This section is full of content about the art and craft of puppetry and object theatre—performances created primarily using puppets and objects, rather than the full bodies of actors. A great introduction to the topic is our 2015 Puppetry series curated by Jean Marie Keevins.
The Latest
Video
A Conversation with Hanne Tierney
TORCHES: 30+ Years of Downtown Performance
Monday 3 August 2026
New York City
Video
A Conversation with Basil Twist
TORCHES: 30+ Years of Downtown Performance
Monday 12 January 2026
New York City
Podcast
Autobiographical Performance for Teaching English as a Second Language
by Ash Marinaccio, Baha Sadr, Chris Ackley, Ana Bess Moyer Bell, Eve Kerrigan, Noga Paulino
CultureHub SeoulArts/La MaMa presented a special work in progress showing of The Return by puppeteer Tom Lee in collaboration with the Seoul Institute of the Arts and Sarah Lawrence College livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Tuesday 9 December at 5:30 p.m. PST (Los Angeles) / 7:30 p.m. CST (Chicago) / 8:30 p.m. EST (New York) / Wednesday, December 10 at 1:30am GMT (London) / Wednesday, December at 10:30 a.m KST (Seoul). In Twitter, use #howlround to share this event.
The O’Neill’s motto is “Risk, Fail, Risk Again” for goodness sake. Puppeteers at all levels, novice to advanced, are able to grow within themselves while focusing on strengthening their work. And, as word has spread about the magic of the O’Neill, the mystique of the O’Neill in puppetry circles has died down, and our family has grown. To this I say, "hell yeah".
Dani Snyder-Young writes about the Chicago-based Albany Park Theatre Project, a youth theatre ensemble. She reviews APTP's 2014 remounted production of God's Work, at the Goodman Theatre.
Caroline Reck reminds us that puppetry is originally for adults through her company’s commitment to it. With that, it has caused a renewal of theatrics tools in Austin, TX.
Meiyin Wang contrasts Electricity, Originality, and Authenticity in the context of the 2012 Under the Radar Festival, and how selected productions challenge these concepts.
Puppetry is the bastard nephew of so-called legitimate theater. Yet puppetry stubbornly persists, even flourishes, in our digital age as an intentionally Luddite approach to an emphatically live art.
On 3 August 2026, TORCHES continues with a conversation with the award winning and internationally acclaimed puppet artist and curator Hanne Tierney. She is also founder/director of Five Myles.
Puppetry is an ongoing negotiation between human and nonhuman. Puppets play out the way things are, but also the way things can be; and in that regard, they allow us to see our positionality and imagine worlds beyond ourselves. This series showcases myriad shapes and styles and the ways in which these puppets, whether representational or abstract, can form solidarities among humans.
