Lone Wolf Tribe is a New York based puppet company led by director/creator Kevin Augustine. With a mission to Investigate, Challenge & Spellbind, LWT uses simple magic and poetic brutality to create gutsy, original theatre about our collective human story.
As the eponymous lone wolf since 1997, Augustine's work takes years to create—writing, directing and performing solo alongside his foam-rubber puppet tribe, all hand-sculpted from landfill-fated couch cushions.
Blending history with philosophy while believing art a life-line to possibility, Augustine’s puppets aren’t objects for manipulation but co-explorers of our wonderful, woeful world. With low-tech sophistication that opts for authenticity over realism, LWT takes on subjects others might prefer to sidestep: the true costs of war, including the ongoing U.S. veteran suicide epidemic; the ethical consideration of the inner lives of animals; and the dark and secret history of the creation of religion. To chart such immense human drama through live theatre, Lone Wolf Tribe believes there's no better partner than the brave, unblinking puppet.
LWT productions have toured internationally, been published, commissioned and archived in the NY Public Library for the Performing Arts. Awards: 2023 GRAND PRIX “best show in festival” at Lalka Tez Czlowiek, Poland; “Innovation in Puppetry” prize at ДВАМА СА МАЛКО - ТРИМА СА МНОГО, Bulgaria; UNIMA Citation for Excellence in Puppet Theatre; “Top 10 Best Show” by Time Out New York; a NYC Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Performance Art Production and Overall Excellence Awards at both the NYC and S.F. Fringe Festivals. LWT’s work has been awarded grants, fellowships and residencies from The Jim Henson Foundation, The Greenwall Foundation, The Jerome Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, La MaMa, Les Sages Fous, Yaddo, Macdowell, Wildacres, Djerassi, MidAtlantic Art Foundation, Ella Fiskum Danz, NACL Theatre, Puppeteers of America, Brooklyn Arts Council and Veterans for Peace.
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While in residency at La MaMa, Lone Wolf Tribe will be working on it's 9th production, The People Vs. Nature
The People Vs Nature is a complex story about personal liberty and predatory behavior—in our systems and deep within ourselves. This play also daringly expands the boundaries of the puppet show by inviting spectators to become Augustine’s co-puppeteers on stage.
With only hours left before his lethal injection, a death row inmate confesses to the audience how he once tried to save someone else’s life: a test-subject chimpanzee.
Reenacting the courtroom drama to release the chimp to sanctuary while hoping for his own last minute pardon—the prisoner claims not only to have taught the chimp English (better the jury hear from a monkey in its own words), but also that he’s innocent of his own 1st degree murder conviction.
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