photo by Richard Termine
Bio
Nick Lehane is a Brooklyn based theater maker and puppet artist. His collaboration with Derek Fordjour, Fly Away ran at Petzel Gallery as part of Fordjour’s premiere solo exhibition at the gallery, SELF MUST DIE. Lehane’s puppet play Chimpanzee premiered at HERE Arts Center through Basil Twist’s Dream Music Puppetry Program, with the generous support of The Jim Henson Foundation and Cheryl Henson. It has since been presented at the World Puppet Theater Festival in Charleville-Mézières, by Casteliers at Théâtre Aux Écuries in Montreal, and by The London International Mime Festival at The Barbican Centre. Lehane has collaborated with PigPen Theatre Co. as the co-puppet designer for The Tale of Despereaux (The Old Globe, Berkley Rep co-directed by Marc Bruni), as a puppet designer and deviser for The Phantom Folktales (Virgin Voyages), and as the understudy for The Old Man and The Old Moon. He was puppet designer, puppetry coach, and choreographed the shadow puppetry for Douglas Carter Beane and Lewis Flinn’s Hood (Asolo Rep., dir Mark Brokaw). His original puppet work has shown at St. Ann’s Warehouse, Puppet BloK at Dixon Place, The Jim Henson Carriage House, Special Effects Festival at wild project, and Pillsbury House Theatre. Lehane’s select puppet performance credits include Madama Butterly (The Metropolitan Opera), Robin Frohardt’s The Plastic Bag Store and The Pigeoning (HERE Arts Center, international tour), Petrushka (Giants Are Small, New York Philharmonic, Barbican Centre), Islamic Solidarity Games Opening Ceremonies (Baku, Azerbaijan), Doug Fitch’s El Retablo de Maese Pedro (American Symphony Orchestra, Bard SummerScape), James Ortiz’s The Little Mermaid (Glass Bandits Theater Company, Strangemen Theatre Company) That Life (Unknown Mortal Orchestra), and “Lore” (Amazon). Lehane provided puppet and movement direction for SeaWife (Naked Angels). Lehane studied at the Moscow Art Theatre School and received his B.F.A. from Carnegie Mellon School of Drama.
Awards and Honors
2020 UNIMA Citation of Excellence
2020 Arlyn Award for Outstanding Design in Puppet Theatre
2020 Allelu Award International Travel Grantee from The Jim Henson Foundation
2019 Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation USArtist International Grantee
2019 The Jim Henson Foundation Puppetry Residency at The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center Artist in Residence
2019 Jim Henson Foundation Project Grantee
2017 Puppetry at The Carriage House (PATCH) Artist in Residence
2017 Jim Henson Foundation Workshop Grantee
2016 St. Ann’s Warehouse Puppet Lab Artist in Residence
2013 St. Ann’s Warehouse Puppet Lab Artist in Residence
2009 The Rhodopi International Theater Collective Artist in Residence