Stephan Schlafke was co-founder and director of the ensemble of the "berliner marionettenbühne" (1986 - 2008), for whose evening productions he also designed puppets and scenography. He attended seminars at the "Freie Bildungsstätte für Puppenspiel" in Idstedt / Schleswig-Holstein, in Berlin and at the "Little Angel Marionette Theatre" London (with John Wright, Benita and P. K. Steinmann, Dieter Kieselstein, Eric Bass, and others).

In collaboration with the Hamburg figure designer Jürgen Maaßen, Stephan Schlafke developed control techniques and construction principles for a modern standard of historical rod marionettes, deals with traditional construction and design techniques of the string marionette peep-box stage and with modern revolving stage constructions for mobile stages. He experiments with various digital image and film projection options in combination with the analog performed theatrical puppet.

Since 2000 he has been a member of the ensemble of the KOBALT Figurentheater Lübeck (www.kobalt-luebeck.de). In 2007 he took over the artistic directorship of the Figurentheater Lübeck (www.figurentheater-luebeck.de), now KOLK 17 Figurentheater & Museum.