ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar
Puppets are for everyone! Even if your wallet's a bit thin and you blew your entertainment budget for the month already, you can still puppet on a budget.
7th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival
January 15-26th, 2025
Full Free Schedule Below
Free Neighborhood Tours (2 different FREE shows/all ages)
January 15-26
All ages
Free
The Chicago Puppet Festival Free Neighborhood Tour is back bigger, better and twice as nice as before. This year, a festival “first”: two different family-friendly puppet shows will travel to venues around the city, offering more than a dozen free performances at venues large and small. Catch one show, or both…they’re free!
The Amazing Story Machine
Sandglass Theatre Company and Doppelskope
Vermont
45 minutes
All ages
Thursday, January 16 at 4:30 p.m.
Austin Town Hall Cultural Center, 5610 W. Lake St. (Austin)
Friday, January 17 at 4:30 p.m.
Marshall Field Garden Apartments/Art on Sedgwick, 1408 N. Sedgwick St. (Old Town)
Sunday, January 19 at 2 p.m.
345 Gallery, 345 N. Kedzie Ave. (Garfield Park)
Wednesday, January 22 at 6 p.m.
Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted St. (Lakeview)
Thursday, January 23 at 7 p.m.
eta Creative Arts Foundation, 7558 S. South Chicago Ave. (Grand Crossing)
Friday, January 24 at 5 p.m.
Experimental Station, 6100 S. Blackstone Ave. (Hyde Park)
Saturday, January 26 at 10 am + 2 p.m.
Berger Park Cultural Center – Coach House, 6205 N. Sheridan Rd. (Edgewater)
Sunday, January 26 at 2 p.m.
South Shore Cultural Center Paul Robeson Theater, 7059 S. South Shore Dr. (South Shore)
The Grimm family is on the verge of unveiling The Amazing Story Machine, which runs on steam and dreams, and promises to revolutionize how stories are told. When the contraption malfunctions, they have to invent a way to tell stories on the spot. With help from the audience and a cast of unique puppet characters created by Vermont’s Sandglass Theatre Company, fairy tales like “The Hare and the Hedgehog,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and “The Brave Little Tailor” spring to life with a range of charming of puppetry styles and characters, and live, original music.
Hungry Garden
Poncili Creación
Puerto Rico
45 minutes
All ages
Wednesday, January 22 at 6 p.m.
Theatre Y, 3611 W. Cermak Rd. (North Lawndale)
Thursday, January 23 at 10:30 a.m. + 7 p.m.
Reva and David Logan Center for the Arts , 915 E. 60th St. (Hyde Park)
Friday, January 24 at 4:30 p.m.
Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center, 4046 W. Armitage Ave. (Hermosa)
Saturday, January 25 at 12 p.m. and 2 p.m.
Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., GAR Hall & Rotunda 2nd Floor/North (Loop)
Boundless energy, surrealist puppets and controlled madness unite as brothers Pablo and Efrain Del Hierro, identical twins, though differentiated by their distinctly aggressive haircuts, spontaneously infuse inanimate objects with life. Drawing on tribal symbols such as masks and totems, they evoke ancient forms of storytelling as they travel the world with their surreal, crowd-pleasing performances. Hungry Garden brings ”creation and chaotic tranquility,” living up to the idea that the brothers say spawned their name, Poncili Creación.
Free Streaming Adult Cabaret (recommended for ages 16+):
Nasty, Brutish & Short Credit: Richard Termine
Nasty, Brutish & Short
Rough House Theatre Co. and Links Hall
Chicago/International
Links Hall, 3111 N. Western Ave., Roscoe Village/Avondale Thursday, January 16, Saturday, January 18, Thursday, January 23, and Saturday, January 25 at 10:30 p.m. *Update: Thursday nights replaced the Friday night shows originally announced in October
60 minutes
16 and up
Tickets: $15-$20/ Streaming FREE
Here at ChiIL Mama and ChiIL Live Shows, we've caught Rough House Theatre Co's Nasty, Brutish & Short many times over the years, both in person at Links Hall and streaming. The 4 productions that fall during puppet fest are always the most fun each year, as the talent pool is deep and the fest cabarets feature 4 unique lineups filled excellent puppeteers from around the globe. It's a great chance to see short excerpts from some of the longer fest pieces. This year we have several Chicago based friends presenting pieces we can't wait to see. These late night cabarets sell out fast. And if you stream it from home or hotel, it's FREE!
Hit the Chicago Puppet Fest fan-favorite late night shows, where raucous, raunchy, dark, sassy, sad and mostly hilarious puppet theater plays to supportive, sold out houses. The best part? Fancy international out-of-town puppet artists will join cabaret host Jameson, his somewhat furry friends, plus legendary Chicago puppeteers for a wild night of puppet revelry and fellowship followed by friendly unwinding. All four Nasty, Brutish & Short cabarets will also be streamed live. Check website for details: roughhousetheater.com/nbs
Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium
Panels 1 – 4 FREE In Person and Streaming
About the Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium
The Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium brings together practicing Festival artists with scholars to consider the intersection of puppetry with other disciplines and ideas. Before 1912, the year the Little Theater of Chicago was founded in the historic Fine Arts Building, the term “puppeteer” did not even exist. Little Theater director Ellen Van Volkenburg needed a program credit for the actors she had trained to manipulate marionettes while speaking the text of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and she coined the word “puppeteer.” That marked the dawn of the movement that has brought us to the rich art form now practiced around the world.
This year’s theme is: Puppets Doing and Being. In her 2024 book, Reading the Puppet Stage: Reflections on the Dramaturgy of Performing Objects, Claudia Orenstein notes that puppets enact being alive by doing rather than through written dialogue. The 2025 Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium series explores the dramaturgical elements that distinguish puppet theater and actively engage audiences in endowing material with life.
Lessons in Puppetry by Myra Su, a free exhibit at The Puppet Hub
Puppetry Under the Sea, featuring puppets designed by the Chicago Puppet Studio for Drury Lane Theatre’s The Little Mermaid, a free exhibit at The Puppet Hub
The Puppet Hub
Fine Arts Building 410 S. Michigan Ave., 4th floor, Studio 433
FREE
All ages
Hours:
Thursday, January 16, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Friday, January 17, 9 a.m.-10 p.m.
Saturday, January 18, 9 a.m.-10 p.m.
Sunday, January 19, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
Closed Monday, January 20
Tuesday, January 21, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Wednesday January 22, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.
Thursday, January 23, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.
Friday, January 24, 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
Saturday, January 25, 9 a.m.-7:30 p.m.
Sunday, January 26, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
*Drury Lane Theatre’s The Little Mermaid was one of our favorite shows in a holiday season packed with excellent offerings. It was my great pleasure to catch it on opening night. Aside from adoring Sawyer Smith's epic Ursula, we were gobsmacked by the stellar puppets designed by the Chicago Puppet Studio. My son, Dugan (who has a BA in theatre arts from Northwestern), is friends with one of the eel puppeteers. I'm excited to get a closer look at these aquatic creations at the free exhibit, Puppetry Under the Sea.
In addition to the incredible pageant of international and U.S. puppetry artists, The Puppet Hub is back and open throughout the festival on the 4th floor of the Fine Arts Building. It’s the perfect place to relax between shows, get a bite to eat, meet up with friends, make new ones, and learn more about contemporary puppetry.
Attractions include the exhibits Lessons in Puppetry by Myra Su and Puppetry Under the Sea, featuring puppets designed by the Chicago Puppet Studio for Drury Lane Theatre’s The Little Mermaid, the Pop-Up Puppet Shop, and The Spoke & Bird Pop-Up Cafe, serving coffee, tea, winter soups and baked treats.
Potential Energy: Chicago Puppets Up Close
Exhibit presented by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival
Chicago Cultural Center, 78 E. Washington St., Michigan Avenue Galleries
December 21, 2024 - April 6, 2025
Daily, 10 a.m. - 4:45 p.m.
All Ages
Chicago is home to a rich and growing ecology of puppet artists whose work bridges disciplines and communities of makers. This sampling of puppets by local artists challenges expectations about puppetry and inspires the public to tell their own stories. Take the rare chance to look closely at sculptural works usually only seen in motion at a distance. Celebrate material and formal invention, trace networks of collaboration, and discover some of the exciting questions and possibilities that are animating Chicago puppet artists today. Potential Energy: Chicago Puppets Up Close is curated by Grace Needlman and Will Bishop, produced by Elise Butterfield and coordinated by Ashwaty Chennat.
It's time once again for one of our favorite annual fests -- The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Here at ChiILMama.com and ChiILLiveShows.com, we've been covering Puppet Fest extensively since their inaugural year back in 2015 with dozens of features and hundreds of photos and social media posts. We've done video interviews multiple times with Puppet Fest Founder and Artistic Director, Blair Thomas, and we know quite a few of the Chicago Puppeteers. We're also always jazzed to welcome new puppeteers from around the world. Chicago is truly the multicultural puppet hub of the world, and we're so lucky to host again, this January 15-26, 2025. We're in for 12 straight days of spectacular shows, intimate works, and special events at dozens of venues all over the city.
There are edgy, adult offerings, family friendly shows, free community productions, in venues across the city. One of our favorite elements of the fest is the community. Puppet people are the best. The performers and audiences are such a unique subset of the theatre scene and we're here for it. Don't miss this! We've got highlights and favorites below, and you can follow our social media for last minute performance additions, changes, and more. Paper schedules are available at the venues and full details including video clips and ticket links are available at the official fest site at chicagopuppetfest.org. Tickets are on sale now. and we suggest you don’t wait. Despite Chicago’s cold January winters, tickets are always a hot commodity and some of the smaller venues will sell out fast!
The 2025 Chicago Puppet Fest will span 12 days and dozens of Chicago venues, presenting an international pageant of puppet artists sharing more than 120 puppetry activities!!! Get set for all-ages spectacle shows in landmark theaters, intimate works on smaller stages, and the always popular, adults-only, late night puppet cabarets.
Warm up to a wildly diverse range of classic and contemporary puppetry styles from around the world, created by puppet artists from China, India and Scotland, the first time for these countries to play a part in the Chicago Puppet Festival, along with Canada, Chile, China, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Norway, Puerto Rico, Poland, South Africa, the U.S. and Chicago.
These stories and more await fans of the 7th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, all told by puppet artists from around the world, showcasing different forms of traditional and contemporary puppet styles, from bunraku to shadow puppetry, marionettes to object-based works.
Festival funders: 7th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival funders include Chicago Park District Night Out in the Parks Program, Ferdi Foundation, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Jentes Family Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Manaaki Foundation, Marshall Frankel Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, Paul Levy, Pritzker Foundation, Reva and David Logan Foundation, Royal Norwegian Consulate General, and Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. Individuals include Ginger Farley and Robert Shapiro, Justine Jentes and Dan Karuna, Cheryl Lynn Bruce and Kerry James Marshall, Julie Moller, Kristy and Brandon Moran, Nina and Steven Schroeder, John Supera, David Pritzker and Beatrice Barbareschi, Cheryl Henson, Jordan Shields and Sarah Donovan, and Deb and Andy Wolkstein.
About 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 Belgium, Chile, France, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Mexico, Norway, Puerto Rico, Poland and South Africa as well as from 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. Last year’s 2024 festival attracted a record 19,868 audience members to dozens of Chicago venues large and small to enjoy an entertaining and eclectic array of puppet styles from around the world.
In 2022, the Festival moved from a biennial to an annual event, and tripled its footprint in Chicago’s historic Fine Arts Building. It opened an expanded office suite, debuted the Chicago Puppet Studio, which designs and fabricates puppets for theaters and events around the U.S., and launched the Chicago Puppet Lab, an education space and developmental residency designed to incubate more works of boundary-breaking puppetry in Chicago, expand equity in the field of puppetry, and encourage interdisciplinary experimentation in puppet theater.
It’s fitting that the Fine Arts Building is home again to one of the most influential puppetry organizations in the world. In 1912, after Ellen Van Volkenburg famously founded the Little Theater of Chicago in the Fine Arts Building, 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 show 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.
Expanded operations are overseen by Artistic Director and Festival Founder Blair Thomas and Executive Director Sandy Smith Gerding, with Cameron Heinz, Business Manager; Ana Diaz Barriga, Marketing Coordinator; Taylor Bibat, Festival Coordinator; Lucy Wirtz, Events and Engagement Coordinator; Zachary Sun, Studio Coordinator; Tom Lee, Co-Director, Chicago Puppet Lab and Studio; Grace Needlman, Co-Director Chicago Puppet Lab; and Caitlin McLeod, Chicago Puppet Studio Project Manager.
Visit chicagopuppetfest.org for tickets and information about the 7th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, and sign up for the festival’s e-news. Follow the festival on Facebook, Instagram or Vimeo, hashtag #ChiPuppetFest.
Tickets range from free to $48 with most in the $15-$20 range. Discounts for students and seniors. Click here for the full Festival Schedule.
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