Free Shows and Events Set for 6th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival

Tickets are now on sale for the 6th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, the largest of its kind in North America, returning January 18-28, 2024, spanning 11 days and dozens of Chicago venues, and sharing 100+ puppetry activities with more than 14,000 puppet theater enthusiasts.

In addition to ticketed performances, free events include the Festival's annual Free Neighborhood Tour. This year, Krystal Puppeteers from Kenya will tour to nine locations around the city to present 10 free performances of Tears by the River, a folk tale for all ages that blends traditional Kenyan puppetry, artistry and vocals.

On Saturday, January 20 at 2 p.m., Mexico's La Liga Teatro Elástico will combine spectacle puppetry with community interaction at a free performance of The Beast Dance (or The Secret Spell of the Wild), one-show-only at the National Museum of Mexican Art.

Wakka Wakka Productions (U.S./Norway), presenting the world premiere of their Animalia Trilogy at this year's Fest, invites the public to come make their own masks at free Wakka Wakka drop-in workshops, Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21 at 2:45 p.m., at Steppenwolf Theatre.

Back for year two is the festival's Puppet Hub on the fourth floor of Chicago's historic Fine Arts Building. It's open throughout the Festival, features two free puppet design exhibitions, and is home to The Spoke & Bird Pop-up Cafe and a Pop-Up Puppet Shop.

Free events also include this year's Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium, running both weekends of the Festival at the Fine Arts Building, and a new series of free Book Talks with acclaimed puppet scholars. 

Following are details about all of this year's free Festival offerings. Visit chicagopuppetfest.org for more information, and follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram or Vimeo, hashtag #ChiPuppetFest, for the latest festival updates.

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 Parks 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.
La Villita Community Church, 2300 S. Millard Ave, Lawndale
*new location, updated 1/8/24

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. 

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

Wakka Wakka Drop-In Workshops

Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21 at 2:45 p.m.
Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted, Chicago

Wakka Wakka Productions (U.S./Norway) invites the public to come make their own masks at free Wakka Wakka Drop-In Workshops, Saturday and Sunday, January 20 and 21 at 2:45 p.m., at Steppenwolf Theatre.

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, both playing opening weekend at Steppenwolf Theatre, have been widely celebrated, receiving rave reviews. The newest of the three pieces, Dead as a Dodo, will debut at Chicago's historic Biograph Theatre. Whether you see each of these three works in one day or across several days, you will be as astonished and delighted.

The Puppet Hub

Fine Arts Building, 410 S. Michigan Ave., Studio 433, Chicago
Curated by the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival
Presented in partnership with The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe

In addition to the incredible pageant of international and U.S. puppetry artists, the Puppet Hub is back and open throughout the festival. It’s the perfect place to relax between shows, meet up with friends, make new ones, and learn more about contemporary puppetry.

Attractions include: 
The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe

Stop by The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe if you’re coming to a show at the Studebaker Theater, workshops, readings and special events in the Fine Arts Building, or any Puppet Fest show downtown. Enjoy coffee, tea, winter soups and baked treats in a cozy, puppet-inspired setting, and check out the surrounding exhibits. 

(Cafe hours: Friday, January 19, 10 a.m-10 p.m.; Saturday, January 20, 9 a.m.-
8 p.m.; Sunday, January 21, 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Closed Monday, January 22; Tuesday, January 23, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Wednesday and Thursday, January 24 and 25, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Friday, January 26, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.; Saturday, January 27, 9 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sunday, January 28, 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m.)

¿ lobo estás ahi? (The Beasts wait inside)

An up-close look at the preliminary drawings and wild animal puppets in The Beast Dance by visiting company La Liga Teatro Elástico, Mexico. Catch their free spectacle production, one-show-only, Saturday, January 20 at 2 p.m. at the National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 W. 19th St., Pilsen.

The Materiality of the Puppet

A free exhibit showcasing design renderings from the 2024 festival productions.

Pop-Up Puppet Shop

The perfect spot to stock up on your newest Chicago Puppet Fest swag and all of the books featured in the Book Talks.

Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium

Talking Stuff: The Materiality of the Puppet

Presented by the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, sponsored by UNIMA-USA
Fine Arts Building, 410 S. Michigan Ave., Little Studio, 7th Floor, Chicago
Four free panel discussions 
In person and streaming via HowlRound

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

This year's symposium, Talking Stuff: The Materiality of the Puppet, will feature festival artists on four different panels discussing the materiality of the puppet in both theory and practice.

Panel 1 - Mechanisms
Saturday, January 20, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

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