About PUPPET LAB
The Twin Cities’ celebrated incubator program for emerging puppet artists
Puppet Lab is a 6-month developmental laboratory program for emerging artists who are exploring the field of puppetry. Puppet Lab was founded by Alison Heimstead in 2010. It is now home-based at Open Eye Theatre, and led by Co-Artistic Directors Oanh Vu and Sofia Padilla.
Puppet Lab establishes a formalized process for emerging puppet theater artists to advance their artistic development – to test and create new works within a supportive and challenging workshop environment. This program gives artists the time and space to test ideas, learn from others, and receive and respond to critical feedback.
The lab culminates with each artist creating an original short (30 – 40 minutes) work which is presented in a two week festival of public performances at Open Eye Theatre, supported with professional marketing, lights, sound, and documentation.
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Apply for the 2025 – 2026 PUPPET LAB Artist Residency!
ROLLING SUBMISSION: Application closes Monday, September 22, 2025
NOTIFICATION: Monday, September 29, 2025Are you ready to take your puppetry to the next level? Puppet Lab offers emerging artists the chance to create, experiment, and push themselves to make longer format puppet shows in a supportive and challenging environment. Collaborate with talented peers, receive mentorship from mid-career artists, and showcase your original piece on our stage!
With intensive workshops, financial support, and a thriving community, Puppet Lab is the perfect platform to ignite your artistic passion and take your career to new heights! The PUPPET LAB artist residency is led and nurtured by Co-Artistic Directors Oanh Vu and Sofia Padilla.
Questions about applying? Join us for an online Q&A session with the Co-Artistic Directors on Wednesday, Sept. 3rd, 6:30 – 7:30pm. Join on Google Meet!
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PUPPET LAB FESTIVAL
April 10 - 19, 2026
Led by Co-Artistic Directors Oanh Vu and Sofia Padilla
PUPPET LAB is a 2-week festival of radical, genre-expanding, boundary–pushing puppet work, the culmination of a 6-month development residency for emerging puppetry artists.
Puppet Lab Co-Artistic Directors
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OANH VU (she/her)
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 she 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.
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SOFIA PADILLA (she/her)
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).
