About the Festival

Puppets in the House will hold classes and performances in five locations in downtown Verona, most of them walking distance to each other and two of the hotels offering discounted rates for puppet folks (Holiday Inn Express and Fairfield Inn and Suites).

Registered attendees will enjoy three meals, choose from fourteen workshops (designed for everyone from curious beginners to advanced artists), nine puppet performances, a puppet Slam, a Potpourri, an exhibit featuring a special local guest, and a Community Day mini-festival featuring an art market, food trucks, craft activities, and a giant puppet parade.

Please note that daytime puppet shows are family-friendly and suitable for children, while evening performances are often intended for emotionally mature audiences.

COMMItTEE MEMBERS

Laurie Everitt - Co-Director

Laurie Everitt still owns her Littlest Billie Goat Gruff puppet, a role she debuted in first grade. Over forty years passed before she returned to puppetry - only this time as a builder. While she was working for various Madison theater companies, a request for some simple puppets from her costume designer led her down a rabbit hole from which she has yet to recover. She now takes puppetry classes every chance she gets (because there is always more to learn!), and especially enjoyed workshops in LA and the O'Neill National Puppetry pre-conference. Her puppets have been onstage locally with Are We Delicious? and Children's Theater of Madison. But even more rewarding than actually building puppets is being a connection catalyst - bringing together new friends and old to empower and delight their community through puppetry.

bearded man in hat with two sock puppets on his hands

Brant Bollman - Co-Director

Artist, activist, actor, puppet-maker, Brant Bollman helms Uplifting Puppet Co. out of Oskaloosa, Iowa. He builds and performs giant puppets (that he calls ‘Uppets’) for parades, marches and the stage. Uplifting Puppet Co.’s ultimate goal is to bring people together and create culture with papier-mâché. He also is the Director of Theatre Arts at William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa where he teaches creative art, directs plays and builds giant lantern puppets for the town’s annual holiday spectacular The Oskaloosa Lighted Christmas Parade.

man slightly smiling and holding a guitar

Christopher Eck - Workshop Director

Christopher Eck is an Iowa-based teaching artist. He is the Outreach Director and a creative partner with Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre Company in West Liberty, Iowa. Much of his independent work is as an active musician, writer, and visual artist. Recent collaborators include Dynamic Music Studios, Family Folk Machine, Euonia Review, PorchLight Literary Arts Center, and Small But Mighty Songwriters. Christopher also enjoys martial arts, and outdoor time hiking/camping with his family.

woman in glasses with needle-felted puppets

Pam Corcoran - Artistic Director

Since 1983, Pam Corcoran has brought stories to life with her original hand-made puppets. Traditional stories with a whimsical twist and original stories have been performed for libraries, schools, festivals, museums, and theaters. Pam is also a frequent guest artist for Eulespiegel Puppet Theater. She began needle felting with un-spun wool around 2000, and now, 25 years later, is still discovering ways to use this marvelous, renewable resource. Wool has become not only puppets, but sets and props! Pam teaches workshops on many aspects and styles of puppetry: Construction, (foam, shadow, giant, and needle felting), manipulation, design, and writing. Pam served on the Puppeteers of America Board of Directors for eight years.

Kathleen Conroy - Business Manager

Kathleen is a development and communications consultant with Next in Nonprofits in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her work in the nonprofit sector began over 20 years ago as former Artistic Director of the Puppet Showplace Theatre in Brookline, MA. In the Twin Cities, she has worked for Be the Match, Camp Fire Minnesota, Puppeteers of America, Rosy Simas Danse, Frank Theatre, Z Puppets Rosenschnoz, and Stuart Pimsler Dance & Theatre. She holds a certificate in fundraising from the University of St. Thomas, a Master’s degree in puppetry from the University of Connecticut, and is a proud Bennington College Alumni.

smiling woman with glasses holding a carrot puppet

Mona Cassis - Art Market Coordinator

Mona has a BS in Art from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She currently works with the Verona Chamber of Commerce as the Event Planner, helping with all of the larger community events. Previously, she restarted and managed the Verona Farmer's Market for seven years, where she was also able to puppeteer Garrett the Carrot, the market's mascot.

Rosemary Caspar – Festival Registrar

Rosemary Caspar has a lifelong love of puppetry of all kinds. As an early childhood teacher she introduced marionettes into her classroom and enjoyed creating many kinds of puppets with young children. In her work with other early childhood professionals, she encouraged providers and teachers to make puppetry a part of their learning experiences with young children. Rosemary served as the Registrar for Puppeteers of America national festivals, and is a proud member of the Twin Cities Puppeteers Guild, in Minneapolis.

smiling woman with glasses wearing a dinosaur scarf

Emmalee pearson - MEDIA DESIGNER

Emmalee is a lifelong artist and a college teacher of two decades. Although their professional specialty is teaching special effects, they have a wide and varied range of interests. Painting, sculpting, typography, video, animation, AR/VR, playing theremin, and building giant puppets for theater are all major hobbies. They also letter and layout comic books as a freelancer, in addition to producing a series called The Avengables (that is puppetry based plus comic inspired).