Founded in 1957 by Ray Nelson, The Puppet Place is one of the oldest established puppet companies in Chicago, Illinois. Master puppeteer Mark Nichols became its director in 1991. It has been the guest artist for television, schools, libraries, shopping malls, neighborhood festivals, summercamps, birthday parties, holiday gatherings, and corporate events, as well as being featured performers at Ravinia Festival, Taste of Chicago, and Milwaukee's Summerfest. The company has won two Emmies for Outstanding Accomplishment in Children's Programming, and two Golden Camera awards at the National Industrial Film Symposium. And since 1979 The Puppet Place has been both performance and residency artists for Urban Gateways, the premier Arts in Education agency in the United States.
The Puppet Place's original adaptations of classic tales, “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and “The Magic Onion,” promote positive attitudes and family values. Its performances use a variety of puppetry styles, such as hand, rod, string, and shadow, which are mixed into each story to add depth and interest. Musical scores incorporating classical and contemporary music are also employed to add power and audio color to the presentations. The stories can be adapted for holiday programs and events such as Easter, Halloween, and Christmas.
The Puppet Place offers an array of puppet shows, residencies, and workshops which are very popular with park district programs, preschools, elementary schools, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and day care centers, and are adaptable to any age group.
Originally The Puppet Place shared space with the Victory Gardens Theatre, and then moved to its own storefront for 15 years. Now The Puppet Place is a touring theatre and accepts performance contracts throughout Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. For more information on scheduling a show, call 773-525-5944 or contact Mark Nichols by e-mail on www.ThePuppetPlace.com website.
Ray Nelson (1945-1991)
Ray Nelson Jr., 46, of Watervliet, Michigan, founder and artistic director of Chicago's Puppet Place theater, won numerous awards, including two Emmys for his work on a Chicago children's TV show.
His interest in the dramatic art began, he said in interviews, when he was a child in front of the TV set watching Kukla, Fran and Ollie. He was an only child and adopted the puppets as his brothers and sisters, later discovering they were not alive. He was subsequently given a cardboard stage and became a puppeteer.
In order to support his career, he became a substitute teacher, put on shows in schools, performed on the WBBM-TV Sunday morning show, “The Magic Door” and carved puppets on commission. The latter included making a two and one-half foot Ronald McDonald for a touring show that duplicated the characters seen on McDonald's commercials.
He opened the storefront Puppet Place in 1971. Admission was free, but donations were solicited. There he and other staff members performed such children's works as “Hansel and Gretel,” but also did more ambitious dramas such as Mark Twain's “Letters from Earth,” and Henrik Ibsen's “Peer Gynt.” The theater was in a constant struggle for survival and several times relocated as a result.
“Learning to be a puppeteer is a long process,” he said in a Tribune interview. “You pick it up little by little, until you get to the point where you can look back and realize how far you've come. I find myself sitting backstage during shows, looking around and saying to myself, ‘Man, it sure has changed from cardboard boxes.’”
He performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in the Goodman Theater, and at Renaissance Fairs in Illinois and Massachusetts.
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