Events and Workshops | Ages 13+ | Our Location
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Learn Japanese sanninzukkai
Puppetry NOW Artist Tom Lee introduces the Japanese sanninzukkai (three-person puppetry) style, most widely known as Bunraku. Participants will learn about the history of the form, its music, chanting, puppets, and performers before being able to work on their feet with a traditional puppet gifted by Lee’s teacher, fifth-generation Master Puppeteer Koryū Nishikawa V.
Participants should wear loose-fitting black clothes and be prepared to move.
Meet the Presenter
Director | Designer | Puppet Artist
Tom Lee
Tom Lee is a director, designer, and puppet artist, born in Korea and raised in Hawai’i. He began his career at La MaMa in New York and later worked with St. Ann’s Warehouse Puppet Lab. His work blends figures, film, and animation, creating original puppet theater while also performing and designing through Chicago Puppet Studio. Notable credits include Sounding the Resonant Path, Shank’s Mare, Akutagawa, and The Great Zodiac Animal Race, as well as performances in War Horse (Tony Award), Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera, and Petrushka with the New York Philharmonic. His design work spans theater, opera, dance, and film. He has taught at Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Chicago, and Lincoln Center Theater and co-founded the Chicago Puppet Lab in 2021.
