Rough House Theatre’s House of the Exquisite Corpse, returns to Steppenwolf’s Merle Reskin Garage Space, October 10-November 2 , 2024!

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar

Chicago’s only immersive puppet haunted house 

House of the Exquisite Corpse IV: Superstitions

Chicago’s one and only immersive puppet haunted house 

returns October 10-November 2 

at Steppenwolf's Merle Reskin Garage Space

Here at ChiIL Live Shows & ChiIL Mama, we've caught every year of Rough House's House of the Exquisite Corpse, since its inception. Aside from their pandemic era offering with full face shields, that fogged up like aquarium glass, it's been a macabre delight. 

Chicago’s only immersive puppet haunted house, House of the Exquisite Corpse IV: Superstitions, returns October 10-November 2 at Steppenwolf's Merle Reskin Garage Space with an all-new program of puppet horror sure to shock, astonish and inspire.

Fans of Halloween, haunted houses, puppetry and live theater are the ideal audience for House of the Exquisite Corpse, where original puppetry, physical performance, soundscape, and illusion combine for a frightfully fun night of smart, creative adult Halloween revelry. 

Or, as the Chicago Reader put it, “if you want to move beyond schlock and shock into an elevated horror experience this October, look no further than House of the Exquisite Corpse.”

Rough House Theater's House of the Exquisite Corpse III in 2023 featured this puppet by Grace Needlman and Pablo Monterubio, puppeteered by Lindsey Ball. Credit: Yvette Marie Dostatni

Rough House Theater's House of the Exquisite Corpse III featured puppets by artists Justin D’Acci and Sion Silva. Credit: Yvette Marie Dostatni

Each fall, Rough House Theatre’s puppet haunt returns with a new theme. 2024 is the year of Superstitions.

So don’t step on a crack, because six teams of Chicago artists who work in puppetry and other disciplines have joined to create six different puppet horror experiences, each inspired by a different superstition:

“Step on a crack”

By Ken Buckingham and Corey Smith

“Broken Mirror”

by Justin D’Acci and Pablo Monterrubio

“If you lie, the devil’s darning needle will sew your mouth shut”

By Chio Cabrera, Alonso Galue and Brett Swinney

“Through the Looking Glass”

By Felix Mayes and Cam Armstrong Smith

“A White Bird in the House is an Omen of Death”

By Jacky Kelsey, Fletcher Pierson and Kevin Wesson

“An ill fate befalls those who pluck from fruit in their dreams”

By Sion Silva and Emilie Wingate



House of the Exquisite Corpse III features puppets by Ken Buckingham, puppeteered by Felix Mayes and Kevin Michael Wesson. Credit Yvette Marie Dostatni



House of the Exquisite Corpse III featured puppets by Emilie Wingate and Tom Lee, puppeteered by Sam Lewis. Credit Yvette Marie Dostatni

Enter House of the Exquisite Corpse IV: Superstitions, if you dare.

First, you’ll gather in a make-shift foyer, where a bar sells beer, wine and a truly horrifying speciality cocktail (TBA).

Next, small groups enter via timed entries. Once inside, they huddle close together, braving the house’s dark, murky expanse, stopping by each “room” to spy through keyholes, cracks, and hidden doors to witness the carnage, horrors, and sometimes, humor, happening inside. 

“Our Halloween production gives local puppet artists the freedom to follow their own visions, create their own visuals, and be motivated by whatever flavor of horror that freaks that person out the most,” said Mike Oleon, Co-Artistic Director of Rough House, who conceived House of the Exquisite Corpse with fellow Co-Artistic Director, Claire Saxe.

“Then we all come together to assemble a collaborative installation that, collectively, blurs the lines between horror, puppetry and theater, beckoning you to gaze into a variety of nightmares you won’t soon forget.”

Opening Night is Thursday, October 10. Visit House of the Exquisite Corpse, if you dare, Thursday through Saturday, through November 2. Ticketed entries are every 15 minutes, starting at 7 p.m. Last entry at 9:30 p.m.

Tickets are $21-$46, and go on sale August 18 at RoughHouseTheater.com. Rough House also offers several Pay What You Want options. This production is recommended for audiences ages 14 and over.

House of the Exquisite Corpse III featured this puppet by

Grace Needlman and Pablo Monterubio, puppeteered by Lindsey Ball.

Credit: Yvette Marie Dostatni



House of the Exquisite Corpse III featured puppets by Jacky Kelsey, puppeteered by Chio Cabrera and Lucy Wirtz. Credit Yvette Marie Dostatni

About Rough House Theater Co.

Rough House Theater Co. is on a mission to connect individuals and communities through art that celebrates the weird things that make us unique and the weirder things that bring us together.

Rough House creates theater that captures the heart through the eye. Their shows use puppetry, music, and human performance to tell intimate stories, as strange as they are sincere. Through performances, presentations of work by fellow artists, and artist training, Rough House aspires to make Chicago a national hub of contemporary puppet theater, comprising a diverse and ever-growing community of audiences and artists. 

Earlier this year, the Chicago Reader named Rough House Theatre Company’s Nasty, Brutish & Short puppet cabaret series “Best late-night adult-content puppet cabaret.” The company’s work has also appeared in the National Puppetry Festival, The Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, punk houses, funeral parlors, a lotion factory, and the woods of Appalachia.

For more information, visit RoughHouseTheater.com and follow the company on Instagram and Facebook.

FREE Streaming and Cheap In Person Adult Puppet Fun With Nasty, Brutish and Short: A Puppet Cabaret.

ChiIL Live Shows On Our Radar 

Chicago Puppet Fest, Rough House, and Links Hall present:

Nasty, Brutish & Short

January 20-21 & 27-28, 2023 at 10:30pm

Suggested for Ages: 16 and up

 

REVIEW:

By Bonnie Kenaz-Mara

Chicago's being taken over by a puppet invasion for the now annual Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Don't miss this! We caught Friday night's Nasty, Brutish & Short (named for Thomas Hobbes infamous 1651 quote on life without art and society) and were well entertained by this adult puppet cabaret.

Acts ranged from shadow puppets to life-sized 3D creations, potty mouthed muppet types on MC duty, a giant plush vagina with a chatty clit, a female puppet doctor taking actual medical questions from the audience, and more. Our favorite piece was Mother Water, a gorgeous and moving shadow puppet film. Check out all the nights of on Nasty, Brutish & Short: A Puppet Cabaret on YouTube, now available for free streaming any time HERE.

BRITTANY CLEMONS & MAISIE O'BRIEN: "Mother Water" is a shadow puppetry short film pilot exploring racism, African-American and African folklore and Reconstruction through a supernatural lens.

Puppet cabaret line-up this Friday (Jan 20) at 10:30pm! Links Hall Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival

LINDSEY BALL: This shortened version of "Kopfkino" features a suitcase crankie story of the real history and science of crickets, infusing them with a heroic sweetness and a bit of magic.

(photo by Evan Barr)

MYRA KALAW: "The Soup & the Crumbs" is a shadow puppetry piece about two mismatched creatures caught in an act of communion.

MADIGAN BURKE: Magican is a filmmaker, artist, and engineer whose work aims to explore queerness, encourage curiosity, and spread joy.

Also check out Les Anges, Rocio "Chio" Cabrera, Dana Kogan and more!

If you're short on time and/or money, Chicago’s favorite late-night puppet cabaret, Nasty, Brutish & Short at Links is a great place to start. This special festival edition, featuring the charming and furry host, Jameson, is home to raucous, raunchy, dark, sassy, sad, and mostly hilarious puppet theater, highlighting more experimental work by out of towners as well as local favorites in four different nights of puppet revelry. Every night features a different lineup and all are available live as a ticketed event or streaming free. Catch the live stream show nights at 10:30 on YouTube or watch later at your leisure.

Location: Links Hall, 3111 N. Western Ave.

Cost: $18/$15 students & seniors

Running Time: 85 mins

ADA Accessible

Extend your festival experience by hitting Chicago’s favorite late-night puppet cabaret, Nasty, Brutish & Short. This special festival edition, featuring the charming and furry host, Jameson, is home to raucous, raunchy, dark, sassy, sad and mostly hilarious puppet theater, highlighting more experimental work by out of towners as well as local favorites in four different nights of puppet revelry.

Here at ChiIL Live Shows, we've been catching Nasty, Brutish & Short year round for nearly a decade. Some of the off season shows are uneven, with some brilliant pieces and some that... need work. Still, that's the point. Like everything, puppetry takes practice, and we love that Nasty, Brutish & Short is a place where beginners as well as seasoned professionals come to play together in a safe place to workshop new material or puppet for the first time. During the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival most of the pieces are phenomenal and it's a great place to catch excerpts from multiple International show that are playing around town. Highly recommended.

Bonnie is a Chicago based writer, theatre critic, photographer, videographer, actress, artist and Mama. She owns two websites where she publishes frequently: ChiILLiveShows.com (adult) & ChiILMama.com (family friendly).

Nasty, Brutish & Short

January 20-21 & 27-28, 2023 at 10:30pm

January 20th at 10:30pm

January 21st at 10:30pm

January 27th at 10:30pm

January 28th at 10:30pm

(and streaming any time HERE)

About the Co-Presenters

Rough House connects individuals and communities through art that celebrates the weird things that make us unique, and the weirder things that bring us together. We create puppet art that captures the heart through the eye. Our work use puppetry, music, and human performance to tell stories that are intimate, strange, and sincere. Based in Chicago, Rough House has been presented at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, The National Puppetry Festival, Physical Festival Chicago, and Open Eye Figure Theater’s Toy Theater After Dark. Rough House has toured across the United States, performing in auditoriums, lotion factories, funeral homes, basements, bars, galleries, punk houses and even the woods of Appalachia. Through Collaboration, Education, Art-making, Curating and Performance, Rough House seeks to make a bizarre and loving home for puppet makers and audiences alike. roughhousetheater.com

Links Hall encourages artistic innovation and public engagement by maintaining a facility and providing flexible programming for the research, development and presentation of new work in the performing arts. Through its residency programs, artist-curated festivals, co-presentations with self-producing artists, cabarets, performance series, workshops, and low-cost studio rentals, Links provides a home for artists across all performance disciplines, at all stages of their careers. Founded in 1978 by choreographers Bob Eisen, Carol Bobrow, and Charlie Vernon, Links Hall became a National Performance Network partner in 1998 and received a MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions in 2016. In April 2013, Links and musician/presenter Mike Reed created a collaborative arts venue as the shared home of Constellation Arts and Links Hall. See Chicago Dance named Links Hall as the “Fearlessly Inspired” organization of 2020 noting the adaptive spirit and unfailing desire to support artists of all kinds. www.linkshall.org

ONE NIGHT ONLY: Nasty, Brutish & Short: A POCI Puppet Cabaret

ChiIL Live Shows on our radar

Rough House Theater's quarterly puppet cabaret 

Here at ChiIL Live Shows, we're all about inclusion and access for people and puppets! Diversity in the arts makes for stellar storytelling, and everyone deserves a voice. So, we're jazzed that this month's quarterly puppet cabaret will focus on Puppeteers of Color Incubator (POCI) artists. Check it out!

Nasty, Brutish & Short: A POCI Puppet Cabaret
Co-Curated by: Jamillah Hinson & Nik Whitcomb
Monday, December 10 | 7:30pm Tickets: $8-$40 

Nasty Brutish & Short is Links Hall and Rough House Theater's quarterly puppet cabaret. It offers four annual evenings of contemporary short-form puppet experiments and object based theater to SOLD OUT adult audiences. 

This past August, in partnership with the Art Leaders of Color Network (ALCN), Links Hall and Rough House launched the Puppeteers of Color Incubator (POCI). A cohort of nine puppeteers were selected to participate in a six month program designed to support the development and creation of new short form puppet works by artist of color. Lead by ALCN members Jamillah Hinson & Nik Whitcomb December's Nasty Brutish & Short marks the first public showing of the POCI artists' new projects! 

The POCI Cohort includes: Rasaan Booker, Sheri Flanders, Allyson Gonzalez, Jerrell Henderson, Maddie Hong, Margaret Kemp, Louise Loeb, Jose Nateras, Chris Pow. 

"The Puppeteers of Color Incubator (POCI) exists to give puppeteers and artists of color a space to explore, experiment, and develop their tools as puppeteers while deepening their understanding of their own individual artistry. POCI seeks to expand the art of puppetry within the community and create a network of artists for support and further creative opportunities." --- Jamillah Hinson & Nik Whitcomb, POCI Co-Curators