Hello, and welcome to Virtual Puppet Con: Northeast Edition 2021! We’re extremely happy to announce the return of Virtual Puppet Con this fall. Many thanks to all of the wonderful patrons, volunteers, and contributing artists who made last year’s event such a wonderful time! We are back for round two, and hope that you will join us once again.

Virtual Puppet Con: Northeast Edition features the puppetry artists of the Northeast Region of Puppeteers of America. This Region consists of all the New England States, upstate New York, and eastern Canada from Toronto to the Atlantic Ocean.  The proceeds from this event will help support the Northeast Region of Puppeteers of America, so we can continue to fund collective projects like Regional Festivals and this virtual event, for the puppetry community fans of the Northeast Region and beyond!

In order to submit most of our applications you must either: be a member of Puppeteers of America who lives in the Northeast Region or be a member of the following guilds: Boston Area Guild of Puppetry, Connecticut Guild of Puppetry, Puppetry Guild of Upstate New York, or the Western Massachusetts Puppetry Guild, or live in Eastern Canada.
The application exceptions are the Fringe Festival and Potpourri. These are open to attendees from anywhere. Please see the descriptions below for more details.

All you need to do is submit your recording/recordings for the category/categories you are choosing to use to showcase you and your puppetry, fill out the info that will be used to generate your artist page, your social media and ‘tip jar’ links (if you have a Pay Pal, Patreon, or other form of virtual tip jar),  give us your images to use on our website to promote you, review your artist page before November 5, and let us know if we got something wrong or you want to add something.
Unless you are planning to perform live at the Slam or Potpourri, you do NOT need to be available at the time your stuff is shown!

All accepted applicants will receive a free registration to Virtual Puppet Con: Northeast Edition 2021.

Right now, we are in the gathering of content-providers stage.  Just want to be an audience member?  Check back on this website or our Facebook page for future updates with details on dates, the schedule, and how to get tickets.
https://www.facebook.com/Virtual-Puppet-Con-103166431479293

Virtual Puppet Con invites people of all backgrounds, puppet styles, art styles, ages, etc. to participate.

If you have any general questions, contact the VPC team at [email protected]

Application categories that have closed: Performance, Film, Workshop, Panels, and Unique Offerings.

New This Year
Puppet Parade
Fringe

Category Descriptions/ Application Links

Applications Still being Accepted

 Open Mic/Potpourri      Applications accepted from Attendees from anywhere in the world

Potpourri is a late night, open mic night for puppeteers of all levels, to perform for festival attendees and peers. Potpourri has been around for quite some time, generally held at the PofA National Puppet Festival or Regional Puppet Festival. Unlike the Puppet Slam, it is specific to American puppetry community events. Pieces can be 1- 3 minutes. Virtual Puppet Con Potpourri will be held on Saturday November 13, 2021.

These performances will only be available at the time of presentation, as it is live-streamed, and will not be recorded for use after release.

e-mail contact: [email protected]

Application categories that have closed: Performance, Film, Workshop, Panel, Unique Offering, Parade, Slam, and Fringe.

There are some optional extras we hope all content providers take advantage of:

We invite you to take advantage of the VPC Store, and submit your logo or a photo of your puppets to be included with VPC wording (See example image below) on limited-edition items in the store. All items with your logo or photo that are sold in the store will get you a check, after the event closes and the store is tallied up, of 40% net profit from the sale of those items with your photo or logo on them. We’ll contact you after VPC to make sure where you want the check sent.

The chat rooms are open November 5-14. We hope you use them to talk with others in the community in these rooms. There are multiples so you can have a large-group conversation or break away from the group to have a one-on-one or small group conversation. You are especially encouraged to visit a chat room the day your work is screened for the first time, since that is when people will be the most likely to want to talk with you, but you do not have to. The VPC chat rooms are a great way to interact with your fan base and talk about ALL of the things you are doing as an artist, not just the puppetry ones! And everything in a chat room should stay in the chat room. No recording takes place there.

What we want is for you to take advantage of the flexibility we have built into the format. Use what best serves you to reach out to the Puppetry Community of the Northeast and to our audiences and fans.