Kids Puppetry Workshops & Vacation Week Programs
32 Station Street, Brookline, MA 02445
About
Kids Puppetry Workshops & Vacation Week Programs include hands-on puppet-making and themed activities. In the April Puppet Adventure Program: Butterflies!, participants learn about the life cycle of butterflies and build their own puppet stage, as well as rod puppets and shadow puppets. Vacation Week Palooza includes puppet shows scheduled during school vacation week.
• Ages: 7–13 years old
• Schedule: April Puppet Adventure Program: Butterflies! runs Monday–Friday, April 20–24, 2026, 9:00 am–3:30 pm; Summer Puppet Adventure for Rising 2nd–7th Graders Session 1 runs Monday–Friday, August 17–21, 2026, 9:00 am–3:30 pm
Puppet Showplace Theater was founded in June 1974 and presents over 300 performances by professional puppet companies each year. Puppet Showplace Theater offers workshops, classes, summer programs, and training opportunities to both children and adults, and created the country’s first adult “puppet slam,” a cabaret-style short form puppet theater event. Puppet Showplace Theater is dedicated to presenting outstanding puppetry to diverse audiences through performances, workshops, and community outreach activities.
Kids Puppetry Workshops & Vacation Week Programs are connected with artists and educators who have specific training and experience in puppetry and the arts. Michael Nelson studied puppetry at the International Puppetry Institute with the late Jim Henson and has taught puppet theatre arts at Napa Valley College. Valerie Nelson majored in vocal music, trained in the Montessori teaching method, and has been a past faculty member of Tennessee Arts Academy. The broader leadership and artistic team at Puppet Showplace Theater has included founder Mary Churchill, Artist in Residence and later Resident Artist Emeritus Paul Vincent Davis, resident artist Brad Shur, current Resident Artist Sarah Nolen, and Artistic Intern Ana Baustin in summer 2016.
Puppet Showplace Theater’s touring productions reach schools, libraries, theaters, and cultural centers throughout the Northeast region and beyond, and it works with local schools to provide hands-on arts education. Puppet Showplace partners with local and emerging artists to develop new and innovative puppetry productions and is the official meeting place of the Boston Area Guild of Puppetry. Puppet Showplace Theater is supported by the New England Foundation for the Arts through the New England Arts Resilience Fund, part of the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund, an initiative of the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations and the Mellon Foundation, with major funding from the federal CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Canterbury Paper Puppet Project is a collaboration between Magical Moonshine Theatre and the McCune Collection of Rare Books in Vallejo, CA, and the Kelmscott Chaucer Toy Theatre Project is fiscally sponsored by the McCune Foundation.
Magical Moonshine Theatre’s productions “Natalie” and “The Widow” have received the UNIMA-USA citation of excellence, the highest honor in American puppetry. Puppet Showplace Theater has received an Eliot Norton Award Citation for “Keeping the ancient art of puppetry alive for audiences of all ages” and has been recognized by Boston Magazine as “Best Birthday Party Venue.”
Last updated March 8, 2026.
• Ages: 7–13 years old
• Schedule: April Puppet Adventure Program: Butterflies! runs Monday–Friday, April 20–24, 2026, 9:00 am–3:30 pm; Summer Puppet Adventure for Rising 2nd–7th Graders Session 1 runs Monday–Friday, August 17–21, 2026, 9:00 am–3:30 pm
Puppet Showplace Theater was founded in June 1974 and presents over 300 performances by professional puppet companies each year. Puppet Showplace Theater offers workshops, classes, summer programs, and training opportunities to both children and adults, and created the country’s first adult “puppet slam,” a cabaret-style short form puppet theater event. Puppet Showplace Theater is dedicated to presenting outstanding puppetry to diverse audiences through performances, workshops, and community outreach activities.
Kids Puppetry Workshops & Vacation Week Programs are connected with artists and educators who have specific training and experience in puppetry and the arts. Michael Nelson studied puppetry at the International Puppetry Institute with the late Jim Henson and has taught puppet theatre arts at Napa Valley College. Valerie Nelson majored in vocal music, trained in the Montessori teaching method, and has been a past faculty member of Tennessee Arts Academy. The broader leadership and artistic team at Puppet Showplace Theater has included founder Mary Churchill, Artist in Residence and later Resident Artist Emeritus Paul Vincent Davis, resident artist Brad Shur, current Resident Artist Sarah Nolen, and Artistic Intern Ana Baustin in summer 2016.
Puppet Showplace Theater’s touring productions reach schools, libraries, theaters, and cultural centers throughout the Northeast region and beyond, and it works with local schools to provide hands-on arts education. Puppet Showplace partners with local and emerging artists to develop new and innovative puppetry productions and is the official meeting place of the Boston Area Guild of Puppetry. Puppet Showplace Theater is supported by the New England Foundation for the Arts through the New England Arts Resilience Fund, part of the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund, an initiative of the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations and the Mellon Foundation, with major funding from the federal CARES Act and the American Rescue Plan from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Canterbury Paper Puppet Project is a collaboration between Magical Moonshine Theatre and the McCune Collection of Rare Books in Vallejo, CA, and the Kelmscott Chaucer Toy Theatre Project is fiscally sponsored by the McCune Foundation.
Magical Moonshine Theatre’s productions “Natalie” and “The Widow” have received the UNIMA-USA citation of excellence, the highest honor in American puppetry. Puppet Showplace Theater has received an Eliot Norton Award Citation for “Keeping the ancient art of puppetry alive for audiences of all ages” and has been recognized by Boston Magazine as “Best Birthday Party Venue.”
Last updated March 8, 2026.
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