The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival made its inaugural appearance for two weeks in the Windy City. It was an exciting new event that was open to all age groups and brought different forms of theater puppetry from all over the world. The festival is the first of its kind to come to Chicago, sponsored by the Blair Thomas & Co. Puppet Theater company. Blair Thomas is also the founder and artistic director as well.
According to the festival’s website, there were nearly 50 performances that took place, including many Chicago-born puppet work. The styles ranged from classic marionettes, shadow puppetry, tiny toy puppets to innovative contemporary puppetry.
The festival partnered with 10 Chicago institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago. For the 12-day festival, the Institute held a free exhibition at their Museum on Saturday, January 17. It was a family festival event for all ages. Children swarmed the halls of the Ryan Education Center, making handmade puppets and acting out their own stories in the interactive installation called Puppets! A short puppet show of Rudyard Kipling’s story Rikki Tikki Tavi, performed by Bullooney Puppetworks of Chicago was a favorite.
Rebecca Manuel is the Coordinator of Community Programs at the Art Institute Museum. She works with family programs that the Museum puts on. She said that the event had a good turnout, which I can agree to based on the many small kids and buzzing parents running around the building.
“Right at ten thirty, the doors were packed, and that’s because so much promotion has been happening,” said Manuel.
The Museum has been working with Blair Thomas for the past couple of months to bring this event to the stages. In addition, Manuel said the Musuem’s puppet area has been used for their own puppet-related events and shows, so it was a perfect partnership with the festival. “Having the performance program fits with the bigger idea of the festival,” she said.
Although the festival is a biennial affair, Manuel said the Museum is planning for a puppet event next year and will partner again with the festival in two years. “We want to be involved with citywide things as well as things that relate to our collection and that our public would enjoy,” said Manuel. This family event hit all three of those marks and nicely coincided with the festival.
With so many performances this week, I couldn’t catch them all – but I did go see Blind Summit’s show called The Table at the Chicago Shakespeare Company. Blind Summit is an English puppet theater company founded in 1997. They are one of the world’s leading puppet companies, and have created many successful puppets, including the eighteen-meter-high Voldemort in Danny Boyle’s Olympic Opening ceremony. Their show for the Chicago Puppet Festival was about a Japanese-style Bunraku puppet who lives on a table (hence the clever title).
The show was different than any puppet show I had ever seen. It was hilarious, with great improv from the puppeteers and some unexpected audience participation. The puppet’s main goal was to recount the story of Moses from the bible, but he strayed far from the planned storyline to show us his cantankerous personality through many tangents about his situation stuck on the table.
He also explained how he operates – he is a three-man operation that uses focus, breathing and a fixed point to bring him to life. Knowing this about the puppet only made him more lovable to the audience and he had them laughing and clapping from start to finish – and even after that.
The puppeteers made the show both comedic and realistic, while coming full circle and finishing up the story about Moses and closing up loose ends that the puppet had burst open throughout the show (like his hand that fell off!). They did a superb job at the puppet’s character development, and for a puppet who lives solely on a table, his strong spirit and overall demeanor made his life seem pretty good.
After the show I spoke briefly with Stephanie Hay, the executive producer of Blind Summit. She told me that they are already working on another show in London, but they hope to be back for the next festival.
The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival put puppetry in Chicago in the “popular theater” section, which was partially the festival’s goal. It aims to be a biennial event to showcase the art of puppetry and build off of the city’s energy for international theater. It won’t be too long until 2017 with more international puppet shows that will give people a broader, thriving perspective on the art of puppetry!
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