Rough House connects individuals and communities through theatrical art that celebrates the weird things that make us unique, and the weirder things that bring us together.

We create theater that captures the heart through the eye. Our shows use puppetry, music, and human performance to tell stories that are intimate, strange, and sincere.

Rough House has headlined the National Puppetry Festival, the international Physical Festival Chicago, and Open Eye Figure Theater’s Toy Theater After Dark Festival. The company has been a proud contributor to such Chicago institutions as Brain Frame and the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, of which it is a curatorial producing partner. Rough House has toured across the United States, performing in auditoriums, lotion factories, funeral homes, basements, bars, galleries, punk houses and even the woods of Appalachia.