Create your very own mouth-plate puppet in this hands-on workshop brought to you by the People's Puppet Festival!

You will have access to wondrous reclaimed materials at the CCRX warehouse and to puppetry teaching artists Chio Cabrera-Coz. 

Participants will design and build unique puppets that can dance, sing, fly upside down, and change the world - it's up to you! Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned crafter, you'll enjoy the fun process of transforming everyday objects into expressive, one-of-a-kind characters.

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"Mama Africa”

Written and directed by Jacqueline Wade is a moving puppet performance piece about genocide. 

Puppeteers: Jacqueline Wade, Saunjae Taylor and Violet 

“Crankie” by Honglan Huang

“Crankie” is a piece (deaf friendly!) about things happening inside a crankie and someone's mind.

“The Unicorn Joanne and the Darkness”

The unicorn Joanne finds himself in a place with no address—only echo. There, he encounters a shadow-faced woman who offers to guide him through the unknown. In their meeting, a surprising and beautiful friendship begins, revealing that fear and darkness lose their power when met with love, compassion, and a touch of humor.

Puppeteers: Candice, Jessica Prioste, and Twan

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Reverend Punchfizz and The Congregation

The BIGGEST rock band on the planet. Fresh off their intergalactic tour, Punchfizz has taken a liking to The Windy City and is regular spotted at gigs all over town. Every time this group performs, they bring it BIGGER, and BETTER. Come check out all that their latest performance has to offer!

Red Line Service is led by people with a lived experience of homelessness, Red Line Service wields art world resources to build community, generating the sense of belonging and mutual care essential to securing and retaining housing. We collaborate with artists and cultural institutions to expand access to the art world, avowing that art can break the bonds of ingrained social roles and structures and forge new realities in which all can flourish.

Red Line Service is the only art organization in Chicago—and one of the only art organizations world-wide—led by people experiencing homelessness.

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This workshop, facilitated by Chih-Jou Cheng, is designed to blend physical training with creative movement exploration, preparing your body to connect more deeply with the art of puppetry. We will focus on breath, body awareness, and grounded movement to help puppeteers become more expressive, present, and connected in performance. Through guided exercises, participants will condition their bodies and explore how breath and intention inform movement, making the body a more sensitive and responsive tool for manipulation and storytelling.

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FLEECED is an improvised comedy puppet show that uses the basic tenets of children’s puppet TV and adds a hilarious adults only twist. Each performance our ridiculous cast of puppets will chat with the audience to find a letter and word of the day, and then go into a fully improvised piece based on the suggestion. Every show is a completely different experience that will leave the audience asking themselves, “Why didn’t the puppets of my childhood teach me this?”

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