SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival
Visionaries + Voices SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival is an ongoing performance and workshop series which celebrates experimental puppetry and storytelling for all ages, abilities, and experience levels.
SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival trailer by Michael Molloy
★ UPCOMING ★
SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival 2025
Open Call:
PUPPETEER-IN-RESIDENCE
Application due: July 28th, 2025
Notified by: August 1st, 2025
Introducing the 2025 SHOW OF HANDS Puppeteer in Residence, Visionaries + Voices's new opportunity for puppeteers to create an experimental puppet show in collaboration with our studio's artists. Apply to co-create a 10-15 minute original puppet show to present at SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival on October 24 + 25, 2025. The purpose of this residency is to build relationships between V+V artists and community puppet artists and to further V+V’s mission of creating opportunities for artists with and without disabilities.
You may apply as individual artists or as a small group. Some experience with puppetry is preferred. Here are some ways you could collaborate with V+V artists, but not limited to: storyboarding, designing and making puppets, puppeteering, or foley sound effects. V+V artists have experience with shadow puppets, rod puppets, crankies, fiber puppets, body puppetry, and large scale parade puppets. We encourage you to introduce your form of puppetry to V+V artists. This residency provides time, space, and community to foster experimentation and make new collaborative work.
RESIDENTS RECEIVE:
$1000 stipend
Mentorship
Opportunity to perform a new puppet show at SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Slam or Puppet Cabaret
EXPECTATIONS:
Work alongside one or more V+V artists to plan, make, and perform a 10-15 minute puppet show at Puppet Cabaret on Friday, October 24th 8-10pm OR Puppet Slam on Saturday, October 25th 2-4pm.
Work with artists at both the Northside and Blue Ash studios. The V+V studios are open Monday through Friday 8:30am-4:00pm and 8:30am-8:00pm on Thursdays at the Northside studio. Puppeteers-in-Residence must have availability to work in the studios during some of these hours.
Meet once a week with V+V staff and other puppeteers-in-residence to share, workshop, and give feedback about works in progress
TO APPLY:
Please send a link or images of past work, a page description of your intentions for the residency, and any other supporting materials to Lizzy DuQuette lduquette@visionariesandvoices.com
Current employees are excluded from applying. The residency is focused on artists in the local Cincinnati area due to not being able to provide housing or plane travel, but we are open to any possibility of interested artists.
SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival 2025
★ PAST EVENTS ★
SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Cabaret
SATURDAY, JULY 20, 2024
8:30-10 PM
The Lounge Northside
3938 Spring Grove Ave
Cincinnati OH, 45223
Visionaries + Voices proudly presented the SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Cabaret, an adults only variety show, which showcased local and national puppeteers. The cabaret included three shows created with V+V artists and performances by Melodic Connections musicians.
A packed house of V+V friends and fans celebrated inclusive arts during this rowdy, raunchy, grim, and hilarious night of Disability Pride debauchery!
July is Disability Pride Month, commemorating the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. Disability Pride Month invites us all to honor the community's history, experiences and achievements. Visionaries + Voices strives to broaden access to creativity for artists with disabilities, and through SHOW OF HANDS programming we've explored how puppetry is such a potent medium to delve into themes of the human experience, including disability. Puppets help us tell stories, represent ourselves and each other, and share powerful ideas and experiences.
PUPPETS ARE FOR EVERYONE!
SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival 2023
SEPTEMBER 1 - OCTOBER 14, 2023
Visionaries + Voices presents: SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival was a raucous celebration of experimental puppetry and storytelling for all ages, abilities, and experience levels. Beginning September 1, 2023, a six-week workshop series introduced the scope and possibilities of puppetry through hands-on learning, exploration, and play. Puppetry artists and Visionaries + Voices teaching artists co-led free workshops throughout the city. The festival culminated October 11-14, 2023, in boisterous performances, a gallery exhibition, a puppet cabaret, an energetic giant puppet parade through Camp Washington, and SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Slam, a showcase of original short-form puppet performances by workshop participants. The festival centered the artistic community at V+ V and gave artists with disabilities a platform to teach, perform, and exhibit art.
SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Slam
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 2024
2:00PM
The Factory Events
1546 Knowlton Street
Cincinnati, OH, 45223
Visionaries + Voices presents the SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Slam, an all ages + abilities variety show featuring performances by artists from near and far. This diverse group of puppeteers will dazzle, delight, and challenge your expectation on what puppetry can be! Join us on Sunday afternoon on November 3rd at the Factory Events for an unforgettable experience!
PUPPETS ARE FOR EVERYONE!
Sponsored by the Puppet Slam Network and Ohio Arts Council
Videography and editing by Justin Warrick
EYEBROWS by Renee Martin and Jon Flannery at the SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Slam, October 14th, 2023.
SHOW OF HANDS Puppet Festival is presented by Visionaries + Voices and generously funded by ArtsWave Catalyzing Impact, Ohio Arts Council ArtsRise, Puppet Slam Network, Heritage Bank, JWC, and supporters like you! Indigo Hippo generously donated art materials for our workshops. Thank you to our workshop hosts and partner arts organizations.