Enjoy a weekend celebration of artistry, community and history
SEPT
9-10
Sandglass Theater is pleased to announce the return of its most beloved community event. Puppets in Paradise brings together artists and audiences for a two-day celebration of puppetry and theater arts set in the beautiful agrarian landscape of Southern Vermont. This premier biennial family event is produced in collaboration with Retreat Farm. At Puppets in Paradise, audiences will walk around the farm and encounter short-form puppet performances, theater artists, and musicians amidst the fields, historic barns, and animals. Food and refreshments from local vendors add to the delight of a beautiful day.
Enjoy a weekend celebration of artistry, community, and history thanks to support from the New England Foundation for the Arts, The Windham Foundation, and the Vermont Arts Council.
Puppets in Paradise runs from 10am to 4pm (last performance begins at 3:45). Golf Carts will facilitate accessibility options for most performance locations. Please allow at least 2 hours to experience the farm, animals, trails, and performances. We understand that folks have a range of budgetary realities and offer sliding scale ticket tiers.
This community event is made possible by
About Sandglass Theater
Dedicated to the arts of theater and puppetry as means of exploring contemporary issues, Sandglass employs original ensemble performances and collaborations with diverse theater artists to spark wonder and teach through art.
This year Sandglass welcomes an exciting roster of first-time and returning performers. See more inforamtion about their shows below:
Fly features the Swan and the Flamingo, two giant birds built entirely from garbage and obsolete items, who live between two worlds and remind us of times when we were perhaps more in tune with nature around us.
Magnificent Monster Circus: Come one, come all, to a circus like no other! Encounter magnificent creatures from the wilds of your imagination as their quirky human caretaker tries to teach them new tricks.
Jeghetto’s Pop Up Variety Show: Join in and interact with Jeghetto’s unique style of puppets. This promises to be a magical experience for children of all ages.
Subway Creatures: A beloved pet rat that gets lost in NYC’s train station. While trying to find her way back home, she encounters many “subway creatures.”
The King’s Justice: A courtly spectacle is coming to this year’s festival. The King's justice shall be swift and merciless. Will you be spared the axe? F
Hugo and Claude: High on a french cathedral sit the gargoyle duo Hugo and Claude. Alike in stone only, one delights in the daily visits from pigeon friends and dreams of flying freely with them, while the other can't stand them and can only grumble about those pesky little birds. One day, a miracle happens.
Bee Resilient: An exploration of life connections and cycles. The bee yearns for the great gift of pollen afforded by the sunflower, a massive and triumphant feat of annual growth through the hills of Slavic lands
Selections From Conference of the Birds: A play adapted from a great 12th Century poem from Persia – the ancient land that is now the country of Iran. In this excerpt directed by Eric Bass and Mackenzie Doss the birds are on a quest for happiness. T
Bug: An unsuspecting scientist peeking through a microscope beholds a bug that opens its wings and reveals a series of mysterious transformations that are entirely unscientific.
To Sheep To Dream: We are but sheep in the wild, and so we dance. Perhaps for fun, maybe for hope, or even a bit for protection, we build a dance one step, one body, one gathering at a time.