Ramon Abad's Puppetry

Ramon Abad (he/his) is a proud 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. From 2021 to 2025, Ramon was a resident artist of Balay Kreative Studio, a collective of Filipino American artists based in SOMA Pilipinas in downtown 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 1997. 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. He designed a series of interactive sculptures or “puppets” that encouraged gallery visitors to touch, move and play with the kinetic artwork directly.

He has directed stage plays, online performances and immersive theater shows using puppetry with grant award funding from the San Francisco Arts Commission, California Arts Council, Theatre Bay Area and the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center.

Ramon has led puppetry artist residencies and workshops with the San Francisco Arts Education Project, San Francisco Opera, African American Shakespeare Co./Handful Players, California Academy of Sciences and the Children’s Creativity Museum. As a teacher, he seeks to engage all communities to explore modern puppetry inclusive of diverse ages and cultures.