Great Arizona Puppet Theater

Great Arizona Puppet Theater is a non-profit professional puppet theater that was founded in 1983 as a touring company. And if you think that means the company has a lot of history, you should hear about the building in which they're housed. Built in 1929, the beautiful Phoenix LDS 2nd Ward Church features Spanish Colonial style architecture and was designed by the famed architectural team of Burton and Pope. The theater bought the building in 1996 – after the public saved it from demolition and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places – and spent years reconstructing it before opening it as a performance space. It's a great place for a child's birthday party but you don't need to wait for a good reason to pop your head it to admire the decorative ceiling panels that were carefully restored by a muralist/scene painter.