Join us at ImaginOn on Saturday, February 1, 2025 from 10:00am-4:30pm for our second annual puppetry festival! PuppetPalooza 2025 will be an all-day, non-stop, FREE, family-friendly event celebrating the joy and art of puppetry, and all ages are welcome.
Participating puppetry troops are below, and we are PUMPED!
Shows will be running all day. Pop in for one or stay for them all, meet our giant roving puppets, explore our balcony exhibit of past puppets from Children's Theatre of Charlotte (CTC) shows, try your hand at puppet karaoke, make a sock puppet to take home with you, and make sure you join our puppet parade at 12:00, hosted by parade partner Paperhand Puppet Intervention!
Asheville Creative Arts
ACA is an Asheville-based arts and arts service organization, providing high quality, professional theatre, performance, and arts experiences to Asheville audiences of all ages, and offering fiscal sponsorship and related services to sibling social enterprises and arts nonprofits serving Asheville and Western North Carolina.
Center for Puppetry Arts
The Center for Puppetry Arts (based in Atlanta) is a unique cultural treasure — a magical place where children and adults are educated, enlightened and entertained. Since 1978, the Center has introduced millions of visitors to the wonder and art of puppetry and has touched the lives of many through enchanting performances, curriculum-based workshops, and the hands-on Museum, as well as Digital Learning and Outreach Programs.
Children's Theatre of Charlotte
From their humble beginning in 1948, Children's Theatre of Charlotte (CTC) has grown to become one of the most respected arts and education organizations in the country. As creators of high-quality professional theatre for young audiences, they are committed to the mission that children have the right to explore the wonder of their world safely and confidently with kindness at its core.
CML Frontline Puppeteers
The Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (CML) Frontline Puppeteers are a team of staff members of the library system who develop and perform puppet shows for young children adapted from children’s picture books. They believe in bringing stories to life through puppet play and are committed to making puppetry accessible, free, and open to the public.
Dancing Hand Puppets
Dancing Hand Puppets is a Charlotte-local puppetry troupe. Its founder has assisted with and participated in several puppetry festivals, allowing her to share her love of puppetry with people of all ages. She has been a workshop presenter, arts and craft facilitator, puppet games coordinator, website administrator, emcee and performer.
Ed's Dinosaurs Live
Ed's Dinosaurs Live are the Dinosaur Entertainers for your party, corporate event, festival, parade or any appearance of your needs. Started in 2011, with Mr. Ed, a homemade dinosaur, some balloons, and a few tricks up his sleeve, the company is now one of the largest dinosaur entertainers in the country.
Elizabeth Swanson
Elizabeth Swanson recently joined the Children's Theatre of Charlotte family as their Crafts Specialist. Her theatre production career path started when she was 13 years old and made costumes for her local community theatre. Since then, she has worked professionally across the United States, from rural Wisconsin to New York City, where she crafted costumes for Broadway productions, cruise ships, and major theme parks around the world. Elizabeth enjoys the engineering challenges and creative opportunities that come with building puppets, and is excited to bring those skills to CTC.
FAB Puppets
Melanie and FAB Puppets have been engaging children with puppetry for over 15 years. With puppet-stars Frank and Betty, literacy, music and comedy come together to thrill audiences of all ages.
Grey Seal Puppets
Well known for their trademark whimsical approach to storytelling and exquisite puppet design, Grey Seal Puppets offers a variety of puppet performances sure to tickle your fancy. Their repertoire includes a variety of productions from familiar fairy tales (The Emperor's New Clothes) to original stories (Bathtub Pirates). The company’s thirty-year history includes such honors as three Citations of Excellence from UNIMA-USA (International puppetry organization), the President’s Award from the Puppeteers of America, and the Award for Leadership in Theatre from the NC Theatre Conference. In addition to touring productions, Grey Seal also performs regularly on television with clients such as The Reimler Agency (Bojangles), WTVI-Channel 42 (local PBS affiliate), the Muppets, and Silver Burdett Ginn.
InReach Troupe 801 Puppeteers
InReach is an international not-for-profit organization that brings together providers, professionals, advocates and other leaders in the disability field whose vision is community inclusion, dignity and quality of life for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and people with mental illness. Troupe 801 is a professional touring puppet troupe comprised of individuals with special needs.
Jeghetto's Entertainment
Jeghetto is a self-taught master builder and puppeteer residing in NC. His puppets are abstract moving sculptures made of mostly found and recycled materials. He has received two grants from the Jim Henson Foundation prior to becoming a board member himself. Jeghetto has worked with Missy Elliott, Pharrell Williams, Alec Baldwin and Terence Nance. He was a guest on The Steve Harvey Show and performed puppetry on The Voice and HBO’s Random Acts of Flyness.
The Lurnsters
The Lurnsters are a video-based entrepreneurship education platform that uses social emotional learning to teach students the skills they need to be successful entrepreneurs. Their puppet shows are engaging, entertaining, and full of monster fun for the whole family.
Paperhand Puppet Intervention
Since their founding 25 years ago, Paperhand Puppet Intervention has been using papier-mâché, cardboard, bamboo, your old house paints, cloth, and other assorted junk (treasure to us!) to create incredible giant puppets, masks, shadow plays and spectacle performances for all ages. Paperhand Puppet Intervention is PuppetPalooza's full-day experience and parade partner for PuppetPalooza 2025.
Shepherd Shakespeare Company
SSCo was founded by a husband and wife team—Chester and Katy Shepherd—who share a love of theatre and performing for audiences of all ages. Both experienced theatre artists and educators, they have acted, directed, and taught all across the country. With a strong passion for children and education, they strive to bring Shakespeare to areas where it might not normally be available.
VisArt Video
VisArt Video is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization celebrating film education and filmmakers with a passion for the power of movies and a museum of over 50,000 titles and counting. They recently launched the Puppets Everywhere Festival in 2024. Supporting film, filmmakers, and film literacy since 1982.