Our 2025 Production:
The Gift

Every year we perform our annual pageant at the Forest Theatre in Chapel Hill, NC on UNC’s campus.
This season will be performed from August 15 - September 28. Shows are held on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Shows start at 7pm with an opener going on at 6:20pm.
Sunday matinee shows will be on September 14, 21 and 28 starting at 3pm, with the opener going on at 2:20pm.

PLEASE READ OUR FAQ’S

BEFORE PURCHASING TICKETS

ALL TICKETS ARE NON-REFUNDABLE.

Scroll down to see the openers

If dates are sold out to the show you wish to attend, we keep a small handful of tickets available at the entrances the day of the show.
We recommend arriving an hour and a half earlier (around 5pm for evening shows and 1pm for matinees) than when the opener goes on to secure the tickets and your seats.

We are also returning to Asheville, NC to the
Wortham Center for the Performing Arts from November 7-9.

  • Paperhand Puppet Intervention continues to astound with it's beauty and artistry. The giant puppets become more evolved and more wonderful every year. Loved the staging for the shadow puppet show and the wonderful music behind it all.  I highly recommend you go see it!

  • The Paperhand Puppet show this evening was nothing short other than amazing. Tears of joy, as I was reminded of my grandmother during the play. Please go check the show out!

  • Great music in the pit. Loved contrast of light hearted (beavers were so cute) and serious. The wood cut/light through the sheet was a cool new thing for the last act.

  • I loved the incorporation of lanterns. The whale and the water droplets traveling through the audiences were amazing. Everything was flawless including the set change. It was super interesting to see how the backdrops changed. It was like flipping pages of a book. A lot of imagination and inspiration packed in the show. I was so touched.

  • The message of protecting the earth. The celebration of the women warriors of environmental activism was special. I love the commitment you and the volunteers have towards the positive message of protecting the our resources. The whale and the water drops were awesome.

  • The magic of string outside in a forest filled with beautiful music being told a story that highlights the problems we face but also gives hope makes for a total experience. Being able to gather a multigenerational group, have a picnic is the best. The puppets are so beautiful!

  • Loved the artistry of the costumes and the stories they told.  The Forest Theater is the perfect background for the performance. This was our first time at a Paperhand show and we were absolutely blown away. 

  • I love the artistry and community and effort that goes into the shows and the care for the message and delivering of it really shines through in the performance.

  • I loved the whimsical storytelling of such an important issue. The visuals were absolutely stunning, and I teared up at the ending section where the water was passed through the audience and the whale swam overhead. I also loved the scene about the Chilean migrant. I studied in Southern Chile and we discussed the Selknam tribe, Arauco and the Araucaria araucana tree, and Tierra del Fuego. It made me so emotional to see that story told to an audience outside of Chile, and I would love to attend another time to experience it again.

  • We've been attending your shows since my kids were little. They are now in their 20s and live across the country, but they still make plans with me to go when they are home in the summer. They grew up in Pittsboro and on the Haw River. Each year I'm moved to tears by the community love and awe inspiring puppetry and message. And the band is awesome! Thank you for all that you do!

About The Gift

Stories move on the water. The water moves in all things. Life moves in dynamic patterns that weave like currents and rich tapestries that shape who we are. We may sometimes fall short of such states of grace. We readily receive the gifts the world provides with no explicit expectations in return. Yet reciprocity could very well be our best pathway to survival. We can decide to give back, and now is the time. We were built for this. Made for it. 


We humbly request the gift of your presence as we seek this balance. Let the Grandmothers tell you a story that you didn’t know you needed. Let the water protectors and heroines of justice sing you a song of resilience. Let us share a moment of connection, wonder and gratitude. Let us create this, our future, together — through art! 


Join us in honoring the rare gift that is life on Earth as we celebrate Paperhand’s 25th year! Come and experience the magic of giant puppets, masks, stilts, painted cardboard and cloth, illuminated puppets and shadows all set to original live music in a performance for all ages. See you at the show! 

This year’s show features a collaboration with Jaki Shelton Green, North Carolina’s Poet Laureate, singer and songwriter Dawn Landes, and Louise Omoto Kessel, and highlights the important work of water protectors like Claudia Lopez, Elaine Chiosso (former Executive Director of Haw River Assembly) and Dr. Crystal Cavalier-Keck, Co-Founder and CEO of 7 Directions of Service.

See you at the show!

Follow Us on Social Media for Updates!

Our Openers This Season

For our evening shows, our openers go on at 6:20pm. For our matinee shows, our openers go on at 2:20pm. Please enjoy their sets and follow their work through the links below!

September 12 - Jesse James DeConto
September 13 - Big Celtic Fun
September 14 - Mysti Mayhem (Matinee), Eric Bannan (Evening)
September 19 - Mebanesville
September 20 - Certain Seas
September 21 - Tom Eure & Amelia Osborne (Matinee), Pippa Hoover (Evening)
September 26 - Laura Jane Vincent and Tom Troyer
September 27 - Scott and Shannon Morgan (Gasoline Stove)
September 28 - Bill West (Matinee), Chessa Rich (Evening)

Want a Sneak Peek Behind the Scenes?

We are already busy dreaming up this show through drawings, collaborating with artists and writers and more! We provide exclusive sneak peeks of what we’re building to our paying Patreon subscribers.
Sign up to sustain us for as little as $4 a month to see what we’re up to!

Due to the flooding in our studio, we were forced to cancel our first weekend of shows and postponed opening weekend to start August 15.
Because of the flood, we lost puppets that were made for this show, materials, supplies, tools, equipment, time and money spent on cleanup efforts.
We suffered over $100,000 in losses. And we need your help to recover.
Please consider donating what you can today to help us rebuild.

Help Us Recover from Tropical Storm Chantal

Volunteering

Our Community Workdays are over for the season!
Thanks to the 342 people that came out to our studio to lend your time and talents.

For now, our volunteer needs have been fulfilled, but we could re-open our Front of House volunteer form again later into the season.


We now need reliable volunteers to show up to help run our front of house and to perform in our shows with us!

Front of house volunteers commit to a day (or more if you can!) They help us with selling our merch, scanning tickets and helping guests pay for their tickets, answering questions from our guests, and ushering in guests to the theater and making sure the audience is making room for all attendees!

Once you sign up for a shift, please mark it in your calendar and show up on the date you signed up for!

Thank You To Our Partners & Sponsors!

https://www.wunc.org/