Current Artists
We are happy to honor a circle of radiant In the Heart of the Beast (HOBT) artists who both inspire and carry out the many programs and projects of our theatre. Would you like to be one of them? We are always happy to hear from community artists who are interested in collaboration.
Lys Akerman-Frank
Lys is a Native Brazilian/American teaching Artist, whose work explores the complexity of identity through mixed media, primarily focusing on masks and puppetry. Masks are powerful metaphors for how we navigate the world. Puppetry is a universal language that tells stories, brings cultural heritage to focus, and makes us all a bit richer and wiser after each play.
Spencer Arevalo
Spencer Arevalo (he/they) is a local puppeteer, theater artist, and
educator. Originally from Texas, he received his BA from University of Minnesota Theater Arts Program, and has loved and lived in South Minneapolis since. They have a love for environmental sustainability and creating community through puppetry! You may see them at a local coffee shop, or on their porch with their cats. He is very excited to be a part of the HOBT family and continue to grow with them as an
artist.
Chelly Beaver
Chelly Beaver is a puppeteer and storyteller from the northern metro with over a decade of storytelling experience and a huge love for children's literature. You can normally find Chelly at HOBT's Puppet and Mask Library the first and third Saturday of each month accompanied by her puppet companion Turnip the Dog. Stop by and join her for a storytime or workshop!
Gustavo Boada
Gustavo has been working in Minnesota since 2007, and has four decades of experience in community-engaged art, popular education, and popular theater, including work in Latin America (Peru, Chile, and Puerto Rico), as well as around the US (New York, DC, Philadelphia, Vermont, and Minnesota).
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Specifically, he has worked in a variety of capacities at In the Heart of the Beast (including being a lead artist in 13 May Day Parades), presented his work through BareBones Theater, Minnesota History Center (Dia de los Muertos 2010, 2011, and 2012), CLUES (Fiesta Latina in 2019 and 2021, as well as Dias de Muertos events and workshops, ArtStart (leading workshops with Public School students since 2007).
Gustavo has also presented his work at the National Museum of the American Indian ( Washington DC), the Peabody Museum in Boston, Naylamp Puppet Theater (in Philadelphia), as well as 5 Puerto Rican Day Parades in Philadelphia. This work included 4 plays representing his indigenous heritage as well as the native traditions of different Latin American countries. In the way he rooted his work with the community of twin cities Gustavo had been recipient of grants from MRCA to created "Puckllay: Family Puppetshow; form City of Minneapolis (Creative response Funds) to Create Big Alebrije Bikes 2022 and MSAB to create Big Paper mâché bike sculptures "Alebrijes.Catrinas y Mojigangas” 2023.
Gustavo and his wife Julie Boada co-founded a theater company in 2008 (called “Little Coyote Puppet Theater” since 2020), and has created 8 different plays, and presented them over 1,000 times to audiences all over the state of Minnesota.
Julie Boada
Julie is an Anishinabe artist, storyteller, puppeteer and art educator. She has worked regionally and nationally for the past 32 years, with Heart of the Beast Masque and Puppet Theatre ArtStart and independently. Organizations she has worked with include the L.A. Music Center, The Minnesota History Center, and The Fergus Falls Center for the Arts.
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Recent work includes A river Runs Free, Lupita Doesn’t Want to go to Sleep and Puckllay. Julie has received grants from the Minnesota State Arts Board and Jerome Foundation. Julie has a B.A. in Studio Arts and American Indian Studies from the University of Minnesota. She is passionate about work that fosters cultural pride and value.
Stayci Bell
Stayci is a granddaughter to her deceased grandparents Louise and Willie Caliup and a niece to her deceased Uncle Calvin. She is a daughter, mother and grandmother. Stayci is a grower of food. She is a theater actress, puppeteer and stagehand.
Ches Cipriano
Ches Cipriano (they/them) is a Filipino, Queer, first-generation American based in Minneapolis. They operate as a community cultivator, producer/organizer, radical joy seeker and mixed-media collaborator. They received their B.A in Theater & Dance with a minor in Performance Design and Technologies from Macalester College in 2020.
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Their artistic practice is rooted in puppetry, laughter, animation, and tickling curiosities. Since 2017, they have shared their work on- and off- stage with theater and opera companies throughout Minnesota, and on-screen with small film festivals in the Midwest and New England. They treasure community-based art. Though they are often in various tech booths in the Twin Cities, you can also find them as one of the Producers of the Art Shanty Projects. Connect with them on Instagram @chesarthey.
Felicia Cooper
Felicia Cooper is a puppeteer, researcher, and gal about town who creates art experiences for communities to experience wonder, joy, and curiosity together. Her work has been seen at Open Eye Theater, LaMama Theater Puppet Festival, Chicago International Puppet Festival, the National Puppetry Festival at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and more.
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She has recently been supported by the Jerome Foundation and the National Humanities Center, and has held artist residencies with the Bell Museum, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, and the Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance. She holds an MFA from the University of Connecticut. Go Huskies. www.feliciatmcooper.com @felicia__cooper
Angie Courchaine
Angie is a community-based artist and teacher living and working in South Minneapolis. They enjoy working on collaborative projects, usually using their skills in visual arts, puppetry, and movement.
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They co-founded Pinwheel Arts and Movement Studio, currently are part of the Hijinks Stilts collective, have been a staff artist for several MayDays and Barebones, and have co-created two Art Shanties. Angie teaches independently and with various schools and arts organizations. They appeared as an aerialist in the puppet rock opera Basement Creatures at In the Heart of the Beast, regularly do Bodystorming cancer research with Black Label Movement, and are currently working on MRAC-funded acro stilt skillshares.
Tara Fahey
Tara Fahey is an artist, teacher, and performer. Their 20 year art practice includes lanterns, puppetry, papercuts, printmaking, and modifying textiles. In 2019, they received a Puppet Lab Grant through the Jerome Foundation creating a 40 minute show ‘Devotion:The Early Years of Rachel Carson’.
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In 2022, they co-created Micro/Macro, a 16 panel-60 foot- visual ode to Minnesota freshwater ecosystems for Arts and Rec, featuring large scale papercuts. In spring of 2023, they participated in a residency in Oaxaca, Mx through the Arquetopia Foundation learning to make natural dye pigment for use in silk screen printing.
With the start of 2024, along with a small cohort of artists, they completed a two year-500 square foot expansion of the Illuminated Reef Installation at Can Can Wonderland fabricated from recycled materials.
In the spring of 2024, Tara was awarded a mid-career Forecast Public Art grant along with fellow artist Sofia Padilla. Together, they built 2 lantern bikes and taught 6 public lantern workshops, culminating in the Radiant Waves Lantern Parade on the Midtown Greenway, in July of 2024.
More information can be found at tarafahey.com.
Orren Fen
Since before Orren could even speak they have been making weird Queer art in South Minneapolis. Orren focuses her work on puppetry, drag performance art, prop and set design, dance, costume design, sequins and googly eyes.
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Gender identity usually works its way into the art Orren makes along with other things like clowns, grandmas, inanimate things with faces, and silly little jazzy dance moves.
Orren has performed at many venues and events in the Twin Cities including Weird Stuff Only, Open Eye Theater, B.O.N.K., Puppet Cabaret MPLS, Heart of the Beast Theater, Full Moon Puppet Show, the Dick Von Dyke Show, and many School Dance showcases.
Patty Gille
"I am an old time fan of In the Heart of the Beast. I’ve danced the parade as Carmen Miranda for at least 30 years. Often found at the Saturday Matinee puppet shows. I show up as frog or raccoon at different events. Composer of the famous MayDay Money song among others. Paper mache maven".
Danielle Hendricks
Danielle (she/her) is a local puppeteer, artist, and story-teller. With her extensive background in the arts, and a magical encounter with puppetry in 2019, she switched her main focus to puppet theater and creative writing for the stage and page. She uses curiosity and exploration to find ways to blend artistic practices & explore different mediums and methods to puppetry and storytelling. Danielle loves seeing the power of art’s ability to heal, change, inspire and educate.
When she is not creating, she can be found spending time with her husband, loving on her dog, Trixie, working in her garden or cooking.
Olli Johnson
Olli is a theater artist, musician, crafty lady, and aspiring paper engineer. She has performed with Bread and Puppet, In the Heart of the Beast, Barebones and Bedlam Theatre.
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Formerly, she was an ensemble member of the Unseen Ghost Brigade, a clown troupe that travelled by raft and shared performances in small towns along the Mississippi River. She currently works as a teaching artist at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Adventures in Cardboard, and Mia. Her obsessions are book-binding and making pop-up books, automata, and playing accordion.
Laurelie MacKenzie
Laurelie MacKenzie has a great passion for teaching, the arts and for professional development. As an experienced teaching artist, her gentle teaching style fosters a positive and creative atmosphere. She values connection, compassion and community.
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With joy she encourages her students to share in those aspects as well with her sincere, kind, and enthusiastic manner. Ms. Laurelie MacKenzie is continuing her studies and is currently in the process of obtaining her PHD in Expressive Arts Therapy with an Emphasis on Education.
Ms. Laurelie MacKenzie is also the founder of a non-profit organization that provides art classes, materials and experiences to further welcome, uplift and to support others so they may be delighted and immersed in the profound benefits and beauty of the arts.
Ifrah Mansour
Ifrah Mansour is a Somali, refugee, Muslim, multimedia artist and an educator based in Minnesota. Her artwork explores trauma through the eyes of children to uncover the resiliencies of blacks, Muslims, and refugees. She interweaves poetry, puppetry, films, and installations.
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She's been featured in Middle East Eye, BBC, Vice, OkayAfrica, Star Tribune, and City Pages. Her critically-acclaimed, “How to Have Fun in a Civil War” premiered at Guthrie Theatre and toured to greater cities in Minnesota. Her first national museum exhibition; “Can I touch it” premiered at Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Her visual poem, “I am a Refugee” is part of PBS’s short Film festival. "My Aqal, banned and blessed" Premiered at Queens Museum in New York. Learn More: facebook.com/ifrahmansourart
Esther Ouray
Esther Ouray has been creating, performing, celebrating, and teaching with In the Heart of the Beast since 1980. As puppeteer, actress, director, dancer, and choreographer, she has creatively engaged with community locally, regionally, and internationally.
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She has cavorted with other performance companies as well in the Minneapolis area - among them are: At the Foot of the Mountain, Barebones Productions, Illusion Theater, and Interact Center for Visual and Performing Arts. Currently Esther is a company member of Zamya Theater Project. She has been the recipient of grants from the MN State Arts Board, Jerome Foundation, Rimon, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Puffin Foundation, and Arts on Chicago.
Junauda Petrus
Junauda Petrus is a writer, aerialist, playwright, creative organizer and performance artist. She has received a Givens Foundation fellowship, Jerome Travel and Study grant, Many Voices Mentorship with the Playwright's Center, and Naked Stages Residency at the Pillsbury House.
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She is also a cultural producer-in-residence at the Givens Foundation, where she co-hosts a podcast series called Black Market Reads. She is the co-founder of Free Black Dirt, a Minneapolis-based artist collective.
Jake Quatt
is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Minneapolis currently working in illustration, printmaking, animation, and shadow puppetry. Jake received his B.A in Fine Arts and Journalism from Beloit College in 2019 and moved to Minneapolis in early 2020. He currently illustrates for MadHat Press, Unlikely Books, and Spuyten Duyvil, puppeteers with The Heart of the Beast Theatre, and is a producer of O.H.N.O. Puppet Shows with the Puppet Union. He is currently collaborating with Marc Vincenz on a graphic novel entitled Coalition No. 9. He can be found on Instagram @jake_quatt_arts.
Emma Ruddock
Emma Ruddock (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist, organizer, activist, and ardent music fan hailing from the east coast. She has a background in visual and performing arts, music venue management, publicity, and local and national political and labor organizing.
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She studied creative nonfiction writing and painting at Brown University and serves as a Midwest editor for Joyland Magazine. Emma cherishes the moments when her creative pursuits collide with her political activism and believes that art can be a profound catalyst for social change. She performs her original music under the pseudonym Emma Even.
Anne Sawyer
Anne Sawyer is a Twin Cities writer, puppeteer, and artist. She has frolicked with many beloved Twin Cities organizations, including Hijinks Stilts, ArtStart, In the Heart of the Beast, and Open Eye Theater. She is a children’s book author, with four titles to her name, including Nalah and the Pink Tiger, Nalah Goes to Mad Mouse City, Mars on Life, and The Pollinator’s Gift. She is the Executive Director of ArtStart, annesawyerart.com.
Lu Calvo Searle
Lu Calvo Searle (they/them) is a high school puppeteer, artist and actor from Minneapolis. A fan of making people laugh, most of their work is silly and comedic. They have worked with Barebones and Adventures in Cardboard and have collaborated with Heart of The Beast. Their pride and joy is Richard, a Blue Footed Booby puppet that was gifted to a friend.
Davey T. Steinman
Davey T Steinman is an artist and educator working at the intersection of performance and culture. Davey has worked in performing arts since 2010, including extensive touring in the United States and Mexico, and as a professor of theater at Macalester College in Saint Paul.
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His original puppetry works include the rock opera “Basement Creatures” as the director-writer-performer in 2016 at In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, and “Migraciones / Migrations” as the co-director-writer-performer in 2022 at the National Puppetry Festival. As a video projection artist his performance designs have been staged internationally, including at Body Word Festival in Russia, & Rudolstadt Festival in Germany. In 2019, Davey was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to collaborate with artists in Mexico City, and to direct multimedia performances to promote mutually beneficial international relations. Davey currently works as Artistic Co-Director of Paradox Teatro, co-founded with Mexico City artist Sofía Padilla. Their mission is to use the arts to connect communities across language barriers and cultures.
Lizz Windnagel
Lizz (they/them) is a theater artist who was bit by a puppet bug in 2012 and has never been the same. They have created and performed in puppet shows at Open Eye Figure Theater, Heart of the Beast, Calgary Animated Objects Festival, and many more.
Lizz’s artistic interests include the uncanny, strange, and old, which puppetry is very much known for. Lizz’s original works and directing credits often include puppets, who often end up taking over the directing because they have a mind of their own. Lizz has created multiple full-length shadow puppet accompaniments to musical pieces like The Cradle Will Rock with An Opera Theater (2024) as well as Pierrot Lunaire with Ensemble dal Niente in Chicago (2018).
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They have designed puppets for various productions including Mixed Precipitations Magic Flute (2022). Their production Pierrot’s Gender Reveal Party appeared at the Calgary Animated Objects Festival in 2019. While living in Calgary, Canada, Lizz was fortunate to puppeteer in the Canadian Academy of Mask and Puppetry’s Collaboration with the Blackfoot tribe on their lantern puppet show.
Lizz currently teachers theater and a yearly summer puppetry intensive at the Down Syndrome Association of MN, where they also are the director of adult enrichment programs. Lizz holds an MFA in directing from the University of Calgary, Canada as well as degrees in English and Vocal music from the University of MN.
Laurie Witzkowski
Laurie Witzkowski is a maker of theater, music, ritual and gardens in both English and Spanish. She has been creating at In the Heart of the Beast for several decades, wearing every hat there is. Additionally she has enlivened space in war zones, sacred sites, on the streets and by rivers across the country and the world, dedicated to ending violence on all levels.
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Besides her theater work with many ensembles, she has appeared on stage, screen and recordings as a vocalist, musician and conductor. Drumming! Dancing! Working with kids and dirt and seeds! She just can't help herself.
Fletcher Wolfe
Fletcher Wolfe (they/them) is a puppeteer, educator, and improviser based in Minneapolis. Their work is rooted in expressive absurdity. They love to make people laugh and are willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen. When they’re not making puppets, they’re playing with their miniature schnauzer Nanette.
Join the Community
Artists who are interested in what we do are encouraged to reach out to learn about opportunities for participation and collaboration. You’re also welcome at our events if you’d like to learn more about the HOBT community.