ASaP Team Member:
Michael Schupbach

Bio:
We are very pleased that Michael Schupbach, an award-winning character designer, builder, and performer has brought his creative skills to ASaP. From theater to movies and TV, Michael enjoys working in every medium. He believes his strength is in character creation: from the brainstorming sketch phase, hands-on crafting during the prototyping phase, and then through to the finished product and live performance. When asked if one character in his career presented a greater challenge than others, Michael smiled before he responded… “Elmo’s World certainly had its morphing challenges,” he said. “As we changed Elmo into a fish, we had to maintain his key features so the kids would know it’s still Elmo.” Starting his career at Jim Henson's Muppet Workshop, Michael designed and built puppets for television programs, movies, and Tony Award-winning theatrical productions. Jim Henson remains one of Michael’s mentors today. “It’s leaders like Jim and Mr. Rogers that made it easy for me to take this whimsical world seriously,” Michael explains. He earned four Daytime Emmy Awards for his work on Sesame Street, and supervised Muppet guest appearances on The West Wing, Good Morning America, Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, An Evening with the Boston Pops, and The Dr. Phil Show. Since its inception at BMI Workshops, Michael has worked with renowned puppet designer Rick Lyon on the Tony Award-winning smash hit Avenue Q on Broadway. His work grew to be seen in productions in London, Vegas and national tours. Michael is also credited with constructing and performing various theatrical incarnations of Audrey II for the recent Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors. For the Disney Channel TV series, Johnny and the Sprites, Michael has worked as series co-creator, character designer, puppet supervisor, and performer. As he watches the show now, he continues to be drawn to Root, a playful character that he designed. “Root literally flew out of my mind onto the paper,” laughs Michael,” he just struck a chord in every phase of production.” Michael was also part of the Muppet team for Disney Channel’s Emmy Award-winning Playhouse Disney series, Bear in the Big Blue House. When this series evolved into a live stage show, Michael was chosen to be part of the theatrical production team. Michael’s additional credits range from IFC's Greg the Bunny, Puppet Planet for the Travel Channel, Noggin's interactive series Play with Me Sesame to Universal Studios' Sesame Street in 4-D. With a degree from Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey's Clown College, Michael received a good foundation in live performance for kids. His B.A. in Education, with a concentration in Children's Television, from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, prepared him for the business aspects of outlining a show concept, developing story lines and testing character development with focus groups. “I’m ready to stretch and do some new designs with ASaP”, Michael finishes, “bring on the beasties or space aliens.”