Find shadow events
Discover festivals, performances, workshops, and annual observance days connected to shadow puppetry.
Note: Shadow Pals aggregates public event listings to help the community connect. Organizer links open external sites we do not control, so verify details directly and use normal web-safety judgment before sharing information or purchasing tickets.
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Exhibition featuring a world-class collection of Asian shadow puppets gifted by theatre scholars, alongside puppets from the University of Hawaii.
New York State Puppet Festival presents a free Manual Cinema exhibition exploring the shadow-puppetry company's history, techniques, and storytelling magic.
Tom Tuke leads a three-session workshop on building and performing shadow puppets, exploring history, jointed figures, screen movement, light, refraction, and shadow effects.
The museum's Shadow Puppet Theatre series presents P. K. Hallinan's Father's Day story about the relationship between a child and his father.
Bermondsey Puppet & Storytelling Festival hosts an after-dark workshop and show-and-tell where participants make shadow puppets with Sarah Sparkes and share optical tricks on screen.
Malaysia Travel lists Kelantan traditional arts programming including wayang kulit performances alongside other regional folk arts, workshops, talks, and exhibitions.
A free family workshop for ages 6-12 where children watch a shadow show, learn about light and projected silhouettes, then build characters, scenery, and a mini shadow theatre.
Tom Lee performs and designs a solo adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's EDEN using shadow screens, moving panoramas, stop-motion animation, and miniature worlds.
ArtStart offers a puppetry course within its Fantastic Voyages camp where Kallie Melvin guides students in creating shadow puppet characters, scenery, and story worlds.
A weeklong youth camp for ages 6-9 focused on shadow puppet construction, screens, scenery, props, movement, music, and filmed short performances.
Darebin Arts Speakeasy presents a contemporary Southeast Asian ghost story told through shadow puppetry inspired by Malaysian wayang kulit, live music, and dance.
The museum hosts a drop-in floor program centered on shadow puppets, included with general admission during summer hours.
Ash Winkfield's Water Walker explores the Igbo Landing of 1803 through object movement, tabletop puppetry, shadow puppetry, set design, and original music.
Little Wing Puppets performs a family theatre work about belonging and resilience, told through shadow puppetry, live theatre, interaction, and original music.
The museum's Shadow Puppet Theatre series presents Bethany Roberts' Fourth of July Mice as a holiday shadow-story program for young children.
A weeklong youth camp for ages 10-13 focused on shadow puppet construction, screens, scenery, props, movement, music, and filmed short performances.
The museum's Shadow Puppet Theatre series presents Eric Carle's The Grouchy Ladybug as a shadow-story program about friendship and manners.
Artist, puppeteer, and theatre-maker Deni Dominguez leads children in building recycled-material shadow puppets, then closes with a short shadow puppet show.
A youth camp brought by Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre where campers create shadow puppets, tell stories, and perform short pieces together.
A practical evening class on building and performing with simple shadow puppets, light sources, and screens.
The museum's Shadow Puppet Theatre series presents Frank Asch's Happy Birthday, Moon as a shadow-story program for young children.
Indonesia Travel lists Rafflesia Kemumu Festival programming with all-night wayang kulit performances alongside traditional dance, rituals, art, music, and local cultural activities.
Paper Monkey Theatre and The Gleam House present an English shadow play for young children that uses light and shadow to explore bedtime fear, comfort, empathy, and listening.
The museum's Shadow Puppet Theatre series presents Peter Bently's Underpants Wonderpants as a superhero shadow-story program.
Victoria University of Wellington hosts a Mandarin Corner session with a live demonstration of traditional Chinese shadow puppetry, cultural context, and a puppet-making activity.
Chinese Theatre Works teaches a live online introduction to shadow puppetry covering desktop theatres, basic figures, environments, music or text, and world traditions.
SpringWorks lists a shadow puppetry workshop as part of its World in a Weekend international puppet festival programming in Stratford.
Verge Center for the Arts offers an August shadow puppetry camp for ages 6-9, covering puppet construction, screens, scenery, props, dialogue, movement, and music.
This 10-day figure-theatre conference earns inclusion for confirmed shadow-focused programming, including Fabrizio Montecchi's contemporary shadow theatre workshop and Kathy Foley's Wayang workshop.
Rhythmix in the Parks presents String & Shadow Puppet Theater in a free outdoor family performance of Night at the Grand Opera.
Puppet Showplace Theater presents a summer puppet slam whose official listing explicitly includes shower curtain shadow puppetry among the evening performances.
Drew Colby presents Mr. Shadow, a family hand-shadow show built from shadowgraphy, vintage routines, and playful audience participation.
A night of shadow puppetry featuring Jeighk Koyote's Ocean Kin and two short works by Dawn Brandes, using plexiglass puppets, sculptural props, projected illustration, flashlights, and overhead projection.
Mochinosha hosts a two-day shadow art festival with five shadow puppetry productions, workshops, hands-on exhibits, gamelan and violin music, and artists from Japan, Canada, and Indonesia.
The East Lyme Puppetry Committee hosts Sova Theater's musical performance combining live music, dance, and shadow puppetry.
Drew Colby brings My Shadow and Me to Firobi Festival Titelles, using hand shadows and shadowgraphy to build a comic visual world.
Wisconsin Union Theater presents Manual Cinema's shadow-puppet retelling of Frankenstein, combining handmade shadow puppetry, live music, cinematic technique, and projected visuals.
Drew Colby's hand-shadow adaptation of The Ugly Duckling is listed for two public dates at The Scottish Mask and Puppet Centre in Glasgow.
Mr. Damon's Shadow Puppets presents an interactive adventure built from shadow and light where audience choices steer each performance through a different story route.
Make your own haunted shadow puppet show
Shadow puppetry is UNESCO-protected world heritage
Before cartoons, there were shadows — the original animation
One thousand years of Indonesian shadow puppetry
The darkest day of the year — grab a flashlight and make some shadows
Past listings stay visible so seasonal and annual pages do not disappear once the date has passed.
CactusHead Puppets premieres a cave adventure about Jamie and a missing Echo, using tabletop puppetry, shadow puppet bats, and a dash of humor.
The Polish National Opera offers educational workshops on shadow puppetry and Polish legends, ending with a mini-production of the Legend of Lech, Czech, and Rus.
Veronica Barron leads a five-evening workshop where participants develop a shadow puppet show while exploring flat puppets, overhead projectors, hand-held lights, and body shadows.
Manual Cinema premieres a live cinematic work built from overhead projectors, handmade visions, puppetry, projection, physical theater, clowning, and spectacle.
Center for World Music presents dhalang Woro Mustiko Siwi in a condensed English-language wayang kulit performance with Javanese gamelan and a post-show Q&A.
Frankston Arts Centre presents a family shadow-puppet performance and play-along workshop about Kiki and Zuki, blending visual storytelling, narration, and shadow scenes.
Drew Colby stages Hans Christian Andersen's tale using hand shadows, body shadows, light, and a few simple props in a family-friendly 45-minute performance.
The museum's Shadow Puppet Theatre series presents The Gigantic Turnip as an interactive shadow-story program for young children.
US Karagoz Theatre Company performs Ayhan Hulagu's solo Turkish shadow theatre work, blending 700-year-old Karagoz tradition with contemporary storytelling.
A school-holiday intensive where children build shadow puppets, experiment with light, and create a short shadow show.
The museum's Shadow Puppet Theatre series presents Peter Brown's The Curious Garden as an animated shadow-story program for young children.
Fusion Wayang Kulit presents a one-day programme with gallery tours, dialogue sessions, puppet-making, student performances, and classical and fusion wayang kulit showcases.
Teatro Gioco Vita brings back its shadow-and-actor circus piece for the Piccole Platee series, with morning school performances and a Friday evening family show.
Manual Cinema tours its live cinematic Macbeth adaptation combining shadow puppetry, miniatures, acting, and a cinematic soundscape.
The museum's Shadow Puppet Theatre series presents Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar as an animated shadow-story program for young children.
Drew Colby brings hand shadowgraphy to A Day By The Sea at the Royal Hippodrome Theatre.
Reykjavik Arts Festival presents Ingoma Nshya's story with drum, dance, song, and live shadow puppetry by Kristine White Katese Aurore.
The museum's Shadow Puppet Theatre series presents Dow Phumiruk's Mela and the Elephant as an animated shadow-story program for young children.
Matt Sandbank presents an interactive live shadow puppetry performance where poetry springs to life on screen for families and young audiences.
ShadowLight's Jess Nguyen performs Earth Paper Cut, a youth-scripted shadow show, followed by a guided story-to-shadow-play exploration and puppet-building workshop.
A three-day youth project where students create Chinese shadow puppets and stage a short Journey to the West shadow play while learning about Pi Ying Xi.
Expert puppeteer Matt Sandbank brings a 45-minute family shadow puppet show to life with comic poetry and interactive performance.
America's shadow day
Tell a story with nothing but shadows
The biggest day in puppetry, worldwide
Shadow puppets — the world's first theater
Leonardo studied light and shadow — celebrate art with your hands
America's day to celebrate the art of puppetry
Learn it on the app, then put the phone down and perform
No shadow without light
Play does not need a screen — just a light