Entry No. 15 — the Providence file — filed under: puppetry
BIG NAZO Lab
Erminio Pinque's intergalactic creature ensemble — latex aliens, mutant grandmothers, a space-funk monster band — has been Providence's id since the mid-1980s, and the ten-member troupe still tours and still crashes local parades. What no longer exists is the walk-in downtown lab: Pinque has run through five storefront spaces over the years, and when the pandemic shut the last one, inside the Kennedy Plaza bus station, the operation retreated into its storage rooms at Atlantic Mills in Olneyville. The studio there holds a 'Creature Tunnel,' a narrow room of stored characters that Pinque shows visitors by green lantern light — but it is a private mill studio, not a public venue, and the mill's contentious 2025 sale has left every tenant's future uncertain.
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The story
Erminio Pinque started BIG NAZO in 1986, not long after graduating RISD in illustration; the name is Italian slang for "big nose," and the founding idea was a puppet show without the stage. He and an ensemble of puppeteers took latex creatures, mutant grandmothers, robots and aliens into the streets of New York, Boston and Providence with no hat out. "We just went out there in public and created these nonsensical parades for no reason," he told the Providence Eye. The tips came later. Four decades on it has played the 2010 Winter Olympics and festivals across Europe and Asia, still crashes PVDFest and neighborhood parades, and still teaches a winter creature class at RISD.
What no longer exists is a walk-in lab. Pinque has run through five downtown Providence storefronts; the last, inside the Kennedy Plaza bus station, was lost at the start of the pandemic, and the operation retreated into its storage rooms at Atlantic Mills in Olneyville. The studio there holds the Creature Tunnel, a narrow room of stored characters that Pinque walks visitors through by green lantern light. The lumps and warts are deliberate. "We're intentionally dysfunctional," he says. "Our robots bump into each other. They're supposed to serve a function, but they're not working correctly."
Atlantic Mills, a survivor of the cheap-mill-studio era that also produced Fort Thunder, houses the Retro Computing Society of RI, the Olneyville Neighborhood Association and artist collectives alongside BIG NAZO. Its tenants formed Rhode Island's first commercial tenants' union during the sale; the mill went for $4 million, changed hands June 17, 2025, and the new owners have not recognized the union. Everyone's lease is a live question. Meanwhile bignazo.com's calendar page tops out at 2018, while @bignazo posts on Instagram most days.
What it's like
There is nothing to walk into, so plan on interception rather than admission. Follow @bignazo, find the next public appearance — PVDFest, a WaterFire night, a neighborhood parade, a festival closing party — and stand on the route rather than behind the barricade, because a nine-foot alien working a crowd will absolutely pick the two people making eye contact. The creatures don't break character and the humans inside them stay anonymous; you aren't meeting a performer, you're being handled by a monster. It's free wherever the host event is free. If you want the Atlantic Mills studio and the Creature Tunnel, that's an invitation rather than a ticket: write to the group directly, say who you are, and expect it to depend on what Pinque is building that month.
The move: Follow @bignazo on Instagram and watch for their next public appearance — the creatures still work PVDFest, WaterFire nights, and neighborhood parades — then plant yourselves on the route and let a nine-foot alien pull you both into the act.
📍 Before you go The 25 Fulton St address still floating around tourism listings is out of date — there is no drop-in lab. The troupe works out of Atlantic Mills (100 Manton Ave, Olneyville) as a private studio and storage space; seeing the creatures means catching a public event or writing to the group directly for an invitation. Check their Instagram or site calendar before building an evening around them.
- 📍 Providence
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Hours: Added 2026-08-25 — confirm current hours before you go.
⚠ Seasonal or scheduled — always check before you go.
Pair it with
- Dirt Palace Storefront Window Gallery — A two-minute walk across Olneyville Square from Atlantic Mills: a feminist art collective in a former public library whose street-facing window is a free, 24-hour gallery that turns over monthly — the same Olneyville ecosystem, minus the latex.
- The Steel Yard — A mile away on Sims Ave, another nonprofit squatting inside a dead industrial campus — except here you register in advance and personally forge the thing, which is the participatory version of what BIG NAZO does to a crowd.
- The Avery — Just off Olneyville Square on Luongo Memorial Square: carved dark wood and tin ceilings behind hand-painted window lettering, the place to end up after a parade and close enough to walk from the mill.
More weird in Providence
Good to know
Can I just visit the lab?
No. The 25 Fulton Street address still circulating on tourism listings is out of date, and the Atlantic Mills space at 100 Manton Avenue is private studio and storage, not a venue. Access is by invitation; email [email protected] and make a real case.
Then where do I actually see them?
At public events. The current ten-member Creature Team works festivals, parades, WaterFire nights and PVDFest, plus bookings well outside Rhode Island. Check Instagram — @bignazo posts almost daily — because the website's calendar page hasn't been updated since 2018.
What does it cost?
Nothing beyond whatever the host event charges, and most of the Providence appearances are free street and festival work. Hiring them is a different conversation: BIG NAZO takes bookings, commissions and workshops through bignazo.com.
Can I do a workshop or learn to build creatures?
They run workshops on the road and a creature class through RISD's film and video department in winter session. Neither is a drop-in — ask through the site's contact page and get on a list.
Is the Atlantic Mills studio going to survive?
Unclear, which is the honest answer. The mill sold for $4 million and changed hands in June 2025, tenants organized the state's first commercial tenants' union, and the new ownership hasn't recognized it. Don't build a trip around the building.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: pvdeye.org · Official site · visitrhodeisland.com
last checked: 2026-08-25