Chicago Puppet Lab
Chicago Puppet Lab Showcase
May 29 - June 1, 2025
Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center
4048 W. Armitage Ave.
Eight Chicago artists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines have spent the last eight months in residence at the Chicago Puppet Lab, a program of the Chicago Puppet International Puppet Theater Festival, where they have been expanding their skill sets by creating new, original puppet theater works.
On May 29 through June 1, the 2024-25 Chicago Puppet Lab cohort will present their emerging works at the Segundo Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center.
Ticket prices: Regular ($20); Student/Senior ($15)
Schedule
The Puppet Lab Showcase includes two rotating group shows, each featuring diverse works in progress by Chicago artists. Program A features Irene Wa., madigan burke, Sam Lewis and Charlie Malavé. Program B features Ruby Que, Anthony-Michael Stokes, Robbie Lynn Hunsinger and Michele Stine.
Thursday, May 29 at 7pm: Program B
Friday, May 30 at 7pm: Program A
Saturday, May 31 at 3pm: Program A
Saturday, May 31 at 7pm: Program B
Sunday, June 1 at 3pm: Program B
Sunday, June 1 at 7pm: Program A
Get 20% off with the Promo Code EARLYLAB
If you buy tickets to either opening performance at least a week in advance
Note: Only one discount can be used per order
Get 20% off with the Promo Code LABAB
If you buy tickets to both a Program A and Program B show
Note: Only one discount can be used per order
Program A
Featuring works by: Irene Wa., madigan burke, Sam Lewis, and Charlie Malave
she is drying by Irene Wa.
Two characters and an excess of strings come together in a dance that explores the restriction of movement and the tension of dependency. It delves into the inner self; an encounter, an appearance, a fantasy. Large scale marionette; music by Kobe.
Operating Theater by madigan burke
Join madigan and Harvey, two highly qualified medical puppet professionals, as they perform a surgery. Featuring figurative puppets and live feed video puppetry.
Black Episcopalian by Sam Lewis
Sam asks his mom about their origins in the Episcopal Church. The incredible answer takes Sam on a journey back to his birthplace in rural Tennessee, uncovering a history he could have never imagined. Live feed multiplane projection.
A Suite of Dreams by Charlie Malavé
Images, sounds and feelings pulled directly from the dream world into the shared waking world. A dream story told in the language of symbols. Puppetry styles include projected and manipulated shadows and puppet miniatures.
Program B
Featuring works by: Ruby Que, Anthony-Michael Stokes, Robbie Hunsinger, and Michele Stine
Touch by Ruby Que
Touch plays with constructed invisibility to propose new ways of seeing and communicating using object puppetry, live sensor input from a puppet microphone and ice puppetry.
Anansi – a Dispersal of Wisdom by Anthony-Michael Stokes
The aspiring god of storytelling earns their title by being entrusted by the elder Sky God Nyame, with an impossible task of traveling the world and gathering all the stories and wisdom.
Shehnai Mist/Suona Flames by Robbie Lynn Hunsinger
Transforming the moods and music of the Indian Shehnai and Chinese Suona into puppetry with translucent shadow puppetry, animations and wearable musical instrument puppets.
AudioFile by Michele Stine
A record player, a rotary phone, cassettes and ancient suitcases. The physical remnants of a life left behind, and the playground for someone to rediscover the joy of sound. Featuring object puppetry, crankie, figurative puppetry and solo.
About the Chicago Puppet Lab
The Chicago Puppet Lab is a puppet theater incubator and residency program that supports artists in bringing to life new works of puppet theater. The Chicago Puppet Lab has 3 major goals: Incubating more works of inspiring, boundary-breaking puppetry in Chicago, expanding equity in the field of puppetry, and encouraging interdisciplinary experimentation in puppet theater. The program accepts 8 artists or artist groups for a 8-month, in person laboratory process led by Puppet Lab Co-Directors: Tom Lee and Grace Needlman. Lab artists participate in weekly meetings where artists share, discuss, meet deadlines, and learn from one-another’s work as well as from expert guest artists. Together all contribute to the advancement of the cohort’s work. Experience their work May 29-June 2 in the showcase performances! See below for more info and tickets.
Supported by Kristy & Brandon Moran, the Pritzker Foundation, and the Paul M. Angell Foundation
Artist Bios (2024-25)
madigan burke (they/them)
madigan is a genderqueer ex-mechanical engineer turned multidisciplinary artist who likes to draw cartoons, make funny films, and sometimes create edgy and endearing puppet characters. In their work and collaborations, madigan gravitates toward projects that explore queerness, encourage curiosity, and spread joy. they love building worlds and creating funny and inclusive storylines within them.
IG: @madiganburke
Robbie Lynn Hunsinger (she/her)
Professional classical oboist turned coder, multi-instrumentalist, composer, improviser, interactive installation artist and creative technologist. I specialize in live audiovisual performance and immersive interactive installations using motion, weight and sound activated triggers, robotics, responsive lights, custom circuits, multi-tracked audio and layered projections. I am a presenter in multimedia performance and also teach beginning code and creative technology workshops. I am an enthusiastic animal lover and conservationist and founded the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors.
IG: @robbiehunsinger
FB: @robbiehunsinger
Sam Lewis
Sam Lewis is an actor, poet, vocalist, and recently a puppeteer. He calls himself an accidental puppeteer because, in the early 2000s, he came across a vintage Black Americana marionette in an attic, which started him on an unexpected puppetry journey. Sam explores racial issues and negative iconography with that marionette, renamed Jus Hambone. Sam has grown to have a deep love for puppetry, which he feels is a dynamic storytelling art form. He also gets to explore his love of music in his work.
IG: @sam_u_el_le_w_is
Charlie Malavé (he/him)
Charlie Malavé is a musician, multi-instrumentalist, performing artist, and video maker whose body of work has produced an array of unique instruments, compositions, music videos, webisodes and theatrical productions. He dreams of the fantastic and the mundane, and he thinks we’re sharing a dream right now.
IG: @thecharlieuniverse
Ruby Que (they/them)
Ruby Que is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on site-specific intervention and expanded cinema performance. In their work they open portals and create hauntings. Many projects grapple with absence; with video, sculpture and installation, they attempt to give shape to what lies within and beyond the perceived void. They believe in the power of collective myth-making, and engage collaborators as well as viewers as co-conspirators towards liberation.
IG: @rubyq.ue
Michele Stine (she/they)
Michele Stine is an actor, clown, and puppeteer. They spend time digging through trash alleys for materials, much to her mother’s dismay. Michele has performed with Rough House Theatre, Filament Theatre, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Theatre Unspeakable, Lifeline Theatre, Emerald City Theatre, Theatre SUMM, and some other companies too. They like cheese-its, ice cream, and talking about theatre audience experiences and considerations. Michele thinks that “bios” are strange because it’s short for biography but we were given a word count of 75. Seems like not enough, but here we are. Exciting! Word count: 94.
IG: @michele_joy_stine
Anthony-Michael Stokes (he/him)
Anthony-Michael Stokes a Chicago based multidisciplinary teaching artist and award-winning educator. Originally from El Paso TX, he holds B.F.A’s in music theatre and dance and a Master’s in Education. He has trained as a puppeteer with the Jim Henson Company and the Sesame Street Puppeteer workshop. He was awarded a 2023 Production Grant, a 2022 Workshop Grant, and the 2023 O’Neill Residency from The Jim Henson Foundation for his work The Scarecrow which will premiere this November at La Mama Experimental Theatre Club. He is also currently a 23-24 La Mama residency artist. What fuels him as a creative is finding a clear perspective and cause to tell a story that will inspire, educate, and allow for self-reflection. He loves to package a thoroughly entertaining story that when you least expect it, hits you with a deep moment that can change your entire perspective. He wants his work to enlighten, empower and entertain while using puppetry, music and theatre to connect everything.
IG @kesstokreatures
anthonymichaelstokes.com
Irene Wa.
Irene Wa. is a Mexican interdisciplinary artist who works in drawing, sculpture, ceramics, video, and writing. Irene Wa.’s work has been displayed in various collective shows in Mexico, the US, and Peru, as well as in multiple solo shows in Chicago and Mexico City. She holds a Master’s in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City.
IG: @ire.wa
FB: @irene.wa.2
