COMMItTEE MEMBERS
Laurie Everitt - Festival 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.
Lisa Schlenker - workshop director
Lisa Schlenker has been puppet-curious from her first forays into marionette making for a production of the Mikado in the late 1980s and was gifted the Dwiggins Marionette manifesto to spark her interest. From 2017 through 2023 Lisa served as secretary to the Wisconsin Puppetry Guild, amplifying puppetry arts in SE Wisconsin. A Wisconsin based scenic designer and prop maker for approaching four decades, Lisa’s design work of particular joy includes projects with Milwaukee Opera Theatre, Opera Lafayette, Forward Theater, Renaissance Theaterworks, Milwaukee Shakespeare, Milwaukee Chamber Theater, Milwaukee Rep, Florentine Opera, First Stage, Skylight Opera Theatre, and AFT/Northern Sky.
In addition to her design work in live performance, Lisa has logged many happy hours working on puppet building for projects such as Little Shop’s Audrey II man eating plants, Avenue Q puppets, and Zemire et Azor featuring The Beast and a wide array of puppets designed by James Ortiz. Lisa is currently designing and building a murmuration of bird puppets for the upcoming world premiere musical The Thing With Feathers, opening at Northern Sky Theater in June of 2026.
Jill Frederickson
Jill discovered the joys of mask-crafting and puppetry in 1992 and has never turned back. She has built puppets and masks for Milwaukee Public Theatre, The Bristol Renaissance Faire, Von Orthal Puppets, Sea Beast Puppet Company and The Factory Theater. Jill has also performed for several of these companies and others as a puppeteer. She is an ensemble member of the Factory Theater in Chicago. Jill is the sole proprietor of Little Puppet Company in Kenosha Wisconsin, which brings shows and workshops to audiences of all ages from Milwaukee to Chicago. She studied at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has a BA from Northwestern University. Last year, Jill was honored to be The Peepeteer, performing the mascot emcee Peep! for the Puppets in the House festival in Verona, Wisconsin.
Laurie Rossbach
Laurie Rossbach joined the staff of Madison Children’s Museum as Art Studio Manager in 2013. Her responsibilities include managing the day-to-day operations of the Art Studio Exhibit area, working with a team of staff, volunteers and interns to provide high quality art programming, designing and leading classes and workshops, and working with artists from the community to create innovative and engaging art experiences for visitors of all ages. Laurie came to the museum with a varied and eclectic background in the arts and education. She has experience as an elementary art teacher, sculptor and exhibit builder, fashion and textile designer, small business owner, musician and puppeteer. Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Laurie has worked as an artist in Madison for over 20 years and holds a B.A. in Art from UW Madison. Laurie co-founded Madison’s community music project Forward Marching Band in 2011 and performed as a puppeteer in Madtown Liberty Players 2007- 2011. Laurie currently works with 350 Madison’s Art Collective and the Community Creatures puppet collective and continues to participate in other collective art, craft, and music projects, both at the Museum and in the larger Madison community.
Mona Cassis - Community Day c0-director
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.
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).