The Bob Baker Marionettes to Prance at a New Home

The troupe, long a sweet staple for SoCal kids, will soon frolic at a fresh venue in Highland Park.

What to Know

  • 4949 York Boulevard, Highland Park
  • Preview shows beginning this summer
  • Grand opening in fall 2019

Marionettes? They come in all sizes, and depict fantastical characters, and perform different astounding feats.

But they all share a notable quality: They're forever on the move.

They're prancing, they're dancing, and they're happily hopping about courtesy of hard-to-see strings, strings that are deftly controlled by close-at-hand humans.

And it is just such a band of fantastic humans that have worked to save one of Southern California's most beloved family institutions, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater.

The marionettes famously pranced away from their decades-old home on 1st Street, near downtown Los Angeles, in fall 2018 (new development is headed in, so the old building will be knocked down).

But wherever would this merry clutch of cute characters go? The answer was just announced, on Tuesday, Feb. 19: Highland Park.

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Make that 4949 York Boulevard in Highland Park, which has been revealed to be the new and permanent home of the Bob Baker Marionette Theater.

Well, things'll get prancing in the summer 2019, when the preview season begins. But even before that, there shall be "community shows and sneak peek events" at the debuting venue, which stands at an impressive 10,000 square feet.

Indeed, that's far larger, by over a third, than the troupe's former venue on 1st Street.

This means the company now has an even roomier space to fulfill its mission "... to educate, celebrate, and rejuvanate puppetry and the allied arts."

That mission will include summer camps, workshops, conversations, music, films, and more, in addition to the ever-popular marionette performances. 

To help fund these big and cheerful visions? You can dedicate a chair in the new theater, or provide needed materials or labor, or, indeed, help the marionettes out with a donation.

A grand opening of the York Boulevard space will happen in fall 2019.

Can't wait that long to see these lively, prance-tastic, string-rocking superstars? Make for Los Angeles State Historic Park on Saturday, Feb. 23 for the fifth annual Bob Baker Day.

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