Save the Dates for the Next Festival: January 16-26, 2025

spring 2024

Join us for Spring Events!

The Living Room Tour is a series of intimate fundraisers in special settings. Always a wonderful time, each event takes place at a unique, private location. Your ticket includes drinks, dinner, dessert and brief puppetry performances that will Astonish and Delight! 

Take a live online workshop from anywhere in the world, or join us for in-person workshops at the Fine Arts Building in downtown Chicago. Live work sessions, group sharing and personal feedback combine to make these some of the most enjoyable and productive workshop opportunities available. 

in the heart of winter

An Oasis of Fascination & Artistry

The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival is celebrated for consistently excellent and unforgettable puppetry experiences. It is an oasis of fascination and artistry — representing a breadth of style, quality of work and spectacular depth of artistic achievement from the US and abroad. In the heart of winter, the Festival spans 11 days and dozens of Chicago venues, sharing 100+puppetry activities with 14,000+ guests. The Festival includes performances, symposium, Catapult artist intensive, workshops, the Free Neighborhood Tour, and more. Since its launch in 2015, the 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. Thanks to all who participated in the 2024 Festival!

welcome letter from the artistic director & founder

Once again the puppets travel to our Chicago home.

Deep in the heart of the winter, we gather in dark theaters, set aside our homosapien centrism, and allow the material world of surrogate humans, animals and spirits to stand before us. These puppets have stories to tell.

You will hear of: a revolt of the animals to save the planet, an epic ancient Persian tale, the adventures of a marooned astronaut, the creation of an afrofuturist Pinocchio, a terrible terrible monster facing his greatest fear, an unsuspected deal with the devil, an Aunt’s auspicious invitation to lunch, and urban youth encountering gun violence. The treat for you, dear viewer, lies with the storytellers themselves: the puppets. They will speak to us in their own rare language, beyond mere words or the physical world, offering us entry into our own transcendent experience.

Let the enchantment begin!

Photo Saverio Truglia

2024 PARTNERS

give us a boost

How it Happens: With Your Support

The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival exists because of the generous donations of our partners and friends. To ensure the future vitality of the Festival, please make a donation online today!