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Memberships Half Price! Ends Friday evening

For the first time in nearly 10 years, we've updated the Puppet Showplace Theatre membership benefits and level choices.

And now, we're discounting our membership prices by 50% as our way of saying 'thank you' for your support!

For the next 24 hours, enjoy all of the same great benefits — including complimentary tickets, discounted tickets and Puppet Store purchases — at 50% off!

How Your Membership Helps Us

The actual cost of presenting a family performance is $14-$16 per person, much more than the ticket price! Though more than 80% of our expenses are directly related to programming, ticket sales account for only 60% of our revenue.

It takes generous donations to help make up this difference. In fact, $2,000 in donations are required each week in order to keep excellent puppetry on our stage.

Each membership counts, from helping to pay performers and staff, to keeping the theater and lobby facility in working order.

What It Means To Be A Member

Ask a Puppet Showplace Theatre member why they joined and you'll get a variety of answers — from the money-saving benefits and the friends they've made at shows, to the fact that they are supporting an organization strongly rooted in the local as well as theatrical communities, dedicated to the art of puppetry and the introduction live theatre for children of all ages.

For audiences young and old, live puppetry is not just entertainment. It's a wonderful stimulus for the imagination.

And since the Puppet Showplace Theatre is a non-profit organization, your membership dues are a charitable contribution and are tax-deductible.

About This Special Discount

There is no offer code to enter, and no hoops to jump through. Just click on this link to learn more or to register.

But keep in mind that these prices are only for a limited time – this offer expires at 5PM on Friday, October 8th.

We hope you will take advantage of this fantastic offer and become a member or renew your membership today!

Jim Henson on Making Puppets!

In honor of our theme "Let's make a puppet together!" here's a fantastic video from 1969 where Jim Henson shares a little bit about making simple puppets.

Adult Puppetry, Blair Thomas, and Handmade Puppet Dreams

This past weekend I saw Blair Thomas perform his solo 3-part puppet piece "Hard Headed Heart" at the Charlestown Working Theater. Blair performed preliminary excerpts from this show at PST many years ago, and now he is touring the full-length version through New England. He stopped in Boston at CWT en route to the Puppets in the Green Mountains International Festival in Vermont, a magnificent week-long event featuring world-renowned performers (he'll be joined by PST favorites Bonnie and Jamie of Crabgrass Puppets who will perform at festival events).
Blair spoke eloquently to the Boston Globe about the significance of puppetry for adults:
It’s a logical thing that puppetry is associated with children, because there’s so much a sense of play in puppetry. But there’s also this thing about puppetry, that it requires a different kind of contract than the actors theater does: where the puppet figure asks you to believe in it, and it’s clearly an inanimate object. Children will readily believe. But the same issue goes on in puppet theater for adult audiences. There’s a level of belief that is requested of the audience members when the puppet makes its entrance.

I loved Blair's show, and was incredibly impressed by how he wove together live musical performance, soliloquy, and puppet design to achieve his impact. I was reminded that puppetry, while demanding of technical precision, is at its heart a wildly expressive art form. As Blair pounded 3 musical instruments with his feet while simultaneously performing the story of Don Cristobal with hand puppets, I was deeply moved by being in the presence of a performer who had much to say and who was brave enough to say it all at once.

We at PST are excited about our own adult offerings this year. This season, we are expanding our adult slams so they take place every other month starting in September and continue through July. On Saturday September 25th at 8:00 pm we will kick off our Slam season with a screening of the adult puppet film series "Handmade Puppet Dreams vol. 1," produced by Heather Henson. The show will be preceded at 6:00 pm by a video puppetry workshop led by Puppet Showplace Slam emcee Jonathan Little, who has studied with some of television's greatest puppeteers. Buy Handmade Puppet Dreams Screening Tickets and Reserve a Video Puppetry Workshop Space Here.

Check out Jon's preview video here.

If you have other ideas for adult programming this year, please let me know. Stay tuned for more information about adult puppetry events at PST and upcoming performances by world-class puppet artists in the Boston area!

Roxie
Artistic Director

Meet the Puppets on Display @ PST

Did you know that the Puppet Showplace Theatre is home to the hand-made puppets of some of the area's best-loved puppeteers? It's true! Next time you're at the theatre, look up – they're all around you, displayed up above the Puppet Store in our lobby.

Here are just some of the puppets you're bound to find.

Hummingbird created by Eric Bornstein (puppet in the background created by Paul Vincent Davis)

Betsy and other Cranberry Puppets created by Puppet Showplace Theatre founder Mary Churchill



Rob Roy created by Paul Vincent Davis

Lion created by Puppet Showplace Theatre founder Mary Churchill, shown with a friend of the Showplace, Jim Henson