[Constructed 1875] Artistic Director: Bruce Cannon
Summer and School Year Seasons Playing from October- June and
July - August Showtimes: Tuesday-Friday: 10:30am
and 12:00pm, Saturdays: 1:00pm.
No Saturday performances in July and
August.
Closed Sundays, Mondays, and School and
National Holidays Suggested donation: Children $5; Adults $6
School or not for profit groups:
$4.50/person Reservations required
(212) 988-9093
The Marionette Theater at
the Swedish Cottage is one
of the most enchanting and memorable experiences a
child can have in Central Park.
With remarkable productions of classic tales like
The Magic Flute, Rumpelstiltskin, Jack
and the Beanstalk, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty,
the Citywide Puppets in the Parks
program also travels around the boroughs for citywide
live puppet theater.
Once the productions begin the screams and laughter
of the many gathered children subside
into anticipated silence and throughout the show children
gasp with delight at all the right places
turning the experience into one that their parents, teachers
or counselors can well appreciate.
These are shows that bring delight to everyone involved
and simply must be seen.
The home to the theater is a quaint Baltic fir log cottage
of Swedish origin.
Built in 1875 it was originally a traditional schoolhouse.
Transported to the United States by the Swedish
government it was exhibited at the
U.S. Centennial Exposition, held in 1876 in Philadelphia.
This Nordic Romantic style structure was showcased
as an example of the Swedes'
superior woodworking craftsmanship. The charm of the
Cottage made an indelible
impression with the New York City Board of Commissioners,
which purchased it after the
Exhibition for $1,500. Central Park's chief landscape
architect, Frederick Law Olmsted
recommended that the Cottage be taken apart, transported
to New York City, and
reassembled at its present site in 1877.
First used as a tool house and then a library it was later
turned into a comfort station and lunchroom and then into
the Park's entomological laboratory only to become the
district headquarters for the Civil Defense during WWII.
It wasn't until 1947, under the leadership of
Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and Parks
Commissioner Robert Moses that the Cottage became the
official workshop of the Park Department's Traveling Marionette
Theater. In the mid-1970s, a permanent theater
was constructed inside the Cottage so that children could see
marionette performances in Central Park.
Recently transformed again through restoration the Cottage
environment is completely delightful and so perfectly
suited for its audience and its genre of theater.
