Puppetopia 2025: Rhynoceron
DREAM Music Puppetry Program presents
Puppetopia 2025: Rhynoceron
Directed and designed by KT Shivak
May 21-25, 2025
The world premiere of a puppetry show that traces the true events surrounding the arrival of a one-horned rhinoceros to Renaissance Europe, sparking an obsession that continued for hundreds of years. Through acts of hunting and collecting, Shivak’s life size rhino puppet transforms in front of our eyes from a natural inspiring wonder to an object of human greed. Shivak and company hail from Chicago where this show was created with support from The Chicago International Puppetry Festival and this mark’s their New York Debut.
Puppeteers: Chih-Jou Cheng, Jacky Kelsey, KT Shivak
Music and Composition: Ben Zucker
Puppets/Stage designed and built by KT Shivak
HERE’s Puppetopia, a two-week puppetry state of mind, returns for its fourth annual edition. Curated by HERE Co-Founder Barbara Busackino and Dream Music Artistic Director and star Alum Basil Twist, the festival presents original work.
See all three Puppetopia 2025 productions—The Harlem Doll Palace, Variations on (the) Water, and Rhynoceron—with our special $90 Package!
Puppetopia 2025: Rhynoceron
Dates: May 21-25, 2025
Location: Here’s DOT Theater, 145 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY
Runtime: Approx. 55 minutes with no intermission
For Ages 8 and up
Performances:
Wednesday, May 21st: 8:30 pm
Thursday, May 22nd: 8:30 pm
Friday, May 23rd: 8:30 pm
Saturday, May 24th: 4 pm and 8:30 pm
Sunday, May 25th: 4 pm
Ticket Price: 10 for $10, $35, $50, $100
See all three Puppetopia 2025 productions—The Harlem Doll Palace, Variations on Water, and Rhynoceron—with our special $90 Package!
Click Here to Purchase Puppetopia 2025 Package
We understand the extreme challenges that our current financial climate presents. No matter your socioeconomic status, we want everyone to have access to groundbreaking art. There are ten tickets priced at $10 available for each performance on a first-come, first-served basis, for those in need of financial assistance. These tickets are available with the code ACCESS. Limit two tickets per patron. Subject to availability.
Puppeteers: Chih-Jou Cheng, Jacky Kelsey, KT Shivak
Music and Composition: Ben Zucker
Puppets/Stage designed and built by KT Shivak
KT Shivak is a builder, puppet designer, and puppeteer working in Chicago. Her puppets have appeared in the Chicago International Puppetry Festival, the New York Times, Puppetry International, the Chicago Tribune, and at the Chicago Cultural Center. As one of the first members of the Chicago Puppet Studio she has designed for numerous theater and film productions including Jeff Award winning The Steadfast Tin Soldier (Lookingglass Theater), Jeff Award nominated Pinocchio (House Theater), and Vancouver (Ma-Yi Theater Company). Her works “Rhynoceron” and “Derelict Devils” have been supported by DCASE grants and residencies at High Concept Labs, the National Puppetry Conference, and the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. She studied sculpture and performance at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where a love for wood carving and simple machines led her to start working for a puppet theater for the first time. www.ktshivak.com
Ben Zucker uses music to speculate on the systems and shapes of change, which has led to a wide-ranging career as a composer, multi-instrumentalist improviser, producer, and cultural worker, with contributions to experimental scenes across North America and Europe. Acclaimed as a “master of improvisation” (IMPOSE Magazine), and “more than a little bit remarkable” (Free Jazz Blog), his work includes “stirring compositions…built on a lifetime of musical curiosity” (Chicago Reader), and performances on vibraphone, brass, keys, voice, and electronics across styles. This intentionally diverse, constantly engaged practice has included highlights such as compositions featured at the Berlin Philharmonie, London Roundhouse, and in PBS documentaries, residencies with OneBeat and the Stockholm EMS, and collaborations with groundbreaking musical figures ranging from Anthony Braxton to Sudan Archives. They live in Chicago, working as a freelance musician, lecturer at Roosevelt University, President of New Music Chicago, and curator for Elastic Arts’ Improvised Music Series. More information and music can be found at www.benzuckersounds.com.
Jacky Kelsey is a nonbinary soft sculptor, costume designer, and puppeteer based in Chicago. Their work deals with themes of body, comfort, neurodivergence, and queer identity. Motivated by a belief that play is necessary for life, Jacky treats the multimedia collaborative potential of puppetry as a playground. Their puppets were recently shown at the Chicago Cultural Center’s 2025 “Potential Energy” exhibition. In 2022 they were granted an Artist in Residency position at the Chicago Puppet Studio, during which they designed sculptural dance costumes for Hedwig Dance’s *META | MOR | PHOS* in collaboration with Bauhaus Dessau. In 2023 they created *Fidget,* a surreal show about giant restless hands, in participation with the Chicago Puppet Studio’s eight month Puppet Lab workshop. They designed and performed for *Little Fears* as part of Steppenwolf’s 2025 Lookout Project. They remain active in the local physical theater and puppetry scene, working with theaters such as Roughhouse, Manual Cinema, and Steppenwolf.
Chih-Jou Cheng is a Taiwanese physical theatre creator, movement artist, and puppeteer currently based in Chicago. She has performed in productions such as The Dream King (Teatro Vista), The King and I (Drury Lane), and A Chorus Line (Metropolis), also worked with Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Chicago Puppet Studio. Her recent works, including “Above the Water,” “Unfinished Island Songs,” and “Arriving at Dawn,” delve into themes of migration, identity, and healing, aiming to foster compassion and promote collective healing through innovative, interdisciplinary physical theatre. Her work has been supported by Chicago Cultural Center Dance Studio residencies, Ragdale residency, and DCASE. She has been awarded the Chicago Arts & Health Pilot for Creative Workers and the 2024 Princess Grace Honoraria.
For more of Cheng’s work: www.chihjou-cheng.com