Lone Wolf Tribe is a New York based performance company helmed by artistic director, Kevin Augustine. Showcasing Augustine’s ‘lone wolf’ virtuosity as writer/director, performer & sculptor, LWT’s signature feature is its hand-carved tribe of foam-rubber puppets.

Blending meticulous craft, physical rigor and decidedly dark humor, LWT’s mission is to investigate, challenge and spellbind with fearless original stories about our collective human experience.

Macabre puppets become more human than their puppeteers and have the power to evoke authentic empathy from the audience

Since 1997 the company has conjured history, philosophy & life-sized puppetry into brutally poetic worlds on and off the stage. Unabashedly embracing art as a catalyst for social change, LWT has dug into ancient religious schisms, exposed the true costs of war, mounted secret circus side-shows, fought for animal rights and mourned the ongoing U.S. veteran suicide epidemic.

Devoting years to realize each new production, Augustine is the lone wolf of his tribe, crafting tour-de-force characters for himself in the plays he writes, directs and performs while animating the puppets he makes.

A trained actor and self-taught puppet artist (forever inspired by his grandmother), Augustine believes art-making is his lifeline to possibility.

For me, puppetry is about partnership. That's why I never say "object manipulation". It's a dance— you lead and follow but you don’t manipulate your dance partner.

Having rescued and repurposed hundreds of trashed couch cushions from our landfills, Kevin transforms ordinary upholstery foam into a visceral ensemble of acting partners. Interpreting our ever changing world for the stage, he has created 9 full-length Tribe productions and is currently building a triptych cycle of solo shows (Body Concert, The God Projekt & The People Vs Nature) to get the company more easily on the road.

In Kevin’s hands, the simplest act of bringing life to the inanimate becomes a hugely theatrical event

Basil Twist

An activist partner with Veterans for Peace since 2012, Lone Wolf Tribe has performed its pantomime series, CLARION CALL— about the true costs of war— on city streets across America. With apolitical pathos, Clarion Call has marched up 5th Avenue in NYC’s Armistice Day & Memorial Day

commemorations, been invited to VFP's National Convention in San Diego and has collaborated with Grannies for Peace, Brooklyn for Peace and Fort Green for Peace. In wanting to share a message that ends all wars, Kevin as messenger will probably be putting on this sad make-up for the rest of his life.

Augustine embodies a true practice pointed sharply toward an awakening to the real cost of war. And for this I bow to him!

Vietnam veteran turned Zen Buddhist monk,
Claude AnShin Thomas, author of "At Hell's Gate"

Lone Wolf Tribe also collaborates on other companies' puppet needs. Augustine toured to Sweden as puppet director for Pontus Lidberg Dance, commissioned by the Royal Swedish Opera Company, premiering at NYC's Joyce Theatre. Other clients include Kristin Marting of HERE and Sara Benson of Soho Rep.

Augustine's visionary approach to puppetry expanded my personal vision of the performing arts.

Pontus Lidberg

Since 2006, Kevin has been a principle puppeteer at the Metropolitan Opera in Anthony Minghella's Madama Butterfly. He also teaches puppet workshops for both theatre professionals and passionate amateurs.

La MaMa
Yaddo
Djerassi
MacDowell
Wildacres
NACL Deep Space
Brooklyn Arts Exchange
HERE Harp Residency
Les Sages Fous (QC)
Ella Fiskum Danz (NO)
Celebration Barn
Ontologic Hysteric Theare

La MaMa
PS122
Les Sages Fous
HERE Arts Center
Dixon Place
The Independent Eye

Jerome Foundation
MidAtlantic Foundation
USArtists International
Puppeteers of America
The Jim Henson Foundation
New York State Council on the Arts
Puffin Foundation
Brooklyn Arts Council
Greenwall Foundation
PA Council on the Arts
ART/NY
Axe Houghton Foundation

Developed at

productions have been:

Archived at

Pesta Boneko, Indonesia
Kallag Arts, Singapore
Harare International Festival for the Arts, Zimbabwe
Poppentheatre, The Netherlands
Cena Contemporanea, Brazil

Commissioned & co-produced by

Funded by

Performed internationally at

2023 GRAND PRIX - "best show in festival" Lalka Tez Czlowiek, Poland
2023 "Innovation Award" Bulgaria
UNIMA Citation for Excellence in Puppetry Arts
New York Innovative Theatre Awards, Outstanding Performance Art Production
Fringe NYC Overall Excellence Award, Solo Show
Best of the Year, "Top 10 Show" - Time Out New York
San Francisco Fringe Sold Out Award, Critic's Choice Award

Awarded

Published