Biograph Theater's Začek-McVay Mainstage, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave., Lincoln Park
January 25-28
Four shows: Thursday, January 25 at 7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, January 26 and 27 at 9 p.m.; Sunday, January 28 at 3 p.m.
70 minutes
13 and up
Tickets: $35-$45
 
 
 

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.

Figurentheater Wilde & Vogel was founded in 1997 by musician Charlotte Wilde and puppeteer and puppet maker Michael Vogel, first in Stuttgart, from 2003 in Leipzig, where Wilde and Vogel are co-founders of the International Centre for Animated Theatre Westflügel. Their repertoire includes classical drama, adaptations of novels, poetry and original works. Figurentheater-wildevogel.de *see longer bio above
Grupa Coincidentia was founded in 2009 by Dagmara Sowa and Pawel Chomczyk, graduates of the Bialystok Puppet Art Department of the Theater Academy. Coincidentia has produced over a dozen performances in collaboration with artists such as Michael Vogel, Lukasz Kos, Christiane Zanger, Pawel Aigner, Michal Walczak, Robert Jarosz, Christoph Bochdansky, Pawel Passini, Robert Drobniuch and Konrad Dworakowski. Coincidentia's shows have been presented at numerous festivals in Europe, Asia and North America and have been honored with many awards (including The Bank of Scotland Herald Angel, Total Theater Award Edinburgh, Grand Prix of the Konteksty Festival, the Grand Prix of the MFTL in Torun). Coincidentia collaborates on a permanent basis with the German independent scene Lindenfels Westfluegel in Leipzig and the Figurentheater Wilde & Vogel. In 2016, Grupa Coincidentia established Siedlisko Kultury Solniki 44 - an independent cultural center located in the forest in Podlasie region, which has hosted dozens of theatrical performances, artistic and educational workshops, works in progress, concerts and panel discussions. In 2018, the center initiated LasFest - International Theater Festival in the Forest, and in 2020, LasKids - a festival addressed to children's audiences. Both include independent theaters, laboratory works, concerts, student shows, meetings with artists, film screenings and unconventional events combining art with nature. grupacoincidentia.pl

Chayka

Belova-Iacobelli Theatre Company
Belgium/Chile
Chopin Theatre (mainstage), 1543 W. Division St., Wicker Park
January 26-28
Three shows: Friday and Saturday, January 26 and 27 at 7 p.m.; Sunday, January 28 at 3 p.m.
60 minutes
Ages 13 and up
Tickets: $30-$40

 
 
 

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. In 2012, the Chilean actress and stage director Tita Iacobelli met the Belgo-Russian puppeteer Natacha Belova in Santiago, Chile, at the La Rebelión de los Muñecos Festival. In 2015, again in Santiago, they created an experimental theater laboratory for contemporary puppet theater. When the two-month experience was over, they decided to develop a play together. Chayka was the first production, created in June 2018 in Santiago de Chile, followed In September 2021, by LOCO at the Théâtre National Wallonie-Bruxelles in Belgium. In October 2022, the performance Sisypholia, by Natacha Belova co-directed with Dorian Chavez, was presented at the International Biennial of Living Arts Toulouse Occitanie in France. belova-iacobelli.com


Closing Night Cabaret

Rhapsody Theater, 1328 W. Morse Ave., Rogers Park
Sunday, January 28, 6 p.m.
See website for ticket information

This closing night fundraiser features the world-celebrated vocalist, actress, puppeteer, director Yael Rasooly, from Israel, with incomparable accordionist, Iliya Magalnyk. Join Festival supporters 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.

National presentations (chronological by start date)

The Hip Hopera of SP1N0K10

Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins 
North Carolina
Presented by eta Creative Arts Foundation and the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival
At eta Creative Arts Foundation, 7558 S. South Chicago Ave., Grand Crossing
January 19-21
Four shows: Friday, January 19 at 7 p.m.; Saturday, January 20 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.; Sunday, January 21 at 1 p.m.
45 minutes
10 and up
Tickets: $20-$30

 
 
 

Set in an Afro-futuristic post-apocalyptic realm, The Hip Hopera of SP1N0K10 (pronounced "Spin-oh-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.

Tarish "Jeghetto" Pipkins was born in a small steel mill town called Clairton, PA. He is a self taught artist and has been creating art from a very young age. As a teenager, he moved to the East Side of Pittsburgh and graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School. In the late 90’s, Pipkins joined the BridgeSpotters Collective and became known for his live paintings and poetry. He was also a barber for over 20 years. He moved to North Carolina in 2005 where he launched his career in puppetry doing street performances with his puppets. In 2008 he started working with Paperhand Puppet Intervention, building puppets and performing in Paperhand productions. Jeghetto had the pleasure to work with Missy Elliott on her music video, “WTF (Where They From),” controlling the Pharell puppet and doing some puppet building. He also worked on the Amazon Echo commercial featuring Missy Elliott and Alec Baldwin as puppets. Pipkins is a former teacher at Just Right Academy, a private alternative school for children with special needs. He is married and a proud father of five children. jeghetto.com

Song of the North

Hamid Rahmanian
NY/Persia
Studebaker Theater, 410 S. Michigan Ave., downtown Chicago
Three shows: Friday, January 19 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, January 20 at 1 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
80 minutes
All Ages
Tickets: $35-$45

 
 
 

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. 

Le Monde said Song of the North has “breathtaking fireworks of creativity” and Toute La Culture wrote ”the Persian soul and culture vibrate in this original and poetic show.” 
Hamid Rahmanian returns to Chicago after presenting Feathers of Fire at the 2nd Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival in 2017. Rahmanian is a 2014 John Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the 2020 United States Artists Fellowship. He undertook the immense task of illustrating and commissioning a new translation and adaptation of the tenth-century Persian epic poem “Shahnameh” by Ferdowsi, entitled “Shahnameh: The Epic of the Persian Kings” (2013). This best-selling 600-page art book, hailed by the Wall Street Journal as a “masterpiece,” is in its second edition (Liveright Publishing). In 2017, he released an immersive audiobook version of “Shahnameh” with an introduction by Frances Ford Coppola. In 2018, he released a pop up book, “Zahhak: The Legend of the Serpent King” (Fantagraphics Books), in English and French. It received a Meggendorfer Prize and was hailed “simply breathtaking” by Le Monde. His films have screened at Venice, Sundance, Toronto, Tribeca, and IDFA film festivals and broadcast on PBS, Sundance Channel, IFC, Channel 4, BBC, DR2 and Al Jazeera. In 2014, Rahmanian shifted his focus to theater arts, working with shadows and digital media. To date, he has created five theater pieces: Zahhak: The Legend of the Serpent King (2014), Mina’s Dream (2016), commissioned by the Onassis Foundation, and UNIMA-USA award winning Feathers Of Fire (2016) which toured in 23 cities around the world to an audience of over 100,000. In 2019, he was commissioned by Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble to create a video animation for their multimedia project, Heroes Take Their Stand. His latest stage production, Song of the North, premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2022. kingorama.com


MAROONED! A Space Comedy

Alex and Olmsted
Maryland
Chopin Theatre (mainstage), 1543 W. Division St., Wicker Park
January 22-24
Three shows: Monday and Tuesday, January 22 and 23 at 7 p.m.; Wednesday, January 24 at 5 p.m. 
60 minutes
All ages
Tickets: $30-$40

 
 
 

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 and Olmsted, elegant puppetry design meets joyful, meaningful storytelling. Live performance, shadow puppetry and marionettes shine to delightful effect in MAROONED!, recent winner of a prestigious UNIMA USA Citation.

Alex and Olmsted (Alex Vernon and Sarah Olmsted Thomas) is an internationally acclaimed puppet theater and filmmaking company based in Maryland. They have toured at festivals in Italy, Denmark, South Korea, and Canada, and have performed at numerous venues within the United States. Alex & Olmsted was awarded the 2020 State Independent Artist Award from the Maryland State Arts Council, the highest honor for performing artists in the State of Maryland. Their works have been supported by the Jim Henson Foundation and Greenbelt Community Foundation, recognized by the New York Times, and named an official selection of the Maryland Film Festival, Paris Art Film and others. Alex and Olmsted is a resident company at Baltimore Theatre Project. alexandolmstead.com


Lunch with Sonia

Loco7 Dance Puppet Theater
NY/Colombia
Presented by the Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago and Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival
The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago, 1306 S. Michigan Ave., downtown Chicago
January 25-27
Three shows: Thursday and Friday, January 25 and 26 at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday, January 27 at 4 p.m.
55 minutes
12 and up
Tickets: $30-$40

 
 
 

Lunch with Sonia is inspired by Loco7 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.

The New York Times called Lunch with Sonia “strange, daring, gorgeous and far from the mainstream.
Loco7 is a Latinx-run organization that feels it is of the utmost importance to be inclusive and represent the voices of underrepresented people. More than 75% of its staff, board of directors, and artists identify as people of color, female, and/or LGBTQ+. The company is a modest, not-for-profit experimental theater ensemble that is artist-run and maintains a small office and storage facility in New York City. In addition, the company provides an artistic home and professional foundation for a multicultural group of performers, designers and theatre artists who collaborate with Loco7 on a project basis. The company’s leaders are Federico Restrepo, founder, artistic director and designer, and Denise Greber, executive director and performer. loco7.org


Book of Mountains and Seas

Basil Twist
New York/China
Presented by the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival and Chicago Opera Theater
Studebaker Theater, 410 S. Michigan Ave., downtown Chicago
January 26-28
Three shows: Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
80 minutes
12 and up
Tickets: $40-$45

 
 
 

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.

The Wall Street Journal called it “an exquisite masterpiece of suggestion, an immersive tapestry of sound and image that weaves itself into your consciousness.”
Basil Twist, a third generation puppeteer, has significantly contributed to the art of puppetry since 1998, known worldwide for creating original abstract adult puppet works focused on their integration with music. His famous work Symphonie Fantastique, which takes place in a tank of water, is performed to the symphony of the same name. A new film version was screened last year as part of the 2023 Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Twist created the puppetry for the Broadway productions of The Pee-Wee Herman Show and The Addams Family. Other works include Dogugaeshi (another highlight of last year’s Chicago Puppet Festival), La Bella Dormente nel Bosco, Petrushka, Hansel and Gretel, Master Peter's Puppet Show, The Araneidae Show, Behind the Lid and Arias with a Twist. He has received numerous awards, including a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome, an Obie Award, a Creative Capital Award in Performing Arts and a Guggenheim fellowship. He was a 2015 MacArthur Fellow at the NYU Center for Ballet and the Arts. He attended Oberlin College and graduated from the École Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mézières, France. He is founder and director of the Dream Music Puppetry Program at Here Arts Center in New York. In 2023, he led the puppetry in the Royal Shakespeare Company adaptation of My Neighbor Totoro at the Barbican Theatre, London. basiltwist.com


Pulling strings: the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival  

Originally founded in 2015 as a project of Blair Thomas & Co., the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival has highlighted artists from nations including Iran, Korea, Japan, Chile, South Africa as well as from Europe, Chicago and across the U.S. with the goal of promoting peace, equality, and justice on a global scale. 

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. 

This year’s 6th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, January 18-28, 2024, will present a wide range of classic and contemporary puppetry created by puppet artists from Belgium, Chile, Norway, Germany, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Poland, the U.S. and Chicago. The 2024 Festival spans 11 days and dozens of Chicago venues, attracting an international pageant of puppet artists who will share more than 100 puppetry activities including all-ages spectacle shows, intimate works on small stages, even an adults-only, late night puppet cabaret.

Visit chicagopuppetfest.org for tickets, information and to sign up for the festival’s e-news. Follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, hashtag #ChiPuppetFest.



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