CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL PUPPET THEATER FESTIVAL Returns In January
Global puppetry artists will present new works across Chicago January 21–February 1, 2026.
By: A.A. Cristi Nov. 12, 2025
Tickets are now on sale for the 8th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, running January 21–February 1, 2026 and presenting 12 days of contemporary puppetry from around the world.
Produced at venues across the city, the festival will feature more than 100 events, including large-scale productions, smaller experimental works, late-night cabarets, and free neighborhood programming.
Artists and companies will represent England, France, Norway, Denmark, India, Scotland, South Korea, Spain, the U.S., and Chicago, offering a broad spectrum of traditional and contemporary forms, including bunraku-style puppets, shadow work, object-based theater, marionettes, and hybrid performance.
Highlights of the 2026 edition include Wakka Wakka’s Dead as a Dodo, commissioned by the festival; Plexus Polaire’s retelling of A Doll’s House and its companion work Trust for me a while; Blind Summit’s new production The Sex Lives of Puppets; and Manual Cinema’s The 4th Witch, created through shadow puppetry, silhouette acting, and live music. Additional works include KT Shivak’s Rhynoceron; Ézéquiel Garcia-Romeu’s The Little Theater at the End of the World, Opus II and La Méridienne; Alva Puppet Theatre’s The Harlem Doll Palace; and multiple family productions, including The Enormous Crocodile from the Roald Dahl Story Company.
The festival will also present The House from Sofie Krog Theatre; About Ram by India’s Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust; Laura Heit’s miniature The Matchbox Shows; Oil Pressure Vibrator by Seoul-based artist Geumhyung Jeong; and the world-premiere adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, produced by Untitled Theater Co. No. 61 and Yara Arts Group with puppetry direction by Tom Lee.
Alongside ticketed performances, the festival will revive its late-night cabarets Nasty, Brutish & Short and offer a free Neighborhood Tour featuring accessible events throughout the city. The Puppet Hub at the Fine Arts Building will again serve as a gathering space with exhibitions, workshops, and a pop-up café.
The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, now presented annually, is the largest event of its kind in North America. Last year’s festival drew more than 22,000 attendees from Chicago and abroad.
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