Great Plains Puppet Train, final day and traveling home.

A decent nights sleep and a good breakfast made for a great start to the day. After repacking last night all I had to do was drive to the theater and pick up my puppet cases. I got this done and headed over to The Owl Glass Puppet Center to hang out with the festival goers and staff for a final chance to connect.

It was lovely to get some extended time with Pam, the artistic director of the festival. She made such great performance choices. This was a truly international puppet festival with some very high caliber performances. And a nice variety of styles, too.

The final performance of the festival was by a Bulgarian puppet troupe. They performed “Spas, the Tiger Cub.”

The Show was well rehearsed, clever and well directed. They didn’t lean too heavily on their use of balloon animals as puppets though they did capitalize on it. I was wondering if it was going to be too gimmicky. It was not. The same tale could have been told with regular puppets but they enhanced it with the clever use of balloons. They were very much physical comedians (Bill Irwin type clowns) but let the puppets have the primary focus most of the time. It was a really neat to see them give the puppets away to the audience at the end of the performance. Again, very clever.

It was also the first time they’ve ever performed outside of Bulgaria so that made it incredibly special. The audience was very impressed and showed their support in a way I think the performers could feel.

I took off right after the performance so I could have plenty of time to drop off the rental and make it to my flight on time. There was no need to rush as my flight is delayed so I am currently lounging on the outdoor “Porch” in the Airport. A nice place to peel off my mask and relax for a bit.

Real time update: Weather around Chicago has forced United to cancel my flight. The helpful United Agents got me on standby for a 5:24pm flight to Chicago. That gives me ample time to make my 8:50pm flight home. Fingers crossed.

Got on the flight to Chicago and made it in plenty of time. My bags did not come with me. They stayed in Iowa.