IPFFNYC 2023 PERFORMING GROUPS
The International Puppet Fringe festival proudly announces the following groups as participating performers in the 2026 festival
SHOWS FOR ADULTS
Empusa Abelha
Rosalie Neal | Belgium
A creature awakens, only to realize its time is already up. In Empusa Abelha, an enigmatic fusion of puppetry, movement, and sound, the cycle of creation, destruction, and transformation unfolds before your eyes. Inspired by the mesmerizing world of insects — especially the praying mantis and the queen bee — this hypnotic performance invites us to question what we leave behind and what we become. A unique puppet worn on the head of the performer breathes life into an ancestral being that lingers between human and insect, guiding us through an eerie, poetic, and clownish metamorphosis.
Mujeres a cuatro manos
Teatro Naku Mx | México
Through a series of brief stories, this play reflects various aspects of the feminine universe. Two women skillfully operate — four hands in motion — a group of puppets, showcasing a refined knowledge of puppet theatre. With a blend of irony and humor, each vignette offers an inward look into the feminine soul, addressing themes such as spite, childhood, old age, and solitude. Delirious characters who laugh at their own nature provoke both laughter and pity in the audience.
One For Sorrow, Two For Joy
Juanita Dawn – Long Grass Studio | Canada
Created by an all-female team, this show unfolds through beautifully handcrafted puppets and captivating original music. Like a whimsical carnival ride wound up and released, it tells the bittersweet story of Willow Mae O’Reily — a woman alone on the prairies of western Canada who, born at the turn of the 20th century, tosses caution to the untamed prairie winds and embraces a life of her own, first as a nurse on the battlefields of WWI, then as a farmer in the foothills of Alberta.
La Naissance
The Flying Group Theater | Taiwan
A little girl found an egg in a whale’s belly. Curious, they set off in search of the egg’s mother. Along the way, they met seagulls that loved singing, a clownfish that enjoyed playing hide-and-seek, a seahorse daddy that gave birth to its young, and a giant that could transform itself into the world. Finally, the whale spoke to the little girl: “Count to seven, and you will step into a magic world…” An enchanting story about the journey of birth and the beginning of life.
Puppet Crimes
Jana Zeller of Sandglass Theater | USA
This dark comedy highlights all the glory of traditional, antiauthoritarian, counter-cultural puppet theater. Puppet Crimes is a raucously hilarious satire about what it takes for a common puppet to survive for 400 years in the face of war, tyranny and economic oppression. Traditional German hand puppet heroes Kasper and Gretel struggle to survive on the margins of society. As the centuries pass through their little puppet booth, Kasper tries to avoid getting blamed, arrested and drafted — yet at every turn this petty puppet is made the scapegoat for larger crimes. Each scene poses a grotesque circumstance with a comic twist that explores the tradition of Kasper’s character and its timeless relevance to today’s world.
Champagne Dreams
3 Sticks | USA
Incorporating extensive live video, green screen technology, original sound design and music, physical theatre, and numerous forms of puppetry and object theatre, Champagne Dreams explores the fantastical, ridiculous, and the over-the-top extravagance and endless consumption of the American Dream. The piece was initially developed for and presented at the 2025 XPT Festival at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta.
Shterna and the Lost Voice
Magid Ensemble | USA
A one-hour performance featuring a handmade papercut crankie with shadow puppets, accompanied by the telling of an original tale developed through years of research on Yiddish (Eastern-European diasporic Jewish) folklore, and an original live klezmer score. Well-received by an extremely broad range of audiences — from toddlers to elders — some with extensive knowledge of Yiddish culture, and some for whom this is their first exposure to it.
Judy Punches Back
Sarah Nolen, Puppet Motion | USA
After being pushed around for over 350 years, the famous hand puppet heroine Judy has had enough! Cheer her on as she goes on a quest for respect, justice, and a well-deserved nap. This modern interpretation of the traditional Punch and Judy show is a hilarious, timely, hand-crafted farce that the whole family will enjoy. Recommended for all ages 4 and up.
The Cardboard Pizza Puppet Circus
Boxcutter Collective | USA
Using humor, spectacle, live music, and characters and animals of all sizes, The Cardboard Pizza Puppet Circus celebrates the diversity and excitement of New York City while exploring the struggles we face and how we can collectively overcome them. Drawing from historical and contemporary movements for labor justice, climate action, abolition, and decolonization, the performance blends political imagination with joy, absurdity, and hope — inviting audiences to laugh, reflect, and envision new ways of living together.
SHOWS FOR FAMILY AND YOUNG AUDIENCES
Viva Pinocchio
Teatro SEA | USA
The heart-warming retelling of the classic folktale by a young Mexican immigrant (Pinocchio) on his journey to understanding himself, his heritage, and embracing a new country.
Historia de Burros
Teatro de las Estaciones | Cuba
Text by René Fernández, with poetic additions by Federico García Lorca, Juan Ramón Jiménez, Jean de La Fontaine, Félix María de Samaniego, and Rubén Darío Salazar. In 2006, the production received the Pelusín del Monte Award for Best Staging at the “26 de Julio” Puppet Fair, organized by the National Puppet Theater. In 2024, it won the Award for Best Theatrical Adaptation at the International Theater Festival for Children and Youth (FITIJ) in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Thumbelina
National Puppet Theatre of Armenia | Armenia
A shadow puppet performance with visual and sound effects inspired by Hans Christian Andersen’s beloved Thumbelina story.
Word Play
Goodhearted Entertainment | United States
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 CAT and DOG, and visit a whole zoo full of surprises — the perfect blend of education and entertainment. Recommended for ages 3 and up.
Selfish Giants
PinProductions | United States
The Selfish Giant is a classic tale about a giant who builds a wall around his garden to keep out the town’s children but in doing so plunges his garden into an endless winter. The show’s creators instill a sense of urgency in the story by placing the storytellers themselves at a border wall. Traveling, depression-era hucksters, transform their wares to tell a much-needed story to the audience they find waiting to cross.
MICROTHEATER
Archipiélago
Vueltabajo Teatro | Puerto Rico
We are and we exist. Based on this premise — and that no one person is illegal — Vueltabajo Teatro presents a devised work about the story of an archipelago and its people. Archipiélago deals with themes of migration, family, and love for the island and its resources, using physical theatre and movement to appeal to a wider audience. Words sometimes get in the way, so the piece explores the poetry of silent characters and their actions — both an act of love and a form of resistance using a language of poetry and imagination.
Kumku Yamki
KANΩ | Greece
A physical puppet theatre performance that tells the life story of a puppet from birth to self-awareness. Kumku is born, discovers her limbs, gradually enters civilization, and learns how to pose and be seen — until a chair appears and the screen absorbs her. Through fragmentation, play, and reconstruction, Kumku regains her body — not as it was before, but wiser, lighter, and fully present. Animated by two performers who constantly exchange control, Kumku exists between puppet and human, object and living being. A reflection on how contemporary life restricts the body, and a reminder of the freedom that can be reclaimed through movement and play.
The Falcon King / Water
Drama of Works | USA
A tale of Ethiopia written by playwright Amina Henry. Sela lives in a small village where it is her job to get the water — a journey of three and a half hours each way to the clean water well. Because the majority of the play features the main characters walking, the production creates a giant crankie with magnetic puppets to showcase the beautiful landscape of Ethiopia. As Sela and Bo walk to the well and back, audiences experience it all with them: the heat, the weight of the full water jug, run-ins with wild animals, and a few angry Gods.
Trenzas, Sapos y Mariposas
Nazareno Ciminari & Pablo Jesus Gato | Argentina – Spain
A microtheater work by Nazareno Ciminari and Pablo Jesus Gato, presented at the International Puppet Fringe Festival 2026.
Elon Musk is Cool AF
Timothy and Aaron Haskell | USA
In the style of Mr. Rogers, this new comedy chronicles a day in the life of Elon Musk — obviously the slickest, coolest, most chill dude on earth — as he talks to his neighborhood friends (all puppets) about what it means to be cool AF while sharing stories of heroism. The script was written by speaking into a phone’s audio dictation function while driving, catching only a third of what was said, picking up other sounds, and misconstruing the rest.
SPECIAL EVENTS
Pinocchio and Gepetto’s Big Apple Adventure
Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre | USA
For decades, the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre has been bringing enjoyment to legions of people through its contemporary and innovative marionette productions based on children’s classics.
Puppet Slam
Puppets Come Home | USA
Puppets Come Home! is a series designed to celebrate Coney Island’s 150-year legacy of puppetry & provide a platform for contemporary cutting-edge puppeteers! Produced & hosted by Brendan Schweda.
Spaghetti Dinner
Great Small Works | USA
For the past quarter century, Great Small Works has been the proud host of these regular cabaret events featuring vegetarian spaghetti, an eclectic mixture of cutting edge performance, music, dance and an affordable cash donation bar. Not to mention delicious pugliese bread, donated by the Grandaisy Bakery. These one-time-only evenings are curated around a theme, and feature new material presented by guest artists as well as Great Small Works’ own developing work.
