Puppetry Arts to celebrate
the weird things that make us unique, and the weirder things that bring us together.

Rough House Puppet Arts announces the artists participating in this year’s Expansion Residency.

MEET THE RESIDENTS

Rough House Puppet Arts

Upcoming events!
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  • “Exquisite storytelling.”

    Chicago Sun-Times

  • “The artistry on display is staggering, extending far beyond set design.”

    Buzz Center Stage

  • “The design is rich and intricate.”

    Chicago On Stage

  • “Jaw-droppingly stunning works of art and ambition.”

    Stage and Cinema

  • “The performers are fluid and graceful, imbuing the puppets with their own distinct personalities.”

    Third Coast Review

Featured
Designing Scares: A Chicago Halloween
Designing Scares: A Chicago Halloween

American Theater

October 27, 2025

By Jerald Raymond Pierce

Hello, and welcome to spooky season. I’ll be your guide around a few Chicago-area stops. Now, before we get started, I should warn you, the following contains eerie puppets, ghost stories, and the paranormal.

For our first stop, we stroll past Steppenwolf, bypassing their cozy Front Bar on a drizzly Saturday afternoon, skipping their front doors and the people heading in to see Rajiv Joseph’s Mr. Wolf, and instead head to a sneaky door settled between the entrance and exit to the Steppenwolf-adjacent parking garage. Inside the Merle Reskin Space at Steppenwolf, Rough House Puppet Arts has set up camp for House of the Exquisite Corpse V: Blood & Puppets, a multi-room, immersive puppet haunted house (through Nov. 1).

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