About Oregon Shadow Theatre

The Oregon Shadow Theatre is a Portland Oregon based company specializing in the art of shadow puppetry. Their award-winning shadow plays have toured across the United States and in Canada, including performances at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., the Detroit Institute of Arts, Festival Place in Alberta, the Chilliwack Cultural Centre in British Columbia, the Puppeteers of America National Puppet Festivals, the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts and The Northwest Puppet Center in Seattle, Washington. OST productions are noted for exquisite, colorful puppets, live music and sound effects, and lively good humor. Among other honors, OST has twice received the UNIMA Citation for Excellence in the Art of Puppetry.

Oregon Shadow Theatre is a collaboration of shadow puppeteer Deb Chase and musician and actor Mick Doherty.

Deb Chase has been specializing in the magic of shadow puppetry since 1980. She has created numerous shadow plays for the Oregon Shadow Theatre, and has designed shadow puppets for other puppet companies, including Carter Family Marionettes, Oregon Puppet Theatre, Puppet Soup--A Theatre of Objects, Seattle Puppetry Theatre, and Tears Of Joy Theatre. Deb has taught students, teachers, and puppeteers the art of shadow puppetry through workshops and residencies. She worked in Germany with shadow puppeteer Margrit Fuglsang, and has toured Japan as a performer. Deb holds a fine arts degree from the University of Oregon. Her theatrical experience includes street theatre, including a portable shadow stage for the sidewalk, on both coasts of the U.S. Deb served for several years as Shadow Puppetry Consultant for the Puppeteers of America.

Mick Doherty has worked as Actor/Musician with the Oregon Shadow Theatre for twenty years. Mick has worked as a professional performing and studio musician since 1979, and has composed music for film, theatre and television. He is featured on a number of recordings by the trail band and the Cascadia Folk Quartet (aka The Whammadiddidle Dingbats!). Mick has pursued studies in voice, classical guitar, string bass, Persian santoor and African percussion. He is known in the U.S. as a hammered dulcimer specialist, an instrument for which he teaches private lessons and festival workshops.

"She Thinks She’s Queen Elizabeth But She’s Dirty Gerts To Me" - Puppetkabob

She Thinks She’s Queen Elizabeth But She’s Dirty Gerts To Me, is a paper doll & pop-up extravaganza! A groovy blend of historical fiction, 60s pop culture, and colorful confetti at this one-of-a-kind show for families. Come on get happy with middle schooler Carol Lee Bell as she finds the fold to fitting in and discovers the best way is to not actually fit at all!

Performance type: Table Top Puppetry

About Puppetkabob

Sarah Frechette of PuppetKabob splits her time between Vermont, Europe, and Portland, Oregon as a touring puppeteer, arts educator, and stop-motion animation costumer. She trained with master puppeteer Albrecht Roser; graduated from UConn’s Puppet Arts Program; and fabricated giant puppets for Netflix’s Wendell & Wild. Sarah’s show The Snowflake Man was awarded an UNIMA-USA citation of excellence.

Photo credit: Tim Neighbors / Invisible Harness

"Jawbone Puppet Theater’s Sad, Funny, Beautiful Wondershow!" - Jawbone Puppet Theatre

Our janitor wants to keep it light in these trying times! For you! But his puppets keep ending up naked, dead, in despair, or all three! What gives?

Performance type: Mixed Puppetry

About Jawbone Puppet Theatre

Hi! I’m Adam Ende, founder and janitor of Jawbone Puppet Theater. I make iconoclastic puppet shows out of my puppet studio in Dockton, WA, and perform them around the world. I love to make things happen that create more unexpected magic and wonder in people’s lives. I also like to make big installations and puppet theaters mostly out of garbage, creepy dolls, rusty saws and goat bones.

The PDX Puppet Collective and The Puppetry Guild of Portland Present "The World’s Greatest Table Top Puppet-Athlon"

Join us for an exciting evening of fun, adventure and for the ultimate
athletic challenge for table top puppets! Willing audience members have the option of entering their names in a lottery upon arrival at the performance. Participants who took Table Top Puppetry Boot Camp will be
permitted 3 entries as a reward for their hard-earned training for the Puppet-Athlon. The lottery will determine the 15 participants who will take up the World’s Greatest Table Top Challenge!
 
Participants will be broken into 5 teams of 3. Each team will have a puppet provided for the Puppet-Athlon Obstacle Challenge course.  The course will be a series of extreme obstacles and tasks that the Puppeteers must guide their puppet through. Each team will be provided a coach to support and  encourage them throughout the event, and the audience will cheer them on! Judges will score the participants on their performance and completion of the course, their consistency of character, teamwork, and the team’s ability to incorporate all the
“surprise challenge prompts” that are provided prior to the start of the event. 

Performance type: Table Top Puppetry

About PDX Puppet Collective

Cherie Panek has worked for over twenty years as a freelance puppeteer, actor and director.  She is inspired by the nuanced movement and emotional intricacy of table top puppetry. In 2016, Cherie co-founded the PDX Puppetry Collective which holds bi-weekly Puppet Labs and builds a network of practitioners to develop their craft collaboratively. Cherie is inspired by art that is socially conscious. She hopes to create an artistic community that urges people toward new depths of knowledge where artists can embrace the change and challenges emergent from more intentional connection with the world and the stories lived within it. She is forever grateful to her theatre mentor Lenny Pinna.

"The Great Northwest Puppet Slam" - Puppeteers of America Regional Series

Join us for a evening of short form experimental puppetry showcased in the beautiful Broadway Performance Hall. Lots of fun and too short to suck! Applications will open on July 1 2022. This puppet slam is produced by the Puppeteers of  America PNW Region and is made possible with the generosity of The Puppet Slam Network.

Performance type: Variety of Puppet Styles

"Pegasus and the Stories of the Star" - Pegasus Puppet Theatre

Space is full of Stars. But how did those stars get their names? Watch Roman and Greek myths come to life and illuminate the stories behind the constellations, such as Hercules, Andromeda and Perseus, Artemis and Orion, Bellerophon and the Chimera, and many others.This production is a non-stop romp of mythic proportion and is perfect for k-5 audiences. Cheer for hero and titan alike!

Performance type: Mixed Styles

About Pegasus Puppet Theatre

Wolf and Zuzu Alexander are a brother and sister duo and third generation puppeteers. They are the grandchildren of the founders of the internationally renowned Tears of Joy Theatre (1971-2019). Wolf and Zuzu are continuing the legacy of bringing the magic of storytelling through puppetry to children across the Pacific Northwest.

The Left Coast Puppet Love Fest is partnering with residents, local puppet artists, and community organizations to support SEATTLE PUPPET DAY, a public event celebrating the puppet arts, encouraging youth participation and development in arts and culture, and a volunteer clean up effort in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Festival attendees will be able to attend an afternoon of free performances and workshops. Don''t forget the Puppet Parade!

"Canterbury Tales: A Miller's Tale" - Magical Moonshine Theatre

In The Miller's Tale, the Reeve insists the Miller is too drunk to recount any tale but the Miller goes ahead, spinning a bawdy yarn about sex, love, infidelity, trickery and midnight shenanigans. Our play proceeds on several levels, with the actors/musicians taking the roles played by both Chaucer and the Innkeeper who encourage the tales, the hand puppets playing the roles of the story tellers, and the beautiful paper scenes and figures telling the tales themselves (when the hand puppets or actors let them!) The Miller's Tale opens our journey at about 50 minutes long (with an option for some musical fun) and is small enough to fit in a house concert setting, or large enough for a 100 seat theater. This is funny, naughty theatre for mature audiences.

Performance type: Mixed Styles

About Magical MoonshineTheatre

Founded in 1979 by Michael and Valerie Nelson, Magical Moonshine Theatre (MMT) performances have been seen coast to coast in the U.S., as well as internationally with performances in 15 countries in 8 different languages.

Michael Nelson, Director and Co-Founder

Michael Nelson studied puppetry at the International Puppetry Institute with the late Jim Henson of the Muppets.  Addionally, Nelson has taught puppet theatre arts at the Napa Valley College; was a California Arts Council Artist in Residency; has been a regular writer for the national journal of puppetry; is a past president of the San Francisco Bay Area Puppetry Guild; and is a past-President of UNIMA-USA.

Valerie Nelson, Musical Director and Co-Founder
Valerie Nelson is trained in Montessori method, majored in vocal music, has been and is a member of numerous choirs, and has been featured on a number of recording projects. She co-founded Magical Moonshine Theatre with husband Michael in 1979. She is past faculty member of Tennessee Arts Academy, past workshop director of the National Puppetry Festival, and currently, along with Michael, is a California Arts Council Artist in the Schools.

Carole D’Agostino
MEET THE ARTIST

Honoring the legendary Allelu Kurten, Carole D’Agostino presents Meet The Artist.
An intimate interview with specially selected artists before a live audience, Carole asks
insightful questions that always receive the most fascinating responses! Learn how your
favorite puppet artists got started, how they like to work, what keeps them motivated,
and where they see the future of puppetry. Q and A to follow.

Thursday, August 4^th 2022, 4:30pm

                                                   Open to Registered Attendees Only