PUPPETQUEERS

**SOLD OUT. Show up anyway & we’ll do our best to get you in**

PUPPETQUEERS is an evening of short form adult puppet theater made for the queers (and their allies), by the queers, exploring beyond the binaries of puppetry.

PUPPETQUEERS is a PWYC (pay what you can) and DIY puppet slam event dedicated to uplifting and celebrating queer artists working within puppetry. From long-standing puppeteers to those new in the scene to those who may be experimenting with puppetry as a form for their art for the very first time, PUPPETQUEERS offers a home and a stage for all of them. PUPPETQUEERS also often features an element where the audience can contribute meaningfully to the work.

Poster design by the brilliant Tichike @tichiketumalan @transchicago

This volume features the talents of:

  • Anthony Michael Stokes (he/they) @kesstokreatures

  • Danica Sapit (they/them) @sinasapit

  • Eli (feat. Elm and Vine - and friends!) (they/them) @elmandvine

  • Jackie Berland (they/them) @jackie_blnd & Beckett Fowler (he/they) @androgynology

  • Molly Sharfstein (any/all) @omollyberry

  • Robbie Lynn Hunsinger (she/her) @robbiehunsinger

  • Ruby Que (they/them) @rubyq.ue

  • Saskia Bakker (she/her) @sjbakker.designs

Doors at 6:00pm / Show at 7:00pm! Arrive early for a bonus activity! Please note that MASKS ARE REQUIRED. Thank you for helping us keep each other safe.

April’s show is a partnership with Center on Halsted, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community center, located at 3656 N Halsted St. PUPPETQUEERS is partially supported by The Puppet Slam Network & Gender Fucked Productions.

The Hoover-Leppen Theatre is located inside the CoH on the 3rd floor, accessible via elevator.

Please email thepuppetqueers@gmail.com in advance for further accessibility information, questions, concerns, and/or volunteer opportunities on the day of show!

Note that any accessibility requests must be emailed at least two weeks prior to the show to ensure we can honor the request fully.

LINDSEY BALL

Creator & Co-Curator

(they, them)

Lindsey Ball (they/them) is an artist, maker, puppeteer, clown, and crybaby. 

Ball is the creator and curator of PUPPETQUEERS (@puppetqueers), an all queer puppet slam in Chicago, as well as an ensemble member of the DIY, experimental, performance art collective Stop Motion Plant (@stopmotionplant).

Recent projects include original work-in-progress New But Familiar featured in the Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam Vol. 25: Queer Edition in Seattle, original work-in-progress Green, which was featured in both the PUPPETQUEERS and Rough House’s Nasty, Brutish, and Short puppet slams, pieces featured in the haunted puppet peep show Rough House’s House of the Exquisite Corpse, Collective Summ’s All is Blue & Yellow, an original puppet & clown show for dogs, & Juana and the Missing Mayan Book by Rocio “Chio” Cabrera. Ball’s original work-in-progress Kopfkino debuted in Berlin, Germany and was additionally presented at the Malta Festival in Poznań, Poland, as well as several locations across Chicago. Ball has also presented work at the Letni Letna New Circus and Theatre Festival in Prague and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Ball yearns to make work that encourages intimacy and explores where fantasy and reality intersect, but also just kind of wants to disappear into a really good book. Free Palestine. Fuck the cops. Long live the queers. 

KEVIN MICHAEL WESSON

Co-Organizer & Co-Curator

(he, they)

Kevin Michael Wesson (he/they) is a proudly unrepresented puppeteer/deviser based in Chicago, originally from Tampa, FL (B.A. theatre arts, University of South Florida). Recent credits include: Leonardo! & Christmas Carol (Manual Cinema), “Where we go together” or The Flashlight Play (Theatre Nobody), Dog or Cats; Augmented Body (Steppenwolf LOOKOUT), House of the Exquisite Corpse I-IV (Rough House Theater), All is Blue & Yellow (Collective Summ), Deepen the Heart (Stop Motion plant), Elements of Style (The Neo-Futurists),The Dr. Seuss Experience (Kilburn Live). His works have been mentioned in American Theatre Magazine, No Proscenium, The Puppetry Journal, NPR, nomination for the National Puppet Slam, and various curation for/residencies with Links Hall, Chicago Puppet Lab, The National Puppetry Conference, The Valdez Theater Conference, & The Intuit: Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art. A firm believer in DIY ethos, they currently organize works-in-progress & community programming for the Chicago-based puppet theatre company, Rough House Theater, the performance art company, Stop Motion Plant, Physical Theater Festival Chicago, and the experimental free theatre outfit, Theatre Nobody.

LEAH LARA

Associate Producer & Co-Curator

(they, them)

Leah Lara (they, them) is a black nonbinary puppeteer and 3-D illustrator originally Dallas Tx.  A proud Puppet Council member, they received their BFA from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where they majored in Illustration. Their work often investigates the black femme experience while drawing on dark and whimsical fairy tale archetypes and themes. Utilizing fairytales as a way to reexamine social structures, behaviors, social hierarchies, and biases.  Most importantly they strive for their work to be a catalyst for community, and connection.They love working with their hands, and stick to the commitment of writing, designing, and performing one original puppet show a year. Since relocating to and returning to their childhood home Chicago; they have participated in The Samon Sister Show at Color Club, WonderWagon, and of course, PUPPETQUEERS. They also recently presented development of their newest show, Fish Sermon under The Chicago Puppet Lab. They are currently continuing that show’s development as  a Dark Matter Resident at Elastic Arts.