Why is Puppetworks closing?

Photograph: Courtesy of Puppetworks

After more than 30 years of pint-sized drama and storytelling, Puppetworks, the Park Slope marionette theater, is preparing to pack up its strings. Why? The short answer: real estate.

The building that houses Puppetworks is being sold to a developer, forcing the nonprofit to leave its longtime home. “After [almost] 40 years in Park Slope, our building is being sold to a developer,” the company said in a statement, adding that it plans to continue performing elsewhere in Brooklyn.

For a neighborhood that has changed dramatically over the decades, the situation feels familiar. Puppetworks’ general manager Terry Smith, who’s been involved in puppeteering since 1969, put it bluntly: staying in Park Slope just isn’t feasible anymore. “It's too expensive,” Smith told Gothamist.

That financial pressure is the core of the closure: not a lack of audiences, not dwindling interest and certainly not a creative slowdown. In fact, Puppetworks is still very much in motion. The theater is scheduled to run performances of Pinocchio through August 9, with plans to reopen shortly after in a new, still-undetermined space. Conversations are underway with Industry City, though details like size and setup are still being worked out, Smith told Time Out.

Still, the loss of the Sixth Avenue space marks the end of an era. Since opening in 1990 with Puss in Boots, Puppetworks has introduced generations of Brooklyn kids to live theater, often for the very first time. Shows like Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel and The Wizard of Oz unfold over 45 minutes, with hand-crafted marionettes and pre-recorded soundtracks that feel delightfully analog given today’s screen-saturated world.

Its departure also raises a bigger question: what happens to small arts institutions in neighborhoods where they helped drive cultural value—and rising rents? Smith hinted at the irony. Puppetworks, he said, “raised the property values in Park Slope.” Now, like many legacy cultural spaces, it’s being priced out of the very community it helped shape.

The good news is that the puppets aren’t going anywhere. Wherever Puppetworks lands, the company plans to keep its repertoire intact, keep ticket prices relatively accessible and keep doing what it’s always done best: turning simple materials into something quietly magical.

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