A Surreal Halloween at LA’s Oldest Puppet Theater

Before the Bob Baker Marionette Theater closes next month, it is staging a “Hallow’s Eve Artists Maze” featuring an array of Angeleno performers.

Hallow’s Eve Artists Maze poster by Audrey Densmore (all images courtesy of Audrey Densmore and the artists)

For the past 55 years, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater has been entertaining countless numbers of children and adults with puppet shows full of fantasy and whimsy at their Echo Park location. That will all come to an end in a month, when the theater will close its doors to the public, embarking on a nomadic path before settling down in a soon-to-be-announced new location. Before then, however, they’ve got a lot planned, beginning with this week’s Hallow’s Eve Artists Maze.

Fagenstein

Organized by puppeteers Audrey Densmore and Miguel Ayala, the surreal evening features an array of Angeleno artists and performers, bringing a more adult-oriented program to the theater. The party room will be filled with artwork by Marnie Weber, Mario Ybarra Jr., DogKnitSweater, Ofelia Marquez, and others, while the theater will host performances celebrating the bizarre and occult. Visitors will be greeted by Molly Shea’s cryogenically frozen head, while Fagenstein (Mark Gallegos) stages a drag performance set to the Monster Mash, and costume-clad duo BeckandCol envision the life of escaped puppets. Of course, the Bob Baker Marionettes will be performing a Halloween-themed set. The event features mature themes, so parental guidance is suggested.