UNIMA-USA

06/10/2026

From our friends at Mayo Street Arts!

Mayo Street Arts will present “Grumbo’s Princess Dream” in Portland on Friday, June 26 at 7:00 PM.

It’s Grumbo’s second birthday! Or is it his 43rd? Who’s counting?

This year Grumbo wants Princesses. And Grumbo will get Princesses. Games, gifts, and grievous bodily injury. This birthday will have it all.

Will Grumbo get his birthday wish? Will Adam’s blood pressure finally catch up to him? Who asked for more of this?

Grumbo is an unabashedly late-night Fringe, live comedy show, centered on themes including radial self-acceptance, and community. Reviews from Grumbo's Big Night (Portfringe 2025) said, "This show was smart, it was funny, it was lewd, it was weird, it was like Sesame Street After Dark...surprisingly heartfelt fever dream."

For more information:
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/mayostreetarts/2126703/r/unima

06/08/2026

06/08/2026

06/08/2026

Let’s give a hand to this week’s Member Monday feature: Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop! Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop supports Native, Black, and POC artists in developing creative and technical skills in contemporary puppetry through workshops and developmental programs. Their Puppet Performance Intensive, taught by Andrew Kim, provides artists from a variety of disciplines with hands-on training in multiple styles of puppet performance. Artists who complete the intensive can continue into the New Puppetworks program, where they receive mentorship and funding to create their first puppet theater piece, culminating in a public performance. Through these programs, Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop creates opportunities for underrepresented artists to grow and thrive in puppetry. We thank Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop for their important work and for being a valued member of UNIMA-USA!

06/05/2026

06/05/2026

Meet Expansion residency artist Steven Widerman, aka the artistic director of The Puppet Company, a performing company that produces puppet theater for children and their families.

His project “Merkaba’s Projeny” is an ensemble piece with its origin in a solo piece based on “Steven Widerman’s Tetrahedron Marionette”. The intent is to illustrate the origin of life based upon this universal geometric building block. Marionettes, rod puppets, shadow puppets and mapped projection will be utilized to create the imagery.

With a long history in puppet work, including commercials and films, Steven has been involved in the application of Puppetry to entertainment, education, industry and advertising. With the assistance of artists, woodcarvers, painters and costumers, he has designed and built hundreds of puppets. He studied his craft with Master Puppeteer Bil Baird. In 1977 he founded The Puppet Company. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of UNIMA-USA, the international organization of puppeteers, is a past President of The Puppetry Guild of Greater New York, and is the founding Editor of the Guild’s acclaimed newsletter, PuppetMaster.
Steven is currently pioneering and advocating the filming of puppets with 3-D video equipment for which he has developed techniques he has named and trademarked as PuppetVid3D.

06/05/2026

Step right up for Doctor Bigelow’s Wild West Puppet Show, a rollicking traveling medicine show bursting with music, marvels, and mighty American legends!

Meet Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox as they fell forests with a single swing. Watch Pecos Bill ride a tornado across the prairie. And cheer on John Henry as he races the steam drill in a test of strength and spirit.

💙 Thank you to Kaiser Permanente for making it possible to bring this show back to our stage!
📅 July 1-August 2 | Ages 4+
🎟️ Tickets at puppet.org/programs/american-tall-tales

06/03/2026

Since arriving in Atlanta, conservators at Center for Puppetry Arts have been closely examining the nearly 900-pound figure to determine what restoration work may be needed before Kermit returns to public display.