Who we are

The Puppeteers' Cooperative is a group of artists and puppeteers working in cities around the nation to create giant puppet parades, pageants, and ceremonies of celebration and complaint, using simple materials and movements to build community cardboard extravaganzas. We have worked with groups around the US and Canada, from Nova Scotia in the North to Florida in the South, and with festivals including the Atlanta Arts Festival and the Bumbershoot Festival of Seattle, creating semi-instantaneous pageants, art installations, and parades. Our massive pageants at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival in New York have explored neurosis and traffic jams in "Romeo and Juliet in New York City", space and parrots in "The Tempest on Mars", the highway system from Troy to Ithaca in "The Odyssey" fear of Da Mayor in "Metropopolis", and city as circus in "Grand Meg-o-lopolis Circus". Our 'Triumph of the Arts" parades with the Governor's Institute on the Arts of Vermont have become a beloved tradition. Puppeteers from the Puppeteers' Cooperative have worked with First Night of Boston and First Night International and with First Night celebrations around the country since their inception, creating both experimental commissioned parade works and sections, and sprited and colorful community group parade pieces.

The Puppeteers' Cooperative is also involved with a number of interrelated groups: Hi-Art videos, which makes videos of giant puppet pageants and miniature tabletop productions; News of the Week, for mini street shows; the Back Alley Puppet Theater, which creates parades and parade puppets in the Boston area; the Puppet Free Library, which lends puppets, banners, and masks to people and institutions in the Boston area; and the Construction Section, puppet makers.
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