Chicago International Pupper Theater Festival

BY Mitch Marr

UChicago Arts is participating in the first Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival (January 14–23, 2015) in a big way with two Chicago premieres, a puppet slam, and a puppet-inspired family festival at the Logan Center as well as a scholarly symposium at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The festival also includes the world premiere of a new work by Manual Cinema, a group that includes numerous UChicago alumni.

The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival was founded by Blair Thomas and Company, in partnership with a variety of citywide arts organizations including UChicago Arts, to establish Chicago as a prominent center for the art of puppetry. Conceived as a biennial festival, it will present local, national, and international puppet shows in venues across the city.

“Puppetry is growing in American theater today. Chicago is ripe to be positioned as a leader in the current renaissance of the art of puppetry,” says Blair Thomas, founder and artistic director of the festival. “Our city is well-known for having an indigenous theater audience that not only attends performances but supports new works and champions the creation of new art forms.”

In addition to performances, workshops, and talks, the Festival will host the Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium, devoted to the advancement of scholarship and research in the field of puppetry. The symposium is organized by UChicago’s Richard and Mary L. Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry and will be held at MCA Chicago. The MCA Stage will present the world premiere of Mementos Mori from Manual

Cinema. A contemporary shadow puppetry company whose members include numerous UChicago alumni, the inventive Manual Cinema blurs the boundaries between cinema and theater. The piece was developed in part through the Chicago Performance Lab, an annual residency program that Theater and Performance Studies holds at the Logan Center.

Puppets on campus

The Logan Center is partnering with Theater and Performance Studies to present multiple shows from FlipFlap Productions and Minneapolis-based In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater. FlipFlap Prodcutions’ The Temp, like the Manuel Cinema performance, was developed in part at the Logan Center through Theater and Performance Studies’ Chicago Performance Lab.

“The original work of FlipFlap and Heart of the Beast represent the innovative cross-disciplinary work that Theater and Performance Studies seeks to foster through residencies with Chicago Performance Lab,” says Heidi Coleman, director of undergraduate studies for TAPS and University Theater.

While the puppet festival content ranges from decidedly (and irreverently) adult to all-ages fare, the Logan Center is one of the 10 citywide presenters to offer family-focused events. In conjunction with the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, the Logan Center’s monthly family series will draw inspiration from the world’s puppet and mask traditions with a family-friendly performance of Heart of the Beast’s Cartoon, drop-inpuppet related activities, a make-andtake puppet workshop, a puppet zoo with House Theatre, Flip Flap, Heart of the Beast, and Adventure Stage, and more. Logan Center Family Saturdays and the Heart of the Beast residency are both supported in part by the Reva and David Logan Foundation.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with so many organizations from across the city and to serve as the south side hub for the festival,” says Leigh Fagin, Associate Director of University Arts Engagement at the Logan Center.