Born in France, Emilien Truche lives and works in Stuttgart as a puppeteer, puppet maker, and puppet theater director.
From an early age, Emilien built puppets. During his first degree at the Université de Bourgogne in Dijon, he participated in university clubs involved in various dance and theater projects. After completing a bachelor’s degree in physics, he decided to pursue a career in teaching. He worked as a teacher and preschool director in various cities in France. In 2010, he moved to Germany to teach at the German-French school in Bonn. At the same time, he furthered his education at the Figurentheaterkolleg Bochum in the field of performing arts and puppet theater.
In 2014, Emilien moved to Stuttgart to study puppet theater at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst. He was a recipient of the Deutschlandstipendium scholarship. In 2018, he successfully completed his bachelor’s degree. During this time, he developed the solo piece “Confetti,” which won the BAD-Award at the ACT-Festival in Bilbao in June 2018. The piece was shown at various international festivals, including Giboulées in Strasbourg (F), FIDENA in Bochum (D), Figurentheaterfestival in Wels (AT), Expeditions in Leipzig (D), Homunculus Festival in Hohenems (A), and Incanti Festival in Turin (I). In the 2017/18 season, Emilien was a guest puppeteer in the production “Macbeth” at the Theater der Stadt Aalen.
Since 2018, he has been working on projects with musicians from different genres—from classical music (including with the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester) to contemporary music with the Neue-Musik-Ensemble “avec!”.
In 2019, he collaborated with Antje Töpfer and Ines Müller-Braunschweig to create the children’s play “Zwei im Fluss” about and with water at FITZ. In 2020, he contributed to the production “Crash & Care” by O-Team (Stuttgart), directed by Florian Feisel, as a puppet maker and assistant director. That same year, he was also a scholarship holder of the FIDENA residency program “Eigentlich anders” with the research project “Das Tier in mir” ( “The animal in myself”).
In 2021, he developed the scenic concert “Carnivals of the animals“ with organist Michael Sattelberger under the outside-eye of choreographer Katja Büchtemann. Emilien is also a member of the Stuttgart New Music Ensemble “avec!”. With their program “Changing Light, Szenen aus Licht und Schatten,” the ensemble was invited as a finalist to the 2021 audition concert of the “Rheinsberger Residenzensemble für neue Musik.” That same year, in collaboration with singer Johannes Fritsche and pianist Manon Parmentier, he created the project “Doppelgänger,” which won second prize at the Goodmesh Concours 2021 and the special prize “Best Interdisciplinary Project.”
In 2022, he directed the play “Raschel – ein Stück Karton” for children aged three and up, in cooperation with performer Sarah Wissner and with the support of artist Ines Müller-Braunschweig. That same year, he worked with theaterneuland and Theater 3D to create the immersive theater production “Wald-Klang-Meer” for the youngest audiences. In parallel, he developed the shadow theater horror-story production “Plan B“ with Anne Brüssau and Tobias Tönjes.
At the end of 2023, Emilien supported Hanna Rode in her work with a life-sized puppet during her scholarship at the Academy for Theater and Digitality in Dortmund as a mentor.
In 2024, from February to the end of April, Emilien participated in the basic dance training program at bewegung-arts – Center for Dance, Improvisation, and Movement in Freiburg. In August, he worked as a puppeteer in the Celebration Parade by Handspring Puppet Company and Ukwanda Puppets & Designs Art Collective during the international Ruhrtriennale Festival.
In 2025, he worked as an assistant director on the Wilhelma-Theater production “Der Untergang des Hauses Usher” (directed by Prof. Stephanie Rinke) for the puppet theater program at HMDK Stuttgart. In September of the same year, he was appointed as a jury member for the “Erwachsene Amateure” (amateur adults) category of the 49th Fritz-Wortelmann-Prize for Puppet Theater in Bochum.
In his artistic work, Emilien combines elements of dance, performance, and puppet theater. He explores the relationship between puppet and puppeteer and plays with the borders of animation. Always moving between light and shadow, Emilien attempts to show the inexpressible.
In addition to his performances, he shares his passion for puppet theater through workshops (e.g., at Junges Schloss – Landesmuseum Württemberg, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra’s “Education Program” , Eltern Frei – FTTS Stuttgart).
Since 2019, Emilien has also been involved in volunteer work: he is an active member of UNIMA Germany. Since 2020, he has been on the board of the association of the Figurentheaterkolleg in Bochum.