*Crowds gathered on the Allerton Overlook lawn awaiting the Tholpavakoothu performance.*

On August 1st, Puppet Showplace audiences headed outdoors to Allerton Overlook in Brookline, MA to enjoy scenes from the dramatic epic Ramayana, performed by masters of Tholpvakoothu, a traditional form of shadow puppetry from Kerala, India.

Despite some summer showers that postponed this outdoor performance by one week, the Tholpavakoothu puppetry style drew quite the crowd! Audience members of all ages arrived with picnic blankets and chairs, ready to marvel at this celebrated shadow puppetry style.

*Performer Anthony Sellitto-Budney gives audiences an up-close view of the intricate puppets after the performance.*

And marvel, they did! Even longtime puppetry fans were amazed by the fire-lit shadow puppetry presentation, which featured about 160 different puppets. The screen was illuminated by 21 lighted lamps made of coconuts cut in half, filled with coconut oil and lit with cotton wicks.

Many members of the Puppet Showplace staff were also in attendance, including Box Office Associate Erin FM and summer intern Calla Paragiri, who snapped some of the stunning images of the firelit spectacle included in this post. Calla also wrote about the history of Tholpavakoothu on our blog, here!

*From Left: Hima Raveendran, Rahul Koonathara, Anthony Sellitto-Budney, and Puppet Showplace Executive Artistic Director Veronica Barron.*

The ensemble was led by Rahul Koonathara, a 12th-generation practitioner of this traditional form of fire-lit shadow puppetry from Kerala, India, and was supported by puppeteer Anthony Sellitto-Budney of BreakFAST Puppets.

This wasn’t their first visit to Puppet Showplace: Back in 2023, Koonthara journeyed to Boston — along with his father, Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar, Sellitto-Budney, and a team of guest puppeteers from the Puppet Arts program at the University of Connecticut — to share this storied shadow puppetry style to a packed house at Puppet Showplace Theater.

This year, Rahul Koonathara also instructed a Tholpavakoothu Shadow Puppetry Workshop at our theater. Attendees of this four-hour workshop learned how to cut their very own puppets in the style of Tholpavakoothu. Participants crafted jointed puppets using card stock and dowels, and learned all about the history of this storied art form.

*Participants of the Tholpavakoothu Shadow Puppetry Workshop, taken by Hima Raveendran.*

Tholpavakoothu is preserved as a family tradition by Koonathara’s family, and we were honored to share their shadow puppetry tradition with the Puppet Showplace community!

Missed the show? We hope to bring it back soon! In the meantime, check out our summer intern Calla Paragiri’s blog post about the history of Tholpavakooothu, watch our Instagram reel for a behind-the-scenes look at this Tholpavakoothu performance, and sign-up for our newsletter to receive updates about our upcoming season →

And, you can help Puppet Showplace’s free and low-cost performances continue to be accessible by making a donation, here →