Performers | Nashville International Puppet Festival

International Troupes

Kawasemi-Za (Japan)
The world created by Kawasemi-za is a new one that is unique and unexplored in puppetry. Puppets, lifeless in themselves, become so marvelously animated in the hands of the puppeteers, expressing various emotions and conveying meaningful messages.
Velo Theatre (France)
Vélo Theatre creates performances based on images with few or no words. Renowned for their efforts to incorporate spectators’ ideas, the puppeteers invite the audience into a relationship called Le Théâtre d’Objet or “Object Theater.”
Sombras Chinas (Argentina)
Sombras Chinas performs Chinese shadow puppetry, wordless shows that combine music, hand movement, and various accessories to leap linguistic barriers.
Dresdner Figurentheater (Germany)
The Dresden puppet theater, founded in 1997, uses different types of puppets to create performances for children and adults.
Dragon Art Studio (China)
Dragon Art Studio blends puppetry and music with elegance, humor and special effects to create a beautiful theatrical event. Their show, Images of China, is a series of Vignettes based on Chinese traditional (and sometimes not so traditional!) tales.

Phillip Huber, Huber Marionettes
This Emmy award-winning master puppeteer creates sophisticated performances and incredible, complex puppets famed around the world. Perhaps best known for his marionette work in Being John Malkovich (1999), he conjures up magic again in a performance as “China Girl” for Disney’s Oz, The Great And Powerful (2013).
Lee Bryan, That Puppet Guy
Lee Bryan’s original stories and clever adaptations of classic tales often incorporate multiple styles of puppetry. Lee is a two-time grant recipient of the prestigious Jim Henson Foundation for his solo productions of “Pinocchio” and “Suitcase Circus.”
Bob and Elise Nathanson, Puppets to Go
Boband Elise Nathanson use music to help evoke a wide range of moods in each production. Stories may be amusing one moment… sensitive and touching the next.
Kathleen Lynam, Crafty Characters
Crafty Characters Puppet Troupe brings culturally diverse stories to young audiences and catapult children into the world of make believe.

Wishing Chair Productions & The Puppet Truck
Wishing Chair Productions, the library’s resident puppet troupe, creates word-class shows that delight children and adults alike. The Puppet Truck works in conjunction with the library’s pre-literacy program, Bringing Books to Life! and adapts original Wishing Chair performances for outreach across the city.
Wild Goose Chase Puppet Theatre
Matt Sandbank, and Wild Goose Chase Puppet Theater, creates puppet shows that promote literacy and excite young people about the power of words and the imagination.

Coal Train Railroad (jazz)
Coal Train Railroad is a collection of jazz songs created just for kids! Written from a child’s perspective and covering such important topics as bellybuttons, juice, sharing, and snuggling, the songs are inspiring kids all over the world to dance, play, and use their voices to riff along with the musicians.
Davey Ukulele and the Gag Time Gang (eclectic)
With influences ranging from Harry Nilsson to Elvis Presley to Devo to Kermit the Frog, Davey Ukulele & The Gag Time Gang make music for the whole family. What really sets their songs apart is that they’re fun for kids, while being smart and savvy enough to engage parents too.
Professor Smarty Pants (country)
Engaging country music for children of all ages, from songs by Hall of Famers like Johnny Cash and Johnny Horton to songs he made up himself.
Rachel Sumner (pop)
Interactive concerts that promote language development (English and others including Sign Language), self-esteem, and many important learning skills.
The WannaBeatles (Beatles)
The WannaBeatles consists of award winning and talented music producers, arrangers, studio players, and singers who have “Come Together” to play the music they grew up with.