Adam Kreutinger was a visionary puppet builder, designer, and theatrical artist whose imagination helped shape the visual magic of the Slyboots Circus. His work carried a rare blend of craftsmanship, mythic scale, and playful irreverence — the kind of artistry that makes audiences gasp, laugh, and believe.

Our first collaboration began with the presentation of The Odyssey at Artpark, where Adam brought to life the now-iconic Cyclops stilt-walking puppet. Towering, expressive, and larger than life, that Cyclops became more than a character — it became a cornerstone of the Slyboots visual universe. Today, the Cyclops continues to stride across festival grounds and stages as a featured presence in Slyboots Circus productions, a living tribute to Adam’s creative genius.

In the years that followed, Adam and Griffin began developing an entirely new suite of large-scale puppets for the Slyboots Circus — expanding the world of stilted tricksters, mythic beings, and parade-scale characters that define the show’s aesthetic. The vision was bold: interchangeable puppet tops, towering silhouettes, and a traveling world of folklore brought to life through handcrafted design.

It was during this exciting new chapter of collaboration that Adam was diagnosed with brain cancer.

Even in the face of that diagnosis, Adam’s artistic spirit remained luminous. His influence continues to guide the evolution of Slyboots — in every towering figure, every piece of playful engineering, and every child who looks up in awe at a giant puppet moving against the sky.

Adam’s legacy lives on not only in the physical creations he left behind, but in the permission he gave us all to build big, dream wildly, and make art every day.

We are forever grateful for his friendship, his artistry, and his belief in the magic of what we were creating together.

The Cyclops still walks. The story continues.  

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