Philadelphia is full of small idiosyncratic museums, from the memorials to Thaddeus Kosciuszko and Edgar Allen Poe to the 70s-tastic displays of the Mummer Museum, from the aging scientific displays of the Wagner Free Institute of Science to the one-of-a-kind monuments to freedom at the National Liberty Museum. I discovered another weird little treasure when I attended a performance of ONWARDS & UPWARDS: The Italian American Dream at the History of Italian Immigration Museum on East Passayunk in South Philly.

The short performance piece is designed as a theatrical tour through the small exhibit space, led by playful puppeteer/creator Angelo Aiello. We meet flatulent Italian Spazzolino, a wooden migrant to the New World, step into a barber shop with talking combs, and hear about the struggles of travel from simply constructed dolls.