Lei-Lei Bavoil is a theater maker from New York, working between Europe and the United States as an actor, puppeteer, mask player, designer, and builder. Specializing in devised theater, her work focuses on creating new pieces, building plays from the rehearsal room, from the ensemble, as well as from the objects themselves.
After receiving her BFA in Acting from SUNY Purchase and working as an actor in New York, she moved to Paris to study physical theater at École Jacques Lecoq, completing the 2 year course in 2020. Since then, she has had theatrical collaborations with companies in France, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United States. She also began creating puppets, masks, and props for the companies she was performing with, as well as for her original work.
She currently collaborates with the renowned Berlin-based mask company, Familie Flöz, the eccentric Oslo-based puppetry company, Wakka Wakka Productions, and is a founding member of the Paris-based physical theater company, SITIO. She has performed Off-Broadway, at the Opéra de Paris, Berliner Ensemble, Theater Basel, the Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes in Charleville-Mézières, and the Stamsund International Theater Festival in Norway, to name a few. Between tours, she continues to develop her original work as a puppet and mask designer, builder, and performer, and has contributed as a visiting professor in Physical Theater at SUNY Purchase and ArtHaus Berlin.