News The Lost Marionettes of Ralph Kipniss

The Underground Multiplex (TUGM) is an arts advocacy and community outreach group founded in 2010 by Lew Ojeda and Richard Lewis. TUGM is a "transmedia" group, which means they advocate on behalf of all media types. They helped break the story of the possible sale of the Portage Theater, which led to a campaign to help save local independent movie theaters and video stores.

More recently, they mounted a Kickstarter campaign to help recover hundreds of marionettes hand-crafted by Ralph Kipniss, a third-generation Russian puppeteer who ran a marionette theater on Chicago's north side. That campaign didn’t reach its goal. CHIRP's Kwame Shorter spoke with Ojeda and Lewis about the campaign and why it was important to help save the lost marionettes of Ralph Kipniss.

Music from The Soldier's Tale by Igor Stravinsky

Additional editing by Dan Epstein

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