TOMTE Puppet Show and Japanese Traditional Folk Puppetry Workshop by Tom Lee at The Well

For the final day of the SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival begins with a performance immediately followed by a workshop on Japanese Traditional Folk Puppetry by Tom Lee at The Well.

11AM-12PM TOMTE Puppet Show 

Tomte is a Swedish gnome who takes care of a family and their farm, though they never

see him. On a cold winter night, Tomte teaches us about the importance of kindness

and looking after all living things.

designed and performed by Tom Lee

storyteller Lisa Gonzales, adapted from “The Tomten” by Astrid Lindgren, from a poem by Victor Rydberg

12-1:30PM 

Japanese Traditional Folk Puppetry with Tom Lee

Puppet artist Tom Lee leads a workshop in Japanese puppetry techniques inspired by his teacher, Master Koryū Nishikawa V.  Participants will learn some basic history about the form and then dive in for some hands-on practice with a 3-person Bunraku-style training puppet. The Bunraku-style is hugely influential in contemporary puppetry and is one of the world’s most sophisticated puppet and literary traditions.

Tom Lee is a puppet artist, designer and director based in Chicago. He began his career at La MaMa Experimental Theater in New York. His work explores the synthesis of manipulated objects, miniatures and figures with the language of film and animation. Mr. Lee grew up in Hawai’i and studied traditional puppetry in Japan. He is a student of Japanese master puppeteer Koryū Nishikawa V with whom he created Shank’s Mare (2015) and Akutagawa (2023). His original work has toured the U.S., Japan, France, Bulgaria and Indonesia. Mr. Lee’s  puppetry performances include War Horse (Broadway), Madama Butterfly (Metropolitan Opera) and The Queen of Spades (Lyric Opera Chicago).  He is the recipient of multiple Jim Henson Foundation grant awards for his original puppetry work and is co-director of the Chicago Puppet Studio and Chicago Puppet Lab.  Tom teaches puppetry design and performance nationally and internationally. www.tomleeprojects.com