About

Giant Puppets Save the World presents larger than life interactive performance art featuring puppet shows and spectacle entertainment with symbolic meaning enacted with stilt walking, giant puppetry, props, enormous silk flags, decor, bubble art, storytelling, dance and song. Either in the theater, or in the street, puppets everywhere is our passion.

The giant puppets and silk flags are presented in heavy duty umbrella stands or operated by one, two or three people (sometimes more!). The puppets are lightweight and a joy to play with and perform.  Multi-puppeteer puppets encourage teamwork, collaboration, and communication. A symbolic virtue of how “Giant Puppets Save the World,” is to encourage us to work together to create something greater than ourselves.  

To see a proposal link for possible participation in your event, CLICK HERE!

Past Public Performances (to name a few): 

She Rose Tour 2024, City of Berkeley Fourth Street Holiday Celebrations 2024, Texas Eclipse Festival 2024, 40th Anniversary of Shoreline Park in Mountain View 2023, San Leandro Cherry Festival 2023, Genentech Earth Day Celebration 2023, DayBreaker 2022, Montclair Village Association Village Plaza Fundraiser 2022, City of Oakland Beer, Wine, and Music Festival in Montclair, 2022, Montclair Village Association, Holiday Stoll 2022, Genentech, Company Picnic 2022, 4th Street Shopping District Association Holiday Parade in Berkeley, 2023, 2022 & 2021, Holiday TuneYards Tour at LA Philharmonic 2020, Oregon Country Fair 2024 – 2014, Center for Biological Diversity – Nancy Pelosi Petition Delivery Parade to Protect Endangered Specied Act 2019 in SF, Visit California and Visit USA Annual Conference 2019, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Production of “Magic Flute” 2019, Nike’s “Just Do It” 30th Anniversary 2018, Facebook HQ 2018,  High Sierra Music Festival 2024 – 2016, Bioneers 2017 & 2016, San Francisco Peace In The Park 2017, Oregon Eclipse Global Gathering 2017, San Francisco Sunday Streets 2017, Daybreaker 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, Cysco Conference 2016, SF Gay Pride Parade 2016, MakerFaire 2016, San Francisco Botanical Gardens’ 75th Anniversary 2015, Burning Man 2017, 2016, 2015 & 2014, Symbiosis 2015, Lightning in a Bottle 2015 & 2014, Lucidity 2014, Berkeley Sunday Streets 2013, Gaia Festival 2012, Seattle Solstice Parade 2011, Procession of the Species Parade 2011, Bread and Puppet 2010, plus many more corporate and privately sponsored events. 

Giant puppet makers and project directors include:

Founder, Director, and Puppet Artist: Toni Mikulka

Often called the pied piper of her family, Toni started theater at the age of 5 in local community productions in her hometown of Suffern, NY. She excelled in theater and lacrosse athletics in high school where her passion for community arts and teamwork was cemented. Toni studied Anthropology and Art at the State University of New York, where she graduated in 2005 with honors, and immediately went on to work for six years in nonprofit development for the arts, including the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Hospice, and PBS (where she even won the PBS Development award for Best Fundraising Event!). She made a career change in 2010 when she was accepted to the Bread and Puppet Theater Company, in Glover, Vermont, and subsequently went to work in set design and puppet performance in NYC.  In 2011, she received a grant from the Fremont Arts Council to start Giant Puppets Save the World in Seattle.  There Toni apprenticed with giant puppet artists and taught workshops for the Seattle Solstice Parade and the Procession of the Species Parade in Olympia, WA.  After which, she followed creative pursuits to NYC with a performance art company as a resident Puppet Master.  Longing for the West Coast culture, she settled back in California in Winter of 2012 to work at Habitot Children’s Museum in Berkeley as a puppeteer teacher and nonprofit manager.  In the Bay Area she finds a robust artist community with many puppetry partners and leads direct actions with street theater to protest climate change, and fight social injustices.

Puppet Artist: Sarah Lovett

Artist Sarah Lovett worked with the Fremont Solstice Parade in it’s beginnings. She received Dave McKay Parade Grants in 2006, 2010, & 2011. She created the, Giant Octopus, a “Floating Deva” inflatable chakra man; the Mythical Dogody, a giant articulated dog puppet, and a human scale butterfly. Sarah is a featured artist at Arts-a-Glow this year.

Formal concerns around structure, beauty and nature are the foundations that form the core of Sarah’s work. She has worked with reed and paper for the past four years, and brings a rich knowledge of materials and construction techniques to make lightweight pieces for performance.