Ramon Abad's Puppetry

Ramon Abad (he/his) is a Filipino American puppeteer, artist, and teacher based in San Francisco, CA, acknowledged as unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land.

He began his puppetry practice in the mid 90s where he performed a traveling solo puppet show at Bay Area Filipino American festivals. His latest puppet booth project Tito Ramon’s Pop-Up Puppet Show was the first puppet show performed at Kapwa Gardens post Covid-19. Since 2021, Ramon has been a resident artist of Balay Kreative Studio, a collective of Filipinx American artists based in SOMA Pilipinas, San Francisco.

He was a shadow puppeteer and puppet-maker with Larry Reed’s ShadowLight Productions and was in Wayang Listrik that toured in the Jim Henson International Puppetry Festival ‘97. As the resident puppeteer with the Filipino American sketch comedy troupe tongue in A mood, Ramon devised and directed skits using puppetry at Bindlestiff Studio.

Ramon premiered his first solo art installation show “Mabuhay, Friend!” in Fall 2023 at the gallery of the San Francisco Arts Education Project inside the Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco. He designed a series of interactive sculptures or “puppets” that encouraged gallery visitors to touch, move and play with the artwork directly.

He has directed stage plays, online performances and immersive theater shows using puppetry. Ramon has led puppetry residencies in the US and the UK. As a workshop leader, he seeks to engage all communities to explore modern puppetry regardless of age, background and skill set.