Tell us about that journey and like what led you here, and like how you became an actor and puppeteer.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So I went to university, um, and studied political science [laughs] and, um, and theater.

And while, uh, after I graduated school, um, I got cast in a show, uh, that was, you know, kind of tangentially part of the university called the Illinois Shakespeare Festival.

And it was this amazing show, uh, called Failure: A Love Story by Philip Dawkins.

And it was directed by, uh, this individual named Angie Park, who was a Chicago, uh, public person.

And the play is this, this, you know, beautiful story, but what I loved about, uh, the playwright, Philip, is that in the inside cover of the play he says, "This play can be done with seven actors or it can be done with 25 actors and like 500 puppets and become a pop-up storybook.

Oh.

So give it up to our friends.

Hi, my name is Michelle Stein and I am a Chicago-based performer and puppeteer.

I have been a professional puppeteer for almost 15 years now and have been doing clowning work for close to 10.

And I am so excited to be returning to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this year with my solo show, Always, Sometimes, Maybe.

If you saw the show last year at the Fringe, you saw a sweet, hopeful, wide-eyed show about loneliness.

Come back, because this year's show is a darker, more honest look at what it is to be alone and to feel that loneliness.

So Always, Sometimes, Maybe is a solo puppet clown show about a janitor so lonely she makes her friends out of rubbish.