Blair Thomas

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The Selfish Giant returns to Chicago Children’s Theatre!

December 15, 2014

The Selfish Giant

January marks the return of the all-ages hit show The Selfish Giant, a musical spectacle created for CCT in 2008 by two Chicago theater icons – master puppeteer Blair Thomas and singer-songwriter Michael Smith– based on Oscar Wilde’s classic story about a grumpy giant who forbids children from playing in his garden.

After the children are locked out, the trees and flowers refuse to grow and the garden plunges into an eternal winter. Then one morning, the children sneak back into the garden, bringing with them the joyous rebirth of spring. Featuring original puppets and music, The Selfish Giant is enormously imaginative, gigantically whimsical, and is sure to thrill children and giants of all ages.

New Puppet Logo

Performances January 23rd through 25th are presented as part of Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival closing festivities.

 

 

Announcing the Living Room Tour!

September 29, 2014

Blair Thomas & Co. presents the 2014 Living Room Tour, November 4 – 9, 2014, featuring a selection of artists performing at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. This annual fundraiser invites audiences into private homes for food, drink, and conversation—topped off by a set of intimate performances by Chicago’s best puppet theater artists.

Located in six distinctive Chicago homes, each stop on the tour includes food, drink, performances, and the opportunity to discuss the work with the artists. To purchase tickets, select the desired performance date. The exact location of each event will be revealed on ticket purchase.

Buy Tickets!

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Performances by Blair Thomas & Co., Manual Cinema, and Michael Montenegro.

2014 LIVING ROOM TOUR HOSTS

November 4: Deanna Berman, Gold Coast (co-hosted by Ellen Stone Belic)
November 5: Justine Jentes & Dan Kuruna, Wicker Park
November 6: Susan Bachman-Rovner & Scott Rovner, North Center (with support from Claire & Mark Sutton)
November 7: Susan & Phil Hague, Groveland Park (with support from Liz Aviles & Angel Ysaguirre)
November 8: Joanie Friedman & Jon Stoper, Kenwood (with support from Christy Uchida & Eva Silverman)
November 9: Barbara Koenen & Tim Samuelson, Hyde Park

 

2014 LIVING ROOM TOUR COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Liz Aviles
Joanie Friedman
Justine Jentes
Barbara Koenen
Eva Penar
Veronda Pitchford
Eva Silverman
Claire Sutton
Patti Tuomey
Christy Uchida

A Piano With Three Tales in the Chicago Reader

April 3, 2014

2 joe-mazza-brave-lux-chicago- Blair Thomas A Kite's Tale 2014

Blair Thomas & Company’s latest, a one-hour program meant for kids ages four to 12, is “a classical piano recital masquerading as a puppet show.” Mary Rose Norrell begins with Chopin’s Scherzo in B-flat Minor, accompanying the wordless dance and movement of three puppets with outsize heads and hands as they attempt to sit, to sleep, to dream, and to leave. Set to the quicksilver music, this is more tragicomic than it sounds, but the second piece, set to a score for toy piano, is dead serious, romantic and dramatic. The last and longest puppet spectacle takes as inspiration Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, itself a creative response. The company has worked on this piece for many years, and this latest incarnation—featuring a girl, a rabbit, and bunraku jesters moving between playfulness and ominous frenzy—is a masterwork. —Suzanne Scanlon

Click HERE to view on the Chicago Reader.

Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival coming in 2015

March 17, 2014

Blair Thomas

“Chicago’s unofficial Puppeteer General, Blair Thomas, is spearheading a grand-scale new festival aiming to make the city a center for puppet arts. The inaugural Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival is set for January 16–25, 2015, with major institutions from the Art Institute to the Second City on board to present events.”

Read the full article here.

From the hand of the puppeteer: Blair Thomas on St. James Infirmary

December 10, 2013

Robert W. Harwood, author of  the book “I Went Down To St. James Infirmary” and creator of the blog by the same title interviews Blair Thomas:

“St. James Infirmary” has a great untold story lurking in between its few short verses. . . . There is an intimate relationship between puppetry and death, and I see this song as a form of mourning or grief at the loss of a loved one.  Continue to article.

 

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