Puppets and puppeteers will flock to West Liberty this week to celebrate the art form and entertain young and old alike.

The community will host The Great Plains Puppet Train regional festival, through Puppeteers of America, Thursday through Sept. 23. The festival will feature 10 puppet troupes from across the United States and a special performance by Papermoon Puppet Theatre, a troupe from Indonesia. West Liberty’s 16th annual Children’s Festival will be Sept. 22 and will be the centerpiece of the festival.

West Liberty’s Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre founder and festival director Monica Leo said watching such diverse performances — especially the Indonesian troupe — will be a real treat for audiences.

“It’s a big deal for us as a puppet company, but a big deal for this little town, too,” Leo said.

Leo said those attending will be exposed to a variety of styles of puppet theater, including hand puppets, shadow puppets, rod marionettes and Victorian toy theater.

Performances will range from children’s stories during the day to some more adult-themed shows in the evening, she said.

Puppet theater is particularly interesting because it combines so many art forms — including visual art, drama, writing, music and movement — and is able to tell a range of stories without physical or language barriers, Leo said.

“The thing that is so wonderful about puppet theater is that you’re not restricted by what the human body can do. Puppets can do so many things that the human body can’t do,” Leo said. “And as a puppeteer, you can play any kind of part — if I were a human actor I would be restricted to middle-aged female parts — but as a puppeteer I can play children, old people, male, female, any members of the animal kingdom, anything I want.”

Karen Konnerth, the artistic director and puppeteer with Calliope Puppets from New Orleans, said puppet theater is an art form that is appealing to people of all ages.

“I think people all want to use their imaginations — people of all ages — and I think people really love that they get to put their own imagination into bringing the story to life,” she said.

She said that what people will see at the festival is “totally different” from what the audience may expect from their experiences watching puppets on television. Calliope Puppets will give two performances — one with shadow puppets and one with hand puppets — throughout the festival, one Thursday and one Sept. 22.

“Generally, (the performances) are stories people are not familiar with, and I find that people are intrigued by stories like this from other cultures because they all have universal themes,” Konnerth said.

Konnerth said she is especially excited for the Indonesian puppet troupe because it will expose the audience to the wider world of puppetry.

Papermoon was brought to the U.S. through a U.S. Department of State initiative, called CenterStage, which works to connect international artists with Americans through cultural exchanges. The group made its U.S. debut Sept. 8 with a performance at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Its visit to West Liberty will be the smallest venue on its tour — and the only event not on the East Coast.

Their performance, titled “Mwathirika,” portrays a dark period in Indonesia’s history, using puppets and multimedia to convey the happenings during an uprising in the country in 1965. The performance will be at 8 p.m. Sept. 22 in the West Liberty High School auditorium.