OPEN EYE MAINSTAGE: Puppetry
Open Eye Theatre presents
PUPPET LAB FESTIVAL
April 10 - 19, 2026
Led by Co-Artistic Directors Oanh Vu and Sofia Padilla
Featuring new work by PUPPET LAB artists
PUPPET LAB is a 2-week festival of brave, quirky, imaginative, and visually dazzling new puppet work, the culmination of a 6-month development residency for emerging puppetry artists.
Emerging puppetry artists share experimental work
Our PUPPET LAB residency artists have spent the last several months creating and refining new boundary-pushing puppetry performances in our supportive workshop environment, guided by Co-Artistic Directors Oanh Vu and Sofia Padilla, and mentors.
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TICKETS
$18 — General Admission
$15 — Economic AccessibilityA limited number of $15 Economic Accessibility tickets are available online for all performances. If not sold out, a limited number of pay-as-able tickets will be available at the door. View our ticketing policy.
AGE RECOMMENDATION: Ages 14 and up.
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PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
Week #1: Mackenzie Lageson & Destiny Davison
Friday 4/10, 7:30pm
Saturday 4/11, 7:30pm
Sunday 4/12, 2:00pm*Week #2: Jake Quatt & Chelly Beaver
Friday 4/17, 7:30pm
Saturday 4/18, 7:30pm
Sunday 4/19, 2:00pm**We will offer the Sunday 4/12 and 4/19 matinees as masking-required performances for our community. All other shows are masking-optional.
RUN TIME: TBD
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ACCESSIBILITY
Contact us at 612-874-6338 or boxoffice@openeyetheatre.org for accessibility information and requests. Learn more.
COVID PRECAUTIONS: All audience members will be required to wear masks during our Sunday 4/12 and 4/19 matinee performances. All other shows are masking-optional. The masking policy will be posted on the door.
TUNNELS IN THE STRAW
By Mackenzie Lageson
Peter is a child in the throes of change; his father absent, his mother soon to remarry, and his pet ferret suspiciously missing from its cage. Of course, when a ghostly train enters his bedroom one night—strange passengers speaking of a Farm Up North where his ferret may now reside—he heeds their advice and boards a stalled freight train in the dead of night. Therein he meets the sickly Griswold, a true man of the rails, kicking off his feverish journey into a world of vomiting snakes, mournful portraits, and the anthropomorphic unknown.
Before the welcoming world of puppetry swallowed him whole, Mackenzie was an illustrator, animator, and (unfortunately) musician. Now he juggles independent filmmaking, political refugee work, and live theatre about roadkill that gives birth to human infants. Thematically, narratively, and atmospherically, his work pursues catharsis above all else (maybe therapy will “click” someday and he’ll finally knock this off). He has a one-year-old son who he loves very much. He will never return to Los Angeles again.
DOLLY WHO?’S FOR DINNER
By Destiny Davison
DOLLY WHO?, your friendly neighborhood perpetually exhausted millennial, is hosting a dinner party for her friends, and YOU! Gather around the dinner table with Bruiser, Crash, Frank Cubington, Dolly, and Dolly (the other one) for an evening of small talk, sitting, friendship, and learning together how not to let the screaming on the inside show up on the outside, and what to do when it inevitably does anyway.
Destiny Davison (or Dolly to her friends, and you now, too) is a cartoonist, improviser, puppeteer, animator, writer, and mixed-media maker. Her artwork has been commissioned by Apple TV, Yo Gabba Gabba, Planned Parenthood, the Star Tribune, the Northeast Minneapolis Arts Association, TPT Almanac, Theatre Pro Rata, and the Minnesota Billboard Project. What she thinks about most, at least right now, is: monsters living and imagined, that one episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog, snails on skateboards, being a friend, the blurry line between laughing and crying, and how to grow old without forgetting the kid on the inside.
AFTER IMAGE
ByJake Quatt
AFTER IMAGE is the story of Iris, a researcher at a shadowy laboratory, who studies potentially dangerous artifacts. After an incident at work, reality itself begins breaking apart. Iris thinks she can fix what is broken, but can she navigate a changing world? Using shadow puppetry, a silhouette actor, and analog animation techniques, this show explores what happens when your world transforms into something you no longer recognize. How do you move forward? How do you hold on to your sense of self?
Jake Quatt is an illustrator, printmaker, shadow puppeteer, and animator, from rural Vermont. Since moving to the Twin Cities in 2020, he has been transformed by the artistic community in the south side of Minneapolis. In the last six years, he has gravitated toward the fascinating worlds of theater, puppetry, and weird art. Jake currently illustrates for MadHat Press, Unlikely Books, and Spuyten Duyvil. He is an associate artist with In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, a co-producer of the Puppet Union's “O.H.N.O” shows, and touring as a puppeteer/performer throughout venues in Atlanta, Portland, Seattle, Northern Minnesota, and the Twin Cities. Jake’s true artistic passion lies in collaboration, particularly with artists working in different mediums. He is very excited to discover which project and which medium will capture his attention next.
WHALE WHALE WHALE: WHAT HAVE WE HERE?
By Chelly Beaver
WHALE WHALE WHALE: WHAT HAVE WE HERE? is the story of a nature documentary host who is on the lookout for the very rare Elusive Fish when he gets distracted by three very suspicious, shifty-eyed whales. Just what are they up to over there? Inventively combining elements of a traditional puppet show with an interactive puzzle room, audience members will be recruited as aquatic detectives, randomly selected to dig through trash, shift through mail, piece together clues and decode secret messages, as we follow the whales to figure out what secrets they are hiding!
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!
