Bathysphere - Tinkers Ball
Program I: Saturday, October 18, 7pm-10pm;
Delve into the depths of an underwater fantasy with swordfish trombones, eel drums, and accordion octopi as Tinkers Ball covers Smog's classic dark and imaginative "Bathysphere."

The Cubicle - Flora Shepherd
Program I: Saturday, October 18, 7pm-10pm; Program II: Friday, October 24, 7pm-midnight
A young office employee, disenchanted with her desolate working and home life decides to find her way into a life she wants. But the secrets she discovers unlocks a world of binder clip tea parties and rubber band rodeos. This dark, whimsical tale is brought to life with puppets and stage created from discarded office supplies.

Dread of Blood - Janaki Ranpura
24-Hour Puppet Reality Experiment: Friday, October 17, 7pm-10pm; Matinee A: Saturday, October 18, 3pm-5pm; Program I: Saturday, October 18, 7pm-10pm;
A toy theater show in which the audience participates in a heart surgery.

Disaster Muffin - Beth Nixon
Program II: Friday, October 24, 7pm-midnight; Program III: Saturday, October 25, 7pm-midnight
Ramshackle Enterprises debuts a new solo suitcase theater show filled with questions and uniquely mammalian behavior. Chew on the quandaries raised by one can of corn and grapple with the ethics of grocery store citizenry. Utopia is perhaps closer than the unicorns might have us believe.

Dragon Scales and Faerie Tales - DreamWeaver Productions
Matinee B: Saturday, October 25, 3pm-5pm
Internationally renowned performer Animal X and husband Albion Minzey have tapped into the wonderment of childhood and brought to life the magical experience of meeting a baby dragon and its guardian fairy godmother. This is an interactive family show which is a visual spectacle. With beautiful and elaborate costumes, each performance is more than just a show, it's an attraction, and adults enjoy it just as much as the children. There is plenty of audience participation and good laughs for everyone. In addition to being entertaining, Dragon Scales and Faerie Tales has a strong moral message about acceptance of others. After each performance we offer a meet and greet where everyone who wishes is invited to come forward and have their picture taken with the faerie and dragon - a very up close and personal experience that they will never forget.

Empire and Election - The Apathetic Anarchists
Gallery Crawl: Friday, October 3, 5:30pm-9pm; Puppet Commotion: Friday, October 24, 5pm-7pm
Empire and Election is a political and gorilla street performance class taught this fall at Chatham University by Tavia La Follette. The Apathetic Anarchists are students who will be using Mike Konopacki and Howard Zinn's book, A People's History of American Empire as well as newspaper articles and electoral events as research for their performances. The students will be directed by Tavia and develop the shows at Chatham before hitting the streets and Black Sheep with their political and street performances. These performances will consist of installation, performance art, object art and puppet and mask work. Look for them on strategic days such as Columbus Day, Rosh Hashanah, and Patriot Day (9/11).

Line and Colour - Clare Dolan
Program II: Friday, October 24, 7pm-midnight; Program III: Saturday, October 25, 7pm-midnight
Line and Colour is a spirited theatrical retelling of short stories by Isaac Babel, one of the twentieth century’s greatest prose stylists. Babel, a Russian Jewish author, was born in Odessa in 1894, lived through war and revolution, and achieved renown through his incisive and imaginative stories, newspaper articles, and filmscripts. In 1940, sharing the fate of many of his generation, he was killed on Stalin’s orders. The show draws from short fiction based on Babel’s early years among Jewish outcasts in the multicultural port city of Odessa, and on his experiences as a war reporter riding with the Red Calvary in 1920s Poland. The texts have a lyrical but tough anti-war quality, though they can be read in multiple ways—one as a feminist morality tale, another as an playful analysis of literary and political philosophy. But despite these many layers of meaning, the stories are first and foremost gripping, funny tales of sympathetic individuals. In turning his keen eye towards the small everyday life interactions of ordinary people, Babel deftly reveals greater truths about the generosity and avarice of human beings, and the sheer terror and beauty of life.

In 2007-2008, Line and Colour: was presented in workshop form at Link’s Hall (Chicago), Café Concret at Theatre Ste. Catherine (Montreal), the Bread and Puppet Theater (Vermont), Puppet Uprising’s Barnstormers at Bartram’s Garden (Philadelphia), and Great Small Works' International Toy Theater Festival in NYC. It was supported by a seed grant from the Jim Henson foundation for the development of new puppet-theatre work.

The Matchbox Shows - Laura Heit
Program II: Friday, October 24, 7pm-midnight; Matinee B: Saturday, October 25, 3pm-5pm (family version); Program III: Saturday, October 25, 7pm-midnight
From reviewer Robert Greskovic, the Wall Street Journal, May 29, 2008: An often zany and sometimes macabre presentation called "The Matchbox Shows" came from Los Angeles-based Laura Heit, who is the work's self-described Miniature Raconteur and sequined pyromaniac. The sequin-top-wearing and match-striking Ms. Heit is life-size, but her little spectacles are matchbox tiny -- so her show includes a large-scale, live-feed video projection. Each distinct short piece involves Ms. Heit's manipulation for the video camera's lens of the boxes and their contents -- matchsticks, cut-out figures, and the like.

The Old Man and His Peanut Tree - Fare Feather Family
Children's Museum: Saturday, October 11, 1pm-4pm; Program I: Saturday, October 18, 7pm-10pm; Matinee B: Saturday, October 25, 3pm-5pm; Program III: Saturday, October 25, 7pm-midnight
There once was a grumpy old man who lived on the outskirts of a tiny village. It is true that he was quite possibly the grumpiest of all the grumpy old men. He lived alone, and kept to himself and his garden. The one thing that made the grumpy old man a little less grumpy was his Peanut Tree in his garden. He knew that Peanut Trees were extremely rare, and the fact that he had one made him feel superior to the folks in town. One day the grumpy old man encounters three hungry children and loses more than just peanuts. After the scuffle the three children run away with the old man's nose. Will the grumpy old man ever smell his peanut tree again?

A People's History - The Wobbly Bucket Brigade
Program II: Friday, October 24, 7pm-midnight; Program III: Saturday, October 25, 7pm-midnight
Using Howard Zinn's A People's History as a creative source, the Wobbly Bucket Brigade will present 4 chapters from the book ala cabaret puppet performances each program for a total of 8 chapters.

Penny's Playmates - Lalka Theater
Matinee C: Sunday, October 26, 3pm-5pm
PENNY'S PLAYMATES is a short multi-lingual vignette suitable for the very youngest -- plus anyone else! Two characters deal with their differences -- in several languages!

Project Maho Shojo - Major Arcana
Program I: Saturday, October 18, 7pm-10pm; Program II: Friday, October 24, 7pm-midnight; Program III: Saturday, October 25, 7pm-midnight
Magical Girls (maho shojo in Japanese) belong to a popular sub-genre of anime and manga popularized by Sailor Moon and similar works. Magical girl stories feature young girls given the power to transform into a demi-god of sorts; a magical being with great powers who must assume the responsibility of saving the world from evil. A magical girl is usually a normal teenage school girl, coping with everyday life, completely unprepared to save the world on a daily basis.

The Rainbow Ride In Toy Theatre Style - Rose Clancy and Debbie Bobeck
Children's Museum: Saturday, October 11, 1pm-4pm
Written by Rose Clancy, based on an original story written by Debbie Bobeck. Artistic direction and design: Rose Clancy. On a rainy spring day in a magical world of giant mushrooms and rainbows, Billy finds something that he doesn’t know he is looking for, while two giants remember something that they had long ago forgotten.

Scrunch/The Biggest Chicken in the County - Another Bloomin' Puppet Co.
Matinee C: Sunday, October 26, 3pm-5pm
Scrunch is the tale of a young dragon working to pass the last test and graduate from school, while trying to please his easily-irritated mentor. The Biggest Chicken in the County is the story of Leroy, a dragon who was raised in a farmyard, and his search for home beyond the protection of chicken wire.

Shoe - Things That Stick
Program II: Friday, October 24, 7pm-midnight; Program III: Saturday, October 25, 7pm-midnight
When an unsuspecting character knocks something under his bed, he excites a group of creatures who until then had been living in peaceful isolation from one another. What happens when a foreign object enters the scene and causes them to interact? Who knew one discarded item could inspire a world of change? Things That Stick hopes to entertain you with their take on life as it unfolds in the imagined space where dreams and monsters have been known to reside.

So Close and Yet So Far - Spica Wobbe
Festival Kick-Off! Friday, October 10, 7pm-10pm
A non-verbal poetic toy theater with shadows and light draws a story about a girl who was searching for a star that looked so close and yet... so far. This is an innovative work created by puppetry artists from Taiwan and New York to explore the abstract feelings that everyone has experienced - "so close and yet so far..." & "so far and yet so close..." By using the art form of Toy Theater and mixing with shadow, light and music, it expresses the feelings deep in our hearts.

The Soldier & The Phoenix - Shoddy Puppet Company
Program II: Friday, October 24, 7pm-midnight; Program III: Saturday, October 25, 7pm-midnight
A chicken who dreams of flying, a musketeer in the belly of a fish, and a tin boy who adores cardboard are the heroes of The Soldier & The Phoenix. Setting beautiful blockprints, shadowy surrealism and intertwining storylines to the tune of an accordion, Shoddy Puppet Company's toy theater recalls the work of H.C. Andersen and L. Frank Baum in this gripping fable about love and war and breaking free from the prisons we create. The Soldier & The Phoenix has been performed at Great Small Works International Toy Theater Festival in New York, The Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, and as part of "Out of the Shell of the Old," the Justseeds group show at Space 1026.

Stuff - Fuzzy Boundary Productions
Matinee A: Saturday, October 18, 3pm-5pm; Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall: Thursday, October 23, 10am
Flip and Lou make their homes on opposite sides of a beautiful mountain. Flip loves stuff. He likes to order it, he likes to open it, and he likes to play with it. Lou likes to make things out of all kinds of stuff. But what happens when you have too much? What do you do if your stuff takes over? Come help Flip and Lou as they team up to save their mountain home!

The Three Little Pigs - Flora Shepherd
Children's Museum: Saturday, October 11, 1pm-4pm; Matinee A: Saturday, October 18, 3pm-5pm; Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall: Thursday, October 23, 10am; Matinee C: Sunday, October 26, 3pm-5pm
A classic tale comes to life in a traditional hand puppet stage. Will the the wolf finally outwit those pigs? Not by the hair on my chinny chinny chin!