Chicago’s one and only puppet haunted house, returns for its sixth Halloween season with House of the Exquisite Corpse VI: LULLABIES runs October 8-November 1 at The Merle at Steppenwolf. Six teams of Chicago artists will bring life to six unique puppet terror experiences, tapping a new vein of horror – LULLABIES– for its unifying theme in 2026.
Recommended for audiences aged 13 and over.
Directed this year by Chicago puppet artist, Corey Smith, a veteran of House of the Exquisite Corpse and co-director of last year's triumphant Blood & Puppets.
Lobby Immersion: Jacqueline Wade & Sion Silva
Room 1: Creators VIM HILE, TANIMA • Performers CAMILLE MITCHELL, CASEY DOE
Room 2: Creators CHARLIE MALAVE, CAITLIN MCLEOD • Performers FINN BRADLEY, EDDY BARBER-ROZEMA, RACHEL HARTMANN, EMILIE WINGATE
Room 3: Creators MADIGAN BURKE, ZHEN HEINEMANN, ANDY SLATER • Performers LINDSEY BALL, CANDICE CONNOR
Room 4: Creators LEAH LARA, DIONNE • Performers SAMUEL LEWIS II, TIA PINSON
Room 5: Creators SASKIA BAKKER, RUBY QUE • Performers KHALIL SMITH, ALEXANDER FERGUSON
Room 6: Creators J. FELIX, ABBY PALEN • Performers MALLORY LIMBRELL, SHANNON TWENTER
DIRECTION Corey Smith • PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT Anastar Alvarez • DRAMATURGY Molly Sharfstein • PRODUCER Claire Saxe • PROJECT ADMINISTRATION Marcey Abramovitz •LIGHTING DESIGN Quinn Chisenhall • ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN Melissa Schlesinger, Jackie Berland, Ken Buckingham, Nina D'Angier • SOUND DESIGN Mike Meegan • ASSOCIATE SOUND DESIGN Joey Meland • PRODUCTION STAGE MANAGEMENT Kacey Lindeman • STAGE MANAGEMENT Emi Cruz, Tess Duncan• BOX OFFICE MANAGEMENT Lucy Wirtz, Mikayla Wilson • ROUGH HOUSE MARKETING Kimzyn Campbell • PUBLIC RELATIONS Jay Kelly
Tickets are Pay What You Can
Pay What You Can lets you choose how much to pay for a ticket. Nothing should stand between you and great puppet art, least of all a brutal social construct like money. Suggested prices can be found by selecting different ticketing options on this page. For more info on how we make Pay What You Can work, click here
Be prepared to move during this show!
Audiences enter, if you dare, in small groups via timed entries. Once inside, you must brave its dark halls for approximately 50 minutes, stopping at each room to spy through keyholes, cracks, and hidden doors to see the horrors happening within.
You will be mostly on your feet for the ~1 hour production. Chairs are available for those with difficulty standing for long stretches.
Facilities & Accessibility
Let us know how we can help make your experience more easeful and complete!
Rough House is committed to making Exquisite Corpse accessible to everyone who wants to be there! The venue and the show are equipped with the following accessibility features:
• Fully accessible entrances and restrooms
• Accessible Seating
• Audio Descriptions
• Plain Language Summaries
• Print-outs of Spoken Text
• (Every audience member receives personal audio through headphones, so additional additional assistive listening devices are not necessary for this production.)
If any of these accommodations will help you experience this show, let us know!
Give us a heads up of any accessibility needs at boxoffice@roughhousetheater.com
When possible please communicate requests at least 48h prior to your show.
Sensory Warnings
For attendees with sensory sensitivities, please be aware that our show may include:
Fog and Haze
Flashing Lights
Loud Noises
Depictions of Puppet Violence
Parking
Self-parking is available in the Steppenwolf parking garage at 1624 N Halsted for $17.
Accessible parking spaces are located in Steppenwolf’s valet parking lot at 1700 N Halsted, one block north of the theater. Patrons who park here may pay the standard rate of $17 at Steppenwolf’s café in Front Bar.
Come Vaccinated. Masks recommended.
For the health and safety of our audiences and especially our performers, we suggest that all audience members wear a mask and we ask that everyone be vaccinated unless you have a medical exception.
Exchanges & Refunds
If you need to swap your tickets to another ticket time, email boxoffice@roughhousetheater.com
We'll try our best to help you out, but because of the limited tickets available in this show, we may not always be able to meet your requests. We are typically not able to accommodate exchange requests at less than 24 hours notice.