WINTER SUNSHINE SERIES
Coming February 2026!
Dedicated to serving children, families and schools through the art of puppetry, Southern Vermont’s favorite puppet theater event for young audiences offers a range of live puppet theater performances, workshops and school engagements for affordable prices.
Winter Sunshine provides a lively respite from the cold, a creative interlude between snow shoveling and wood schlepping, and the shine of laughter through the darkness of our Vermont winter months.
Public performances take place every Saturday in February at 11 AM and 2 PM at Sandglass Theater.
Special performances for school groups on Fridays can be booked by contacting Jana Zeller.
Meet our 2026 Winter Sunshine Artists:
Cardboard Explosion! by Brad Shur.
Experience stories no one has ever seen before, brought to life using nothing but cardboard and the power of your imagination. With help from the audience, puppeteer Brad Shur transforms simple cardboard shapes into elaborate puppet characters, then brings them to life right before your eyes.
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Puppeteer, puppet builder and arts educator Brad Shur is the founder and lead artist of Paper Heart Puppets. Brad began performing as a student at the Rhode Island School of Design. While earning a degree in film, he was a regular performer at late night puppet slams and with Big Nazo Puppets.
From there, Brad went on to tour nationally with Wood and String Puppet Theatre and Vermont Puppetree. As a freelance puppet builder he created puppets for American Idol, Dolly Parton’s Dollywood amusement park and many theaters and other performers. In 2009, he became the Resident Artist at Puppet Showplace Theater in Brookline, Massachusetts where he served as the lead teaching artist and touring puppeteer for eight years. During that time, Brad developed six original shows and revived several classic shows created by Paul Vincent Davis.
The Fairy Circus by Tanglewood Marionettes.
The Fairy Circus features over twenty turn-of-the-century-style trick puppets. The puppets dance, play instruments, juggle, contort, transform, and fly through the air with the greatest of ease, all to the best-loved music of favorite composers. This show is sure to delight young children and family audiences alike.
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Founded in 1993, Tanglewood Marionettes is a nationally touring marionette theater based in New England. Large, beautifully hand-crafted marionettes, colorful sets, and integrated lighting and sound create a fully immersive theatrical experience. Our highly skilled puppeteers have spent many years perfecting their art, delighting audiences of all ages as they bring our repertoire of classic tales to life.
Party Animals by Puppet Motion.
Party Animals follows five 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, these little stars discover that music can be an exuberant and healthy way to express yourself.
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Party Animals balances silly antics with deeper truths, all conveyed through traditional hand puppetry performance. Legendary rock star Pete Townshend once said, "Rock 'n' roll might not solve your problems, but it does let you dance all over them" — a truth for the ages, and for all ages.
Sarah Nolen is a puppeteer & director based out of Waltham, Massachusetts, originally from Austin, Texas. She has an MFA in Puppetry from the University of Connecticut, and a BFA in Cinema-Television from Southern Methodist University. Sarah works in puppetry for both stage and screen. Through her company Puppet Motion, Sarah tours original family shows throughout the New England area!
The Baffo Box Show by Modern Times Theater.
Performed in a one-of-a-kind suit-stage, this show packs classic hand puppetry, Dadaist ventriloquism, and stand-up comedy into a cardboard box and delivers it, with impeccable timing, live on stage.
Inside the box are the Baffos — two slapstick chaps who keep the sun, moon and everything else running on schedule. From the moment the lid opens, audiences are captivated as the Baffos juggle and dance their way through the day’s chores, despite the undeniable evidence that their world is changing.
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A daring work of puppetry and object manipulation, full of beautiful images, junk music sonatas, and Modern Times Theater’s unique brand of all ages comedy. This re-envisioning of classic hand puppet forms is digital entertainment as it was meant to be: two hands, ten fingers, and no camera tricks.
Puppeteered by Justin Lander and directed by Rose Friedman, The Baffo Box Show was supported by a 2022 Family Grant from the Jim Henson Foundation.
Modern Times Theater pursues a radically divergent model of art making, creating venues in unlikely locations, and revitalizing the historic, run-down, and defunct. Working in populist theater forms, they seek to reinvent and reimagine classic American entertainment. They have been adapting and updating Punch and Judy puppet shows, creating new works of puppetry, and large scale community participation theater and happenings for over fifteen years.
Co-founders Rose Friedman and Justin Lander are a husband and wife duo, and alumni of the Bread and Puppet Theater. These days, most of their new works of theater are made at The Civic Standard
Many Thanks to Our Supporters
Winter Sunshine is sponsored by Southern Vermont Solar, We Clean Heat Pumps, Vermont Chiropractic & Wellness, and the Putney Diner. Hot Chocolate generously provided by Village Square Booksellers in Bellows Falls, VT.