{"id":98254,"date":"2022-02-03T13:33:22","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T19:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=98254"},"modified":"2022-02-03T13:33:22","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T19:33:22","slug":"chicago-puppet-festival-brings-unique-voices-experiences-to-venues-across-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-puppet-festival-brings-unique-voices-experiences-to-venues-across-city\/","title":{"rendered":"Chicago puppet festival brings unique voices, experiences to venues across city"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sean Rhomberg<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

Showcasing a wide range of intricate storytelling and complex puppetry, the fourth Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival<\/a> featured more than 100 unique performances at dozens of venues throughout the city this winter.<\/p>\n

After a year off due to pandemic-related challenges and shutdowns, the festival returned to Chicago from Jan. 20 to Jan. 30, highlighting artists and puppeteers through performances, hands-on workshops and round-table discussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cPuppetry is such a vast art form, so showing kids and people all over the city the diversity of the form itself is really important,\u201d said Taylor Bibat, a puppeteer and festival and education coordinator.<\/p>\n

The performances included the Free Neighborhood Tour<\/a>, designed to bring three family-friendly shows to audiences around the city \u201cwhere people may not have the chance to see puppetry very often,\u201d according to the festival website.<\/p>\n

Chicago-based puppeteer and theater director Jerrell L. Henderson performed \u201cI Am the Bear\u201d as part of the tour. The performance is based on Henderson\u2019s experience of being racially profiled by police while walking to work roughly six years ago in Wilmette on Chicago\u2019s North Shore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know why my subconscious compelled me to go in that direction,\u201d Henderson said about his inspiration to use a bear to tell his story. \u201cI just followed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""I
Chicago-based puppeteer and theater director Jerrell L. Henderson performed his piece entitled \u201cI Am the Bear\u201d as part of the tour. (Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tour, which Henderson called \u201ca testament to the city of Chicago,\u201d was designed to highlight the wide range of emotion and storytelling puppetry has to offer.<\/p>\n

The tour also featured Ojibwe and Oneida Nations performance artist Ty Defoe\u2019s<\/a> \u201cEagle Dance.\u201d Defoe\u2019s dance is \u201cinspired by the wisdom gained from eagles,\u201d according to an event preview.<\/p>\n

In addition, \u201cThe Joshua Show<\/a>\u201d stars New York based puppeteers Joshua Holden and Jeb Cowell who spread messages of joy and positivity through puppeteering, the lively mood commanded in their performance on the Neighborhood Tour.<\/p>\n

\""The
\u201cThe Joshua Show\u201d featuring Joshua Holden (right) and Jeb Cowell (left) is a traveling show that uses music, audience participation and puppeteering to promote joy. (Richard Termine, with permission from Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Henderson said he began experimenting with puppetry when the pandemic first shut theaters down, and that \u201cI Am the Bear\u201d has been developing over the course of the past five years in various forms and exists as it does now after the bear hand puppet was designed and created by a local puppeteer.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery one of us as human beings who know how to use a language, knows what it feels like to run up against a wall with language,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cPuppetry allows another way in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conviction and passion with which both Henderson and Bibat talk about puppeteering and art as a whole are telling of the impact it has on those it reaches. Both said its ability to communicate feelings and emotions is a large part of what makes puppetry so compelling.<\/p>\n

The festival, founded in 2015 by award-winning puppeteer Blair Thomas<\/a>, has plans to keep growing and expand as it becomes an annual event in the coming years, with hopes of continuing to \u201ccreate puppet lovers\u201d across the city, according to Bibat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how the festival has created a puppet-going community in Chicago,\u201d Bibat said. \u201cA lot of people here hadn\u2019t seen puppetry, and now it\u2019s a regular thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Henderson\u2019s future, he said he hopes to continue working in both theater and puppetry separately while looking for opportunities to merge the two together.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the best of who we are as a country, especially in a time like this where we are (constantly) reminded of how different we are,\u201d Henderson said. \u201cWe all have to work twice as hard to remind ourselves of how much we have in common.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sean Rhomberg is a sports media graduate student at Medill. You can follow him on Twitter at <\/i>@seanrhomberg.<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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After a year off due to pandemic-related challenges and shutdowns, the festival returned to Chicago from Jan. 20 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":816,"featured_media":98256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194,5155],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-winter-2022"],"yoast_head":"\nChicago puppet festival brings unique voices, experiences to venues across city - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/chicago-puppet-festival-brings-unique-voices-experiences-to-venues-across-city\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chicago puppet festival brings unique voices, experiences to venues across city - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Sean Rhomberg Medill Reports Showcasing a wide range of intricate storytelling and complex puppetry, the fourth Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival featured more than 100 unique performances at dozens of venues throughout the city this winter. 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