New York Puppet Festival Celebrates Women Puppeteers

New York City is hosting the fourth International Puppet Fringe Festival, a unique event dedicated exclusively to the art of puppetry. This year's festival, which commenced this week, shines a spotlight on women puppeteers who have profoundly shaped, expanded, and reinvented the craft worldwide.

The festival is honoring two visionary American artists: Theodora Skipitares from California and Nancy Lohman Staub from Wisconsin. Both have elevated puppetry as a medium for storytelling, cultural expression, and innovation. "The Fringe is a celebration of extraordinary artistic voices from around the world, with a particular focus on women artists and stories that highlight women's experiences, resilience, imagination, and leadership," said Manuel A. Morán, the festival's founder and producer.

Morán emphasized that in a time when inclusion, diversity, and international collaboration face increasing pressures, the festival serves as "a joyful affirmation of the values that make New York City and its artistic community so vibrant." The event is taking place at the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center, which recently reopened after extensive renovations, and will run until Sunday.

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The Fringe is a celebration of extraordinary artistic voices from around the world, with a particular focus on women artists and stories that highlight women's experiences, resilience, imagination, and leadership.

With participation from over a dozen countries, the festival boasts an extensive program of 50 productions, films, exhibitions, workshops, roundtables, and special events. A central attraction is the exhibition 'Theodora Skipitares: Abundant Ingenuity – Four Decades of Stage Objects,' a retrospective of one of the U.S.'s most influential interdisciplinary theater artists. It features works spanning from 'Micropolis' (1982) to 'Footnotes,' presented this year.

The festival also celebrates Nancy Lohman Staub through the photographic exhibition 'Scattered Happy Memories of Puppet Friends by a 93-Year-Old Woman.' This exhibit documents puppets, artists, and friendships within the international puppetry community. Staub, a pioneer in the field, directed the New Orleans Puppet Playhouse, organized the historic 1980 World Puppetry Festival at the Kennedy Center, co-founded the Atlanta Puppet Arts Center Museum, and contributed to launching the Jim Henson Foundation and the International Puppetry Festival. Her exhibition offers a personal and historical perspective on the individuals and institutions that have shaped global puppetry.

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a joyful affirmation of the values that make New York City and its artistic community so vibrant.