Online Residency 2022
Joe Schupbach
Writer. Director. Educator.
Biography
After a modest career as a child actor in Massachusetts, Schupbach moved to Chicago and began training with Lookingglass Theatre Company. He is a Chicago Public Schools graduate and holds a BA in Theatre and Performance Studies from North Park University, an MFA in Dramatic Art from the University of California, Davis, and an MFA in Creative Writing from Roosevelt University. Schupbach is a founding member of Murakami Sound Machine, the co-founder of InGen Productions, and an emeritus member of Playmakers Laboratory Theatre where he was Artistic Director for three years. Schupbach is the creator and host of Mirepoix Podcast, an adjunct professor, an instructional coach for Embarc, and the Artistic Director of Plant Performance Project.
Over his 19-year career, Schupbach has worked extensively in both the classroom and rehearsal room. Schupbach has taught coursework in puppetry, improvisation, acting, devising, theatre history, arts education, as well as creative and dramatic writing. He has directed and dramaturged over a dozen undergraduate performances and served as a mentor to young actors and directors. Schupbach’s work has been showcased at Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, Lake FX CreativeCon, American Alliance for Theatre and Education, Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo, and the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Schupbach also has a lengthy resume in K-12 arts education, teaching in-school and enrichment workshops in creative writing, theatre, and storytelling. As a director, performer, writer, and dramaturg Schupbach has worked with dozens of theatres and performing arts organizations. He has been a frequent collaborator with The Ruffians, The Neo-Futurists, Compass Players Redux, The Paper Machete, Salonathon, Laura on Laura Comeback Tour, Night Out in the Parks, The Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival, Chicago Fringe Festival, Gilda’s LaughFest, Pivot Arts Festival, Theatre on the Lake, and Lookingglass Theatre Company’s Department of Curiosity. In addition to creating and adapting plays for the stage, Schupbach writes poetry and creative nonfiction and hosts Mirepoix Podcast. The podcast takes listeners on a journey through food, family, and culture via the lens of food practice and tradition. Schupbach is currently writing an experimental book of essays that explores food, longing, and time travel amidst lockdown and isolation during the global pandemic.
Artistic Statement
Schupbach is a director, writer, and educator. He creates theatre that is narrative-forward, human-driven, and spectacle-inspired. Schupbach’s work is found in the intersection of the theatre of the oppressed, a surrealist happening, and a stripped-down hoedown. He creates devised work, performance art, puppetry, immersive experiences, non-fiction storytelling, adapted classics, and shiny world premiere plays. Schupbach creates theatre where both audience members and artists are considered, cared for, and challenged. He creates theatre where audiences can “see the strings” and are a part of the shared interpretation. Schupbach creates theatre that questions the form, reframes the norms, and cries out for change.
Schupbach believes that story is one of the most powerful tools in society and that art with flair and intention can transform people. He believes that creating is one of the most radical acts one can participate in because it offsets the death, loss, and destruction that manifests daily. Schupbach believes watching a performer breathe life into a puppet is sacred. He believes shadows and projections transporting an audience are restorative. Schupbach believes empathizing with an actor pretending to be a character helps onlookers metabolize conflict and process trauma. He believes theatre which invites the audience to see the “man behind the curtain” shows respect and invites deeper experience and interpretation. Schupbach is inspired aesthetically by Tectonic Theater Project, Qui Nguyen, Bread & Puppet Theatre, Taylor Mac, Manual Cinema, Anna Deavere Smith, The Neo-Futurists, and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins.
Schupbach believes beautiful art can be made in a safe, friendly, and patient manner. He makes work with trauma-informed and restorative practice. Schupbach rejects white supremacist norms of urgency, power-hoarding, and perfectionism. He creates work in spaces that respect artists’ work life, home life, and mental health. Schupbach collaborates with artists in a horizontal structure that not only invites feedback but is powered by it. He uses improvisation, devising, text work, voice work, and movement to generate blocking, action, and storytelling. Schupbach collaborates heavily with actors, designers, and everyone in between to produce work that is created by many and owned by no single artist. He creates theatre that is transformative, healing, challenging, and genre-bending.