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Tom Lee headshot

Tom Lee

Teacher, Puppet Artist, Designer, and Director

Tom Lee (he/him) is a teacher, puppet artist, designer, and director. He began his career at La MaMa Experimental Theater in New York with the encouragement of Ellen Stewart. Tom’s work often explores manipulated objects, miniatures, and figures in dialogue with animations and projections. 

Mr. Lee grew up in Hawai’i and is a student of Japanese master puppeteer Koryū Nishikawa V with whom he created Shank’s Mare (2015) and Akutagawa (2023). Tom’s original work includes ensemble and solo puppet theater pieces including Hoplite Diary, Sounding the Resonant Path, and Tomte that have toured the U.S., Japan, France, Bulgaria, and Indonesia. Mr. Lee was a puppeteer in War Horse (Broadway), Florencia en el Amazonas (Met Opera), The Queen of Spades (Lyric Opera), Le Grand Macabre (NY Philharmonic), Disfarmer(St. Ann's Warehouse), La Divina Caricatura (La MaMa). He has been a principal puppeteer with the Metropolitan Opera production of Madama Butterfly for 20 years. 

His recent collaborations include The Magic of Light with Yara Arts Group (NY/Ukraine), Stand By with choreographer Beth Corning, Mirrored Pool with Chicago’s Grammy award-winning ensemble Eighth Blackbird and the upcoming puppetry adaptation of Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival. Tom teaches puppetry nationally and internationally and is co-director of the Chicago Puppet Studio and Chicago Puppet Lab. Mr. Lee is the 2025-2026 Astere E. Claeyssens Artist in Residence at the School of Communication at Northwestern University. 

Tom Lee's Website
a biracial person with long black hair performs with a puppet of a human figure in long robes and a tall hat. Nasty Brutish and Short Puppet Slam at Links Hall, Chicago, 2024 Image by Alex Griffin

Featured Artworks

  • Three puppeteers dressed in all black with black over their faces operate a human like puppet that is wearing a blue sailor shirt. Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera, 2019 With puppeteers Jonothon Lyons and Kevin Augustine Image by Richard Termine
  • a biracial person with long black hair operates a small puppet of a white bird, flying it over the head of a musician with grey hair holding a wooden string instrument. place(no)place, 2018 Dance/Puppetry performance with Lisa Gonzales
  • a biracial person with long black hair operates a large puppet of a water dragon. Akutagawa, 2023 At the Japan Society in New York with Koryū Nishikawa V Image by Richard Termine
  • a biracial person with long black hair shows others how to operate a basic human puppet made of wood. Tom Lee teaching puppetry, 2014 With students CB Goodman and Sarah Plotkin at Sarah Lawrence College Image by Ayumi Sakamoto
  • a biracial person with long black hair operates a humanoid puppet of a woman who is standing behind a table. Akutagawa, 2023 At the Japan Society New York with Koryū Nishikawa V Image by Richard Termine
  • a biracial person with long black hair and glasses operates an iguana puppet that is perched on his shoulders. Florencia en el Amazonas, 2023 At the Metropolitan Opera with puppeteers Jonothon Lyons and Kevin Augustine Image by Jonathan Tichler
  • Tom Lee artwork Resonant Path, 2023 At La MaMa Experimental Theater Image by Richard Termine