Tracy and I entered NPR's Tiny Desk Contest! Here is our application video performance of our song "I Know", lyrics and melody by Tracy McFarland, music production by Dan Luce. We're so excited just to have entered!  Enjoy!

I spent November 2019 in Abu Dhabi, rehearsing with a team of four other incredible puppeteers, to bring to life a large horse puppet within this spectacular show honoring the United Arab Emirates' 48th National Day. 
Here is a video posted by A Blanck Canvas, the Australian company who fabricated the puppet, designed by Nicholas Mahon.

Tracy and I will be performing as part of Fused Creative's event, The Feminine Era, a night of visual art, comedy, music, dance poetry and spoken word. 

Saturday April 27th @ PLACE Architecture

6:00pm - 9:00pm - 735 NW 18th Ave

Buy tickets here!

Special thanks to Ryan O’Brien, who filmed and edited this beautiful preview.
​Song by Dan Luce, Tracy McFarland and Tyler Stuart.
Puppeteers: Dan Luce, Tyler Stuart and Katie McClenahan

Tracy and I will be performing our show, Under the Same Sky, at The Headwaters Theatre in north Portland, September 21 through 23! 

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!

Presented by Beady Little Eyes and Sacred Playplace
Image credit: Puppets by Dan Luce. Photographed and edited by Ryan O'Brien

In October 2017, I was invited to present an exhibit of my puppetry by Whitman College's Sheehan Gallery. In addition to the exhibit, I also gave a talk about my artistic journey, and facilitated a marionette-making workshop.
On all fronts, I was met with an incredible outpouring of appreciation, from children with sparkles in their eyes to older men with tears in their eyes. The exhibit was so successful that it was extended for a total run of nearly three months, and the talk and workshop were both attended beyond capacity! 
It was a profound honor and a pleasure to bring my work back to the land of my childhood and to connect or reconnect with so many dear people on such a heart-felt level. 

Well executed jumbo-vision made it easy to show smaller puppets, like the Yeti, to the whole room! 

I made a surprise entrance as a crocodile, in training to play the drums, of course.
Huge thanks to Kynde Kiefel for the collaboration on this plan, and for bringing the whole event together!
Check out the crocodile intro clip:

Gallery photo (top) by Liv Staryk.
All other photos and video courtesy of Michael Luce 2017. All rights reserved.

Last September, my wife Tracy and I debuted our new show, Under the Same Sky.
Through live original music, storytelling and puppetry, Under the Same Sky uplifts and attunes audience members to their own personal joy, and heart-centered intuition. The show features  three stories: of the river, of the forest and of the mountain. The characters include philosophical crows, guitar-playing trees, and a cloud-surfing yeti, all theatrically portrayed through a combination of rod puppetry, marionette, and shadow puppetry. The show is book-ended with live musical performances which leave people feeling profoundly peaceful and inspired.
Tracy and I just finished our second run of this exciting new work, and are currently planning a schedule for future presentations, locally in Portland and throughout the Pacific Northwest.