Ann Arbor Summer Festival: Matt Sandbank • Still Life

Start: Saturday, June 28, 2025 9:00PM
End: Saturday, June 28, 2025 9:30PM

Friday, June 27 at 7:00PM, 8:00PM, & 9:00PM 
Saturday, June 28 at 7:00PM, 8:00PM, & 9:00PM
Sunday, June 29 at 7:00PM, 8:00PM, & 9:00PM

What do we do when the world refuses to behave as we expect it to? Matt Sandbank takes on this question in his charming collection of nonverbal shadow puppetry stories, Still Life. Using lighthearted humor and intricately expressive puppets, Still Life delights audiences of all shapes and sizes! A2SF is pleased to have Matt return after an amazing engagement in 2023.

A nationally-touring shadow puppeteer based in Durham, NC, Matt Sandbank’s work has awakened a sense of wit and wonder at schools, libraries, museums, and festivals for the past fourteen years. Matt has performed with his shadows at the Nashville International Puppetry Festival in 2013, the San Antonio International Children’s Puppetry Festival in 2015 and 2017, the Puppeteers of America National Festival in 2019, and at DLECTRICITY: Detroit’s Nighttime Exhibition of Light and Art in 2021. His show, Still Life, uses shadow theater as a vehicle for nonverbal storytelling and, in a variety of comic and absurd ways, poses the question: what do we do when the world refuses to behave the way we expect it to?  Still Life was named “Best of Fest” at the 2020 Frontera Fringe Festival in Austin, TX and has received funding from the Puppeteers of America Rose Endowment Grant.

Still Life is co-presented with the Ann Arbor District Library

Run time is approximately 30 minutes.