Puppet Homecoming 2024: Puppets Are Gorges!

Puppet Homecoming - A festival of puppet arts on Nov 1-3 is in Ithaca this year! A weekend full of live shows, puppet workshops, a puppet market, busking and parading is coming. Here is a glimpse into the shows and hijinks that we have planned for you.
See more info and get your ticket here: www.Puppeteers.org/puppet-homecoming
Performances include:
Still Life by Matt Sandbank
Funded in part by the Puppeteers of America Rose Endowment and featured at the National Puppetry Festival, Still Life is a collection of wordless shadow shorts that surprises and delights audiences with visual storytelling! Ages 10 and up.
Creatures of Yes- Come On Back! The Movie film premiere and Q&A.
Come On Back! The Movie is The Creatures of Yes’ first feature length film and is the culmination of a storyline that has been years in the making; a beloved character was put to death by the censors of film and television for living openly as a homosexual in 1975, and now the inhabitants of The Village of Yesterday’s Promise are attempting to bring him back with science, sorcery, or by any means necessary. This event will be the premiere screening of Come On Back! The Movie, and then feature a short performance and Q&A session with Jacob & Stoph.
Puppet Runway by Lilypad Puppet Theatre and Friends
Puppet Runway is a fashion show inspired by the art of puppetry and a puppet show inspired by fashion! We collaborate with puppeteers, puppet builders, fashion artists, actors and musicians to create this unique variety show! In this show, human models will wear clothing that will come alive. Puppets and humans will come together to create something that has never been done before. Surprising birds, dancing cats, talking boots…lots of surprises!
Wordplay by Goodhearted Entertainment
"Word Play" uses clowning and puppetry to take audiences on an adventure through the alphabet. Words come to life in the hands of two skilled performers, who clown around with sounds and letters to create dozens of interactive characters and imaginative scenes. Audiences can make friends with vowels, teach tricks to a “C-A-T” and “D-O-G,” and visit a whole ZOO full of surprises. It’s the perfect blend of education and entertainment-a play on words, literally!
MAKEorBREAK by Laurencio Carlos Ruiz
MAKEorBREAK is the story of a Wailing Mother who oversees the madness and horrors of war and gun culture. She is fed up with losing her children to gun violence inflicted by the everlasting Boneheaded Beast. Determined to stop him, she devises an unexpected strategy in pursuit of peace for one and all. Without spoken words, MakeorBreak’s lyricism is created by the combination of visual language, physical movement, body language, ephemeral puppetry, sound, song and music. All characters are inspired by Picasso's Gernica to express the outrage over our current history of ‘war’ at home and abroad, and the culture of guns and mass killings.
Colab Story and Kitty's Corner by String Theory Theater
A double feature from String Theory Theater! In Kitty's Corner kitty and puppy put on a talk show with a line up of special guests, including The Moon, a toothbrush, and a roll of toilet paper! In Colab story, two bored kids take a trip into their imagination. Both shows are for all ages.
Epidermis Circus by snafu
A spicy puppet cabaret, hosted by a sassy grandma who keeps trying to steal the show. This beautifully twisted variety show is performed by Ingrid Hansen, who also puppeteers for Jim Henson Company’s Fraggle Rock. Watch behind-the-scenes as Hansen performs a live puppet film, animating cheeky vignettes in the palm of her hand and projecting them onto a huge screen. An “enormously entertaining, one-hour madcap vaudeville show. It is chock full of riotous, naughty, and mystifying vignettes using her bare hands, her face, her mouth, tiny toys, and a doll’s head. Hansen's hands-in-motion have the kind of presence that is often attributed to the greatest stage performers -- transfixing the audience, and creating pin-drop silence interspersed with spontaneous bursts of laughter.” - Culture Catch NYC
Puppet Slam!
See the best in short form puppetry. Hosted by Toybox America's Favorite Cartoon Witch. Intended for adults. See what goes on at the Galaxy Laundromat, meet the Grim Weeper, experience the perils of online dating and so much more!
Puppet Parade!
Join us for a parade and dance party through the Ithaca commons, a pedestrian street in downtown Ithaca. Bring your puppet, or make a parade puppet in the "Parade Puppets for Your Community" workshop, and then join the fun!
FREE Outdoor Busking Performances!
Puppeteers will take over downtown Ithaca to perform free public shows in various locations. See the Marionettes of Madison Cripps, The Yeti Village of Paperheart Puppets, puppeteers and clowns Keith Shubert, Honey Goodenough, Harry LaCoste as well as a puppet tea party with Robin Polfuss.