Blair Thomas

Author: blair

  • The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival Returns!

    The Festival, returning to Chicago January 19-29, 2017, features over 90 performances by 20 different companies from around the world – Norway, Iran, Italy, Canada, South Korea, and, of course, your favorite artists from Chicago! The lineup includes renowned productions by: Hamid Rahmanian, Silencio Blanco,Michael Montenegro, Plexus Polaire, Teatro dei Piedi, Théâtre Puzzle, and Portmanteau. 

    Tickets on sale now!

    Eager to learn more? Talented Columbia College student Cyrus Stowe spent the day with Blair Thomas at his studio barn where he got an exclusive behind–the-scenes look at Blair’s process and how he creates the magic behind his puppets.

  • Announcing the 2016 Living Room Tour

    Blair Thomas & Co is thrilled to present Magali Chouinard, one our international artists from Montreal to perform a special preview performance for the Living Room Tours before returning for the full Festival in January. Her performance, The White Woman is a visual narrative, filled with arresting images and performed without words. Enjoy her performance at each stop and be able to discuss the performance with the artist.

    Plus, Blair Thomas will be performing a toy theatre staging of Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies. This delightfully dark abecedarian tale told in rhyming couplets will be performed exclusively this season at the Living Room Tour.

          

    Performances by Magali Chouinard and Blair Thomas & Co.

    2016 LIVING ROOM TOUR HOSTS

    November 11: Dorothy Zalewski, Dan Engh, and Rick Stoneham, Logan Square

    November 12: Susan and Phil Hague, Liz Aviles and Colleen Sims. Bronzeville

    November 13: Sidney Nagel, Young-Kee Kim and Michelle McClennan, Kenwood

    2016 LIVING ROOM TOUR COMMITTEE MEMBERS

    Barbara Abel | Liz Aviles | Susan Hague | Justine Jentes | Michelle McClennan | Jenny Shanks | Eva Silverman | Colleen Sims | Asheley Smith

  • Announcing the Living Room Tour

    Announcing the Living Room Tour

    Blair Thomas & Co. presents the 2015 Living Room Tour, November 4 – 11, 2015. Each stop on the tour features a mini puppet theater festival, including an excerpt of Blair Thomas & Company’s Moby Dick along with performances by Mike Oleon and Adventure Sandwich. Enjoy dinner, drinks, 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., Mike Oleon, and Adventure Sandwich.

    2015 LIVING ROOM TOUR HOSTS

    November 4: Joanie Friedman & Jon Stoper, Kenwood (with support from Alyssa Berman-Cutler)
    November 5: Scott Hughes, Edgewater
    November 7: Sandi and Eric Tenfelde, Pilsen
    November 8: Justine Jentes & Dan Kuruna, Wicker Park
    November 9: Eva Niewiadomski at Catalyst Ranch, West Loop (with support from Big Delicious Planet)
    November 11: Laura Botwinick, Bucktown/Wicker Park (with support from Liz Aviles and Eva Silverman)

     

    2015 LIVING ROOM TOUR COMMITTEE MEMBERS

    Liz Aviles
    Alyssa Berman-Cutler
    Joanie Friedman
    Justine Jentes
    Eva Niewiadomski
    Eva Penar
    Jill Potter
    Mikalina Rabinsky
    Eva Silverman
    Colleen Sims
    Patti Tuomey
    Christy Uchida
    Stephanie Whitlock
  • Chicago Puppet Festival in American Theatre

    Chicago Puppet Festival in American Theatre

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    While contemplating the role of puppetry in today’s society, Scott T. Cummings gives his account of the first ever Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival:

    The shows in Chicago ranged from the kind of traditional, family-friendly work often seen at schools, libraries and public fairs to edgy, experimental performances more common to galleries, lofts and tiny black-box theatres. Veteran Dave Herzog presented cute, colorful, well-crafted trick marionettes that can juggle, blow up a balloon, swing on a trapeze, or instantly transform from a magician into a fairy. His circus figures contrasted with the mesmerizing Le Petit Cirque of Laurent Bigot from France, who uses a table-top toy circus reminiscent of Alexander Calder, rigged with 16 tiny microphones to perform a concert of odd, cleverly generated sounds. New York’s Chinese Theatre Works (inspired by the pioneering work of Kansas-born Pauline Benton, who brought Chinese shadow puppetry to the West in the 1920s) performed a traditional Chinese shadow-puppet play in the halls of the Field Museum. Contrast this with the innovative shadow theatre of Chicago’s own Manual Cinema or Canadian artist-illustrator Daniel Barrow, both of whom use multiple overhead projectors (in very different ways) to create manual animation in real time.

    The variety of work programmed by Thomas points to a question that is fascinating artists, audiences, and academics: What constitutes a puppet, exactly? What, in other words, is its nature and essence? How does it help us to explore and understand the larger world of what cultural anthropologist and folklorist Frank Proschan dubbed “performing objects”—puppets, masks, ritual and fetish objects, and other material things endowed with agency through display, manipulation, storytelling, or performance?

     

    Click HERE to view the full article on the American Theatre website.

  • The Living Room Tour 2012: The Tell-Tale Heart

    The Living Room Tour 2012:
    The Tell-Tale Heart

    Blair Thomas & Company announces an exclusive preview of their new Halloween performance, The Tell-Tale Heart. This incomparable interpretation of one of Edgar Allan Poe’s most famous short stories, a psychological portrait of a mad murderer who is tormented by the sound of his victim’s relentless heartbeat, will be performed in various private locations within Chicago in October, 2012. The performance includes original music by Mark Messing and Bunraku puppets by Shoshanna Utchenik.
    Each night, an intimate party and performance will support the remarkable contemporary puppet theater work of Blair Thomas & Company. Hosted in three distinctive locations, these unique events include dinner, drinks and Blair’s latest creation. 6:30pm – Dinner and Drinks; 7:30pm – Performance of The Tell-Tale Heart. Tickets ($80 each) for adults and kids age 8 and up are available through Brown Paper Tickets links below.
    Tuesday, October 23 at Coyle & Herr, 1200 W. 35th St.
    Explore and enjoy Coyle & Herr, Chicago’s inspiring home furnishings consignment warehouse. Discover why Rick Kogan of the Chicago Tribune calls it “‘the world’s biggest living room.’” For tickets click HERE.
    Wednesday, October 24, at the home of De and Paul Gray
    Visit the home of gallery owners and art collectors De and Paul Gray, and experience their spectacular skyline view and world-class art collection, including a privately commissioned work by Jaume Plensa. For tickets click HERE.
    Tuesday, October 30, start at the home of Claire Geall Sutton and Mark Sutton
    Continue at the home of Karen Carter Lynch and Brad Lynch. Start this progressive evening in the cozy confines of the Sutton home surrounded by their eclectic art collection. Then stroll next door to a modern architectural masterpiece designed by owner Brad Lynch. For tickets click HERE.
    And for the little ones…
    In addition to the evening event on October 30 at 4:15pm, there will be a separate 15 minute long family-friendly performance of “Halloween Tales” (for kids ages 3-8). Tickets are $10, click HERE to purchase.