This summer, we’re bringing puppetry to an outdoor location near you!
July 5 (Sat) 2025: 12:00 pm at Emerson College’s UnCommon Stage in the Boston Common, corner of Boylston Street & Tremont Street (map)
FREE — no tickets necessary!
Check out the rest of the Summer Outdoor Series →
Visit us inside the theater for Pay-What-You-Can Summer Sundays! →
About the Show
Party Animals follows four furry friends as they navigate the biggest social hurdle of their young lives — throwing their first party! Meet a bunny with boundless energy, a sloth with social anxiety, a hedgehog wrestling with wrapping, and a skunk who's trying to keep everything cool and under control. Through song, dance, and original rock 'n' roll music by Boston local Phil Berman (of Puppet Playtime & The Holiday Sing-Along), these little stars discover that music can be an exuberant and healthy way to express their inner selves.
This latest Incubator show comes from Sarah Nolen (Puppet Motion) — creator of Judy Saves the Day and Lisa the Wise; and our beloved Resident Artist! Party Animals balances silly antics with deeper truths, all conveyed through traditional hand puppetry performance: the life of the party!
Legendary rock star Pete Townshend once said, "Rock 'n' roll might not solve your problems, but it does let you dance all over them" — equally true for children and their grown-ups!
All ages welcome, especially enjoyed by ages 5 - 9
Hand puppetry
Length: 40 minutes
Language: English
From Waltham!
The development of Party Animals was funded in part by a Family Grant from the Jim Henson Foundation and supported by Puppet Showplace Theater’s Incubator program.
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About the Artist
Sarah Nolen is a puppeteer and filmmaker originally from Austin, Texas. As Puppet Showplace Theater’s Resident Artist, she performs regularly for youth and family audiences and teaches puppetry in camps, workshops, residencies, and evening adult classes. Her three original productions, The Fairy Tailor, Judy Saves the Day, and Lisa the Wise, are all available to tour — plus, her latest show Party Animals. Sarah recently designed puppets for Little Uprisings’s My Night in the Planetarium, Metropolitan Chorale's The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore, and for Suffolk University's Loss of Breath: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe. In addition to her work in puppetry, Sarah is an experienced filmmaker. In 2015, she received the Mister Rogers Memorial Scholarship in support of her television pilot Treeples, a show geared towards empowering girls, which screened at film festivals across the U.S. Sarah earned her BFA in film from Southern Methodist University, and an MFA in Puppet Arts from the University of Connecticut.
