Artists and Scholars Consider the Intersection of Puppetry with Other Disciplines and Ideas
The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival presents the The Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppet Symposium livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network on Saturday 21 January and Saturday 28 January 2023.
The Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium brings together practicing Festival artists with scholars to consider the intersection of puppetry with other disciplines and ideas. Before 1912, the year the Little Theater of Chicago was founded in the historic Fine Arts Building, the term “puppeteer” did not even exist. Little Theater director Ellen Van Volkenburg needed a program credit for the actors she had trained to manipulate marionettes while speaking the text of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and she coined the word “puppeteer.” That marked the dawn of the movement that has brought us to the rich art form now practiced around the world. In Van Volkenburg’s honor, the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival presents four discussions featuring festival artists and key topics from the works presented in the Festival.
Saturday 21 January
Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Boundless Bodies
10 a.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6)
The School of the Art Institute Performance Dept. and Chicago Puppet Fest present: Boundless Bodies. Moderated by Dr. Paulette Richards with panelists Ishmael Falke (Invisible Lands), Elise Vigneron (Anywhere), and Camille Trouvé (R.A.G.E.).
Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Grand Narratives and Petits Récits
1 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6)
The School of the Art Institute Performance Dept. and Chicago Puppet Fest present: Grand Narratives and Petits Récits. Moderated by Dr. Paulette Richards with panelists Yngvild Aspeli (Moby Dick), Sarah Fornace (Frankenstein), Michael Brown (Invitation to a Beheading) and Theodora Skipitares (Grand Panorama).
Sunday 28 January
Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Maya: the Uses of Illusion
10 a.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6)
The School of the Art Institute Performance Dept. and Chicago Puppet Fest present: Maya: The Uses of Illusion. Moderated by Dr. Paulette Richards with panelists Eduardo Felix (Macunaima Gourmet), Janni Younge (Hamlet), Jonathan Meyer (as though your body were right) and Michaela Homolová (Choo. Choo. Whistle. Woof!).
Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium: Building New Worlds: Emerging Voices
1 p.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6)
The School of the Art Institute Performance Dept. and Chicago Puppet Fest present: Emerging Voices. Moderated by Dr. Dassia N. Posner with panelists: Graduate students from University of Chicago, University of Connecticut, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and Northwestern University.
