Producing Artistic Director 
joel.sass@openeyetheatre.org

Joel Sass serves as Open Eye Theatre's Producing Artistic Director, after having first joined the company as Associate Producer in 2017. He has been based in the Twin Cities since 1991, working as a producer, stage director, designer and adapter, specializing in the creation of new multi-disciplinary work for the stage and devising imaginative reinterpretations of classic texts. Learn more about Joel.

Puppet Lab Co-Artistic Director
oanh.vu@openeyetheatre.org

Oanh is an artist and educator who first encountered puppetry through Monkeybear's Harmolodic Workshop’s puppetry intensive and mentorship program. Since then, puppetry has become her passion as I’ve transitioned into a career as a puppeteer. Oanh has trained with master puppeteers through the Chicago Puppet Festival,Tom Lee, Rough House Puppets, the O'Neill National Puppetry Conference and Manual Cinema. Locally, Oanh has created and collaborated on a wealth of new puppet works that have been shown across the Twin Cities. As an educator, Oanh has worked for 13 years with the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Puppet Lab Co-Artistic Director
sofia.padilla@openeyetheatre.org

Sofia Padilla is a Mexican Theater Artist, Director, Designer and Puppeteer who has participated in over forty national and international theater productions. For television, she was the First Assistant Director of Sesame Street in Mexico City for the 2016 season “Listos a Jugar”. Currently, she works as a touring member of Bread and Puppet Theater and as the Artistic Co-Director of Paradox Teatro, which she founded in 2017 with Davey T Steinman. Paradox Teatro has received three grants from "The Jim Henson Foundation" to develop two different projects: "Migraciones / Migrations" (2019 Production Grant) and “Speechless / Sin Palabras" (2021 Workshop Grant and 2023 Production Grant).

Marketing & PR Manager
amy.danielson@openeyetheatre.org

Amy has a background in supporting the arts, nonprofits, education, museums, and social services organizations. She is a marketing and communications consultant, focused on working with small nonprofits. She’s been a long-time fan of Open Eye since she went to her first show in the early 2000s. Amy loves traveling to new places as much as possible, baking, cooking, supporting local theater and music, and enjoying the outdoors.

Creative Technical Director
techdirector@openeyetheatre.org

Brandon received a B.A. in Radio/TV/Film from Cal State Fullerton before moving to MPLS. He has been working in and around Open Eye Theatre since 2008 and as Technical Director since 2016, constructing sets and props, rigging special effects, running sound and lights, and stage managing. He has built sets for the Learning Fairy 1 & 2, Nothing is Something, The Red Shoes (2017 & 2021), The Beldenville Troll, Constance in the Darkness, The Longest Night, and Bug Girl and Order of Wolf on The Bakken Museum's rooftop. He has provided technical support for Toy Theater After Dark, Fusebox, Sweet Songs and Flying Objects, and many other rentals and guest artists. Outside of Open Eye, he has worked with Mixed Blood Theatre Company, The Ritz Theater, New Native Theatre, Circus Juventas, BareBones Puppets Performers, Full Moon Puppet Show, and Southside Battletrain Projects. In addition to theatre, he enjoys the outdoors, seasonal harvests, and gardening.

Patron Services Manager
andy.whitman@openeyetheatre.org

Andy is a nonbinary theatre artist originally from Kentucky. They relocated to the Twin Cities in 2016. Prior to joining Open Eye Theatre, they were an event supervisor at the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts. They have also worked as a stage manager for theatre and dance companies across the Twin Cities metro, including the McKnight Choreographer and Dancer Fellows, The Walker, Macalester College, Ballet Minnesota, Stages Theatre Company, SteppingStone Creative Learning, and Threads Dance Project. They will soon begin their studies in social work, with an emphasis on art and gender. When they aren't working in theatre and dance, Andy loves to write, sing, and spend time with their cat, Juno.