. >> my name is justin snyder. our friend and mentor bill fosser passed away, leaving my brother and me a sort of chicago institution -- his puppet opera. >> hi, justin. i'm jamie. >> jamie, nice to meet you. >> i'm told that you have something that i may never see again. >> here, follow me. >> i will. justin leads me behind the scenes of a most unusual opera house. >> all these boxes here contain costumes for various, different productions. >> wow! this is my kind of wardrobe. if only it came in my size. the costumes are so small because the players taking the stage aren't the supersized tenors and sopranos you expect to see at the opera. they're 16-inch puppets. the maestro behind this pint-size production, justin's boss, the late bill fosser. who was bill fosser? >> bill fosser taught me everything i know about puppetry. he had a unique ability to re-create full-scale environments, but in a miniature scale. he was one of my best friends. >> fosser, born in 1928, grows up in a working-class neighborhood on chicag