Gwen Bonar

Featured Puppeteer

Gwen Bonar has been performing for audiences since she was six, touring nationally and internationally and representing Great Arizona Puppet Theater at regional, national, and international puppetry festivals. Alongside her mother, she performed in Great Arizona Puppet Theater’s original version of Cinderella, which received an UNIMA award—founded by Jim Henson and considered the highest honor in puppetry. Gwen has built and performed works for The Phoenix Symphony (Peter and the Wolf), Desert Botanical Garden, The Phoenix Zoo, Phoenix Children’s Museum, Delta Dental of Arizona Foundation, and the Grand Canyon Interpretive Department, and has presented hundreds of shows at Great Arizona Puppet Theater, the theater her parents founded that celebrated 40 years of puppetry in 2023. She has performed internationally, including Mexico’s International Puppet Festival, and her original short-form adult pieces have been selected for multiple National Puppetry Slams. Gwen appears in schools, museums, libraries, and festivals, delighting audiences of all ages and showing what puppetry is and what it can be.

As a second-generation puppeteer and builder, she oversees productions at GAPT and is passionate about creating high-quality theater for children that blends humor, heart, and meaningful themes. Now a full-time Flagstaff resident, Bonar will serve as the primary performer for Northern Arizona, offering flexible, locally based touring that reduces travel costs for schools and libraries while deepening the theater’s roots in the region.

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