Mikal Shapiro & Ritu Nanos

Mikal Shapiro is a Kansas City-based artist, musician and co-founder of FireTale Productions, an emerging shadow puppet theater established in 2023. Under FireTale, they have co-produced The Ramayana: a retelling, Wood Dragon: a Chinese New Year Celebration, as well as Yeh-Shen, a Chinese folktale commissioned by the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Their work includes experimental and documentary filmmaking, performance and puppetry arts. In addition to their own works, Shapiro has performed as a puppeteer for the Lyric’s Amahl and the Night Visitors and St. Louis-based kids show Little Celia and Friends. They received their MFA from School of the Art Institute of Chicago in Film / Video / Animation / New Media. They continue to produce creative work at their midtown studio in Kansas City.

Ritu Nanos is a martial artist, death doula, sacred energy whisperer, and story-teller. Her South Asian heritage opened the door to her culture’s mythology shared by oral tradition, as well as her time studying classical Indian dance. Shadow puppetry can be traced to Indian story-telling, which led to her writing and co-producing The Ramayana: a Retelling, and inspiring her to co-found FireTale Productions in 2023. In addition to The Ramayana, she co-wrote and co-produced Wood Dragon: a Chinese New Year Celebration for FireTale’s shadow puppet theater, as well as Yeh-Shen, a Chinese folktale commissioned by the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Her current passions include creative works and installations that engage the community with death work, and also exploring martial arts and Qigong energy work as creative modalities for social practices on how to be present, embodied, and empowered.

Ritu received BA’s in elementary education and psychology, and MA in Health Psychology from UMKC. She is a 5th degree black belt and qigong master, and is the owner and head instructor of White Ocean Healing and Martial Arts.