Myra Su
Puppeteer, Multimedia Artist | 2024 Platform Award Recipient
Myra Su is a puppeteer, educator, and multimedia artist based in Chicago. Her background is primarily in shadow puppetry, crankie, and other 2D forms, but she’s interested in working across different mediums to create new puppetry experiences. Her work often experiments integrating analog puppets with digital technology in live stage performance. She is currently developing a new show, STRIPES, that combines light sensors and barcode technology with tabletop puppetry.
Previously, Myra has been featured at the Neo-Futurists, Baltimore Crankie Festival, Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival and National Puppet Slam. She has also worked on projects in collaboration with companies such as the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Asian Improv aRts Midwest, Tatsu Aoki & the MIYUMI Project, Rough House Theater, Opera-Matic, Redmoon and Blair Thomas & Co. In 2021, she made her film debut with GOODNIGHT SHADOW, a short paper puppet film produced with Handmade Puppet Dreams.
In addition to her independent work, Myra is a puppeteer and builder with Manual Cinema, an Emmy Award-winning performance collective. Notably, she is an original cast member in Manual Cinema’s FRANKENSTEIN, a cinematic shadow puppet extravaganza that’s been on tour both nationally and internationally since 2019. Myra is also a co-curator for NASTY, BRUTISH & SHORT, a puppet slam held six times a year and is a part of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival’s staple programming every January.
