Just a few steps away from Central Park’s Shakespeare Garden is the home of dozens of marionettes. From Pippi Longstocking to the Big Bad Wolf, these hand-carved characters come to life via the puppeteers and puppet makers who give them a hand – or two – at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre.
Before this puppet-filled cottage became a theater, it was a schoolhouse brought to the United States from Sweden for a showcase in Philadelphia. That’s where an architect spotted the structure and decided it would look perfect in Central Park. The cottage arrived in New York, via train, in 1876.
In the late 1940s, a traveling marionette troupe began using the cottage regularly. About 30 years later, it officially became the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theatre.
The theater mounts favorites like “Alice In Wonderland” and “Sleeping Beauty,” but gives each tale a new twist. Original stories also have proved popular, like the current offer, “The Three Bears Holiday Bash,” where strings can make even a bear fly.
