¡Fiesta! At LA's Legendary Puppet Theater

#92: The Bob Baker Marionette Theater is a legit L.A. institution. It opened in 1963 in Echo Park and, after the first building was sold to a real-estate developer, it reopened in Highland Park in 2019.

Now, it might not seem like an obvious place to connect with Latino and LGBT communities in L.A., but you might be surprised! When HTLA producer Victoria Alejandro took our host Brian De Los Santos to the theater's ¡Fiesta! puppet show, they were delighted by what they discovered. 

Bob Baker himself created ¡Fiesta! 50 years ago as a "love letter" to Latin America. It was, according to the theater's website, inspired by his neighbors in L.A. and his mostly Latino team of puppeteers.  

The show recently got a much needed contemporary update from two new directors, Daisy Hernandez and Karina De La Cruz, who also happened to grow up going to the theater. They join How to LA host Brian De Los Santos to talk about what BBMT meant to them as kids and why the art of puppetry is still such a draw for them professionally. 

The whole experience of seeing the show at BBMT was a special kind of magic for Brian who admits he was a little skeptical when our producer pitched this idea. You'll have to listen to the podcast to hear why it continues to make an impact on audiences young and old across L.A. 

Guests: Daisy Hernandez, stage manager at Bob Baker Marionette Theater and co-director of ¡Fiesta!, and Karina De La Cruz, puppeteer and co-director of ¡Fiesta!