THE STORY
little lights for dark worlds
Since 2014, the Fox & Beggar Theater has used handmade spectacle to craft eight otherworldly stories for audiences of all ages. Our productions find the hidden corners between street theater, folk opera, dance, puppetry, and circus arts.
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To date, the FBT has reached thousands of audience members across the country, beginning over a decade ago with two surrealist nouveau cirque productions, Animalia and Tarocco. We kept the torch alive during the pandemic-- camping and rehearsing outdoors (rain or shine) to create "Goodnight, Absalom!" which reached audiences virtually through the Oregon Fringe Festival. That October, our production of OMEN: The Death & Burial of Poor Cock Robin engaged over a thousand individuals with a self-guided, nocturnal immersive theater experience in the Blue Ridge mountains.
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In 2021 we relocated to the Midwest and built the GONZAGO, a double-decker mobile theater stage built out of a Isuzu NQR box truck, which embarked on its first tour that autumn around the Great Lakes. Atop our mobile stage, "Goodnight, Absalom!" performed fourteen free, all-ages shows held in public parks, organic farms, and community spaces. In 2022, we revisited this same route from Minnesota to Michigan with our devised circus show, "The Lonesome Spectacular!"
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Over the next two years we focused on "Vanaheimr," a wintery and dream-haunted Nordic shadow play that performed indoors at the Heart of the Beast Theater in Minneapolis. In May 2024, a workshop production was created of "Tigre! Tigre!" (fka the Paper Operetta"), a new puppet opera exploring the intoxicating relationship between humans and technology, which toured Minnesota and Wisconsin in Fall 2025 atop the Gonzago.
Our ninth show will use music, puppetry, and fairy stories to explore the psychological effects of mass deforestation, set in Ireland during the late Medieval period.
Our tenth show will be set during the Civil War in Appalachia.
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The Fox & Beggar creates participatory folk performances that invite communities into acts of collective imagination, using handmade spectacle, story, and song to re-enchant public life.​
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​We envision a culture reconnected to shared ritual and slow magic, where handmade worlds invite both old and young into wonder, responsibility, and collective creation.
The FBT has performed in the Midwest at In The Heart of the Beast Puppet & Mask Theater, the Cedar Cultural Center, and Powderhorn and Minnehaha parks in Minneapolis, Frogtown Farm in St. Paul, the Maplewood Historical Society, Franconia Sculpture Park, Canal Park in Duluth, Harbor Park in Grand Marais MN, Caponi Art Park, Wolfe Park, DreamAcres Farm, Keepsake Cidery, The Commons Viroqua, Adventure Club Brewing in Bayfield WI, the Hayward Public Library, the Pump House in La Crosse, Humboldt and Kadish Park in Milwaukee, Logan Square Farmers Market in Chicago, Madison Circus Space, the 555 Monroe Art Park in Grand Rapids, and the Tangent Gallery in Detroit.
The FBT has performed on the East Coast at the Montford Park Amphitheater, The Orange Peel, and The Diana Wortham Theatre in Asheville; The UNSCA Stevens Center, The Bardo Performing Arts Center, 7 Stages Theatre, The Peace Center, The Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts, and The Hawk & Hawthorne Permaculture Village, as well as at LEAF Community Arts.
The FBT has performed on the West Coast at Oregon Eclipse festival, Portland’s Alberta Abbey, and at the Lookout Arts Quarry.