News

Recently we had the pleasure of building puppets for a music video by Listen Up!, an all-jewish a cappella group hailing from the north side of Chicago. These guys are some great musicians and we helped them put together a really fun video. Check it out:

Check out more about Listen Up! on their website: http://www.jewishsong.com

Get your own custom look-a-like puppet: https://puppetmechanics.com/products/look-a-like-puppets

We are pleased to finally be able to announce that we will be puppet directing and designing Hand to God at Victory Gardens here in Chicago, IL. It's a privilege and a pleasure to join an outstanding production crew in bringing this Tony Nominated dark comedy to life in a regional debut.

For those of you who haven't heard about this show before, he's the recap from the VG website: 

"The God-fearing children of Cypress, Texas spend their after-school hours practicing Christian Puppet Ministry at the local church. When one devout young boy discovers that his hand puppet has a life of its own, all hell breaks loose. Literally. In this sidesplitting and lightning-paced comedy, a satanic sock puppet named Tyrone shows the children, minister, and school bully who’s really in charge."

Check out more information and get tickets here: http://victorygardens.org/our-season/hand-to-god/

We've been busy working on a production of Avenue Q with the Highland Park Players of Highland Park, IL. The show opened last night and we could not be more proud of the whole cast and crew. We were asked to Puppet Direct earlier in the year and it's so great to see all of the hard work these new puppeteers have put in. Here's a couple of photos from the show:

Princeton and Kate Monster Duet

Trekkie Monster singing about the internet

Christmas Eve kicks Nicky out of the house.

Full cast of the show! (And us, we snuck in down front with some box puppets.)

Also, check out this review we got:

"Hats off to the puppet directors, Daniel Dempsey and Rachel Christianson. They taught the actors who had puppet personas how to bring the puppet to the character in a manner that drew the viewer’s eye to the action of the puppet rather than the actor who held and controlled the puppet. This is not an easy task as they each became one with the character and minutes into the play, we no longer were watching an actor working a puppet. We were watching a puppet play his or her role in the story." - Alan Bresloff, Around the Town Chicago, 5/5 Stars (Read the full review here.)

If you're in the greater Chicagoland area, make sure you come see the show which runs at the Northbrook Theater through October 25th. Details and tickets at highlandparkplayers.com.

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Are you thinking about performing Avenue Q with your company or school? Puppet Mechanics can help! We can build your entire cast, run puppetry workshops, or even help direct the show. Let us know how we can assist your team by sending us an email to info@puppetmechanics.com.