The 16th Annual Austin Puppet Incident

Glass Half Full Theatre presents the 16th Annual Austin Puppet Incident on December 4th and 5th, 2026, at 7 p.m. at The Sanctuary in Downtown Austin. The evening is a showcase of short puppet pieces made by Austin artists for adult audiences.

Now in its sixteenth year, the Austin Puppet Incident is an annual celebration of puppetry that is not for kids. Local artists collaborate to create short pieces using a wide range of techniques, including shadow puppetry, hand and rod, tabletop, object theater and physical theater. The stories are naughty, heartbreaking, harrowing, hilarious and always original, and every one of them is told through the medium of animated objects.

Because each piece is a short, self-contained story, audiences move quickly from one tone and technique to the next, and no two acts look or sound alike.