Rowan Magee

Rowan Magee is a Brooklyn puppeteer, designer, and educator from Troy, NY. He’s a co-founder and curator of the Object Movement Festival, a winter residency and spring showcase of experimental puppet artists in NYC. He has puppeteered on international tours with Phantom Limb Company, Robin Frohardt, Nick Lehane, and Dan Hurlin, and in New York for Chris Green, Spencer Lott, Emma Wiseman, Josh Rice, and Sachiyo Takahashi. In 2018, Rowan performed in the National Theater’s Tony Award winning Broadway revival of Angels in America, and in 2019 he operated the titular reference puppet for the film Clifford the Big Red Dog. In 2022, Rowan began puppeteering as the head of Richard Parker the tiger on Life of Pi at American Repertory Theater, and continued the role at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater on Broadway in 2023. He made his Met Opera debut in El Niño, directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, with puppets designed and directed by James Ortiz.

Rowan has designed puppets and props for MCC Theater, Bard Summerscape, Trusty Sidekick, The Dalton School, St Mark's School and Lincoln Center Education.

He has taught theater and puppetry through Story Pirates, Friends Seminary, The Dalton School, Adam State College in Colorado, Manhattan Youth, Marquis Studios and CO/LAB Theater Group.

Rowan designed and co-directed One Night in Winter, as part of Sachiyo Takahashi’s Shinnai Meets Puppetry series, which received grants from NYSCA and Jim Henson Foundation. The next installment, Peony Lantern, will debut at the Japan Society in November.