{"id":423568,"date":"2026-08-04T13:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/423568\/"},"modified":"2026-08-04T13:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:44:09","slug":"bob-baker-marionette-theater-raising-money-to-buy-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/423568\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Baker Marionette Theater raising money to buy building"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Audiences in Highland Park are all aboard for the first new show at Bob Baker Marionette Theater<\/a> in 40 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the longest-running puppet theater in California has been entertaining crowds of all ages for over six decades, until now it\u2019s been with classic shows and beloved characters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis dodo bird, she is from 1958,\u201d Alex Evans pointed out in the backstage workshop.<\/p>\n

Evans has been hanging around the theater a long time, too \u2014 20 years or so \u2014 since he first started as a 19-year-old intern.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I] had no background in puppets or marionettes, but saw a show and was blown away,\u201d he said. \u201cI asked Bob if I could help out. And Bob said yes. And then I\u2019ve been tangled up ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now in the role of artistic director, he said creating the all new Choo Choo Revue was a big responsibility, knowing he had to keep the company\u2019s long LA legacy on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe theater means something different to so many different people,\u201d Evans said. \u201cThe only kind of guiding principle was like, \u2018oh, does it make us laugh\u2019 with faith that is going to make the audience laugh and feel joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The process took several years, he said, starting with gathering a host of talented, creative people in one room to focus on a theme \u2014 a train ride through the Pacific Northwest.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we just like sketched for days and days and days,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Fleshing those sketches out involves a lot of steps and a lot of people \u2014 about 100 artisans sculpting, painting, costuming and stringing. It takes about 300 hours to create just one new puppet, Evan explained. And for this show, they built about a hundred of them. And while they didn\u2019t want to travel too far from the old traditions of puppetry, they did experiment with some new technologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s 3D printing in the show,\u201d said Evans. \u201cThere\u2019s all sorts of funky, weird electrical mechanisms that kind of make the puppets do things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

(Spectrum News\/ Tara Lynn Wagner)<\/p>\n

The company faced some upheaval over the past few years. After spending more than half a century in their original home in Westlake, the building they\u2019d always been in was sold in 2018, forcing them to relocate. A year later, they moved into the former York Theatre in Highland Park, a 100-year-old building they are currently trying to purchase.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never want to get into the space again where there\u2019s a danger of the theater going away,\u201d said MJ Thompson, communications director for BBMT. \u201cSo we want to ensure the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

They launched a major capital campaign<\/a> to raise $5 million for the purchase plus, and Thomspon said they\u2019re almost there \u2014 only about a quarter of a million to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur community has really rallied behind us,\u201d Thompson said.<\/p>\n

And like the little puppet theater that could, Evans said they plan to keep on chugging until they arrive at their fundraising destination.<\/p>\n

\u201cLA is runs through the veins of everything here,\u201d he explained. \u201cHaving a stable base within Los Angeles, it means the world… It means that these puppets will live on for my grandkids, which like truly gives me goosebumps.\u201d<\/p>\n

He knows the only way to make sure that happens is to own their own space \u2014 no strings attached.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Audiences in Highland Park are all aboard for the first new show at Bob Baker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[14438,5282,7,48,52,51,47,50,49,31534,129322,136,5996],"class_list":["post-423568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-app-arts-entertainment","tag-arts","tag-california","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-socal-editors-picks","tag-tara-lynn-wagner","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}