MISS PUSSYCAt and Quintron

Miss Pussycat began her career in art and puppetry as a child in the Southern

Baptist Church of Antlers Oklahoma as part of the Christian Puppet Youth

Ministry. She is always excited to bring puppetry into the pantheon of

contemporary art, as well as the subculture of underground music.

The magical collaboration that is Quintron and Miss Pussycat began at a Mardi

Gras party in New Orleans. For thirty years, the two of them have been busy

presenting live puppet shows and playing organ driven party music in rock clubs,

pizza restaurants, and secret clubhouses all around the world. They also create

puppet movies and videos and have released dozens of albums.

Their puppet movies and videos include Trixie and the Treetunks (for

VBS), Frenchy and Jett (Disney), North Pole Nutrias (aired annually on Cox

channel 10), and Electric Swamp which tells the story of Formosan termites and

Ernie and Antoinette K-Doe.

Quintron and Miss Pussycat played themselves in the AMC dramatization of

Anne Rice’s novel, Mayfair Witches, in 2023. They were also in David Simon’s

Treme, playing themselves in the Halloween episode.

Miss Pussycat has enjoyed doing large-scale installations and exhibits of her

puppets and their worlds at The Ohr- O’Keefe Museum, The Galveston Art

Center, The New Orleans Museum of Art, The Contemporary Art Center of New

Orleans, and The Ogden Museum of Southern Art. She was the featured artist

for GONERFEST 16 in Memphis Tennessee and was twice a featured artist for

PROSPECT the New Orleans art triennial.

Quintron is known for his electronic inventions, including the Drum Buddy, the

Weather Warlock, and a water-conservation device called the Bath Buddy.

Together, Miss Pussycat and Quintron throw a fun party.

VANESSA S. VALLIERE is a Chicago based performer, puppeteer and clown. In 2025, the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival presented a work in progress showing of her full length work, LOOK! LOOK!, which premiered that same year at Steppenwolf Theater's LookOut Series. Vanessa's slam pieces have been included in six Chicago International Puppet Theater Festivals and she has also taught classes and toured Chicago with the Festival. In 2024, she was invited by Heather Henson’s Green Feather Foundation to participate in the Skupova Plzen Puppet Festival in the Czech Republic. 

Valliere received a grant from Heather Henson's Green Feather Foundation to make Gut Feelings, a short puppet film that was screened and awarded at several national and international film festivals. She originated a role in Manual Cinema's The End of TV, and toured internationally as Ada with their production of Ada/Ava. She completed two residencies at Nordland Visual Theater in Stamsund, Norway and she will return in 2026 to develop her latest project, Always Forever. 

Valliere has been in several National Puppet slams and she is a proud nerd-cheerleader for the 30-piece circus punk marching band, Mucca Pazza. From 2011 to 2016, Valliere was a member of an ensemble of clowns/performers/creative content creators for Tour De Fat, a touring festival sponsored by New Belgium Brewery. For more, visit vanessavalliere.com.

Kat Pleviak is the founder and Artistic Director of Sea Beast Puppet Company and holds an

MFA in Youth Theatre and Puppetry from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (2009). She is

currently pursuing an M.A. in Clinical Psychology at Roosevelt University. Her solo piece Last Call was featured in the 2025 Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival and the 2024 National Puppet Slam. Meanwhile, her shadow sculpture was on display at the Evanston Arts Center in the art exhibit Migrations 2.0. Past productions she has developed

include the Puppet Meltdown Puppet Slam, The Shadow Puppet Conspiracy, The History of

Light, and Méfiez-Vous de la Vache-Garou, which won "Best in Show" at the Chicago Fringe Festival in 2013.

Her work has been featured at the Field Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois Wesleyan University, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Lookingglass Theatre Company, the Detroit Institute of Art, the Skirball Cultural Center in California, and numerous puppetry festivals in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.

Kat has been published multiple times in Puppetry Journal and was a featured artist in Puppetry International’s “40 Under 40.” She currently works for the Puppeteers of America as the Membership Administrator.

In 1983, Pam Corcoran took a course in puppetry at University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh, taught by Dorlis Grubidge and Heather McPherson. And it changed her life. A career as a geologist was no longer in her future.

Since that time, Pam Corcoran has brought stories to life with her original hand-made puppets. Traditional stories with a whimsical twist, a series on healthful habits (The Adventures of August and June), and a series based on Jolly the Jester from The Queen of Hearts have been toured to libraries, schools, festivals, museums, and theaters. Pam’s newest production, “The Fisherman and His Wife, reflects the influence of a Puppets in Prague course in 2019.

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! (The backyard woolies need to be shorn every Spring - that is quite a bit of wool!)

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.

LIZ HARA is a Los Angeles-based writer, builder, and puppeteer. Liz writes for Disney TV

Animation, including Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, for which she just won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing. She also writes for Sesame Street, where she started as a puppet builder when she was 19 (then never left). She has won Emmys for her work on Sesame Street (Costume Design and Outstanding Writing), and is extremely proud to have written Sesame Street: See Us Coming Together, introducing the first Asian-American Muppet, Ji-Young.

She's written for CBS’ Life in Pieces, Netflix’s Lego Ninjago and Waffles and Mochi’s

Restaurant, Apple +’s Helpsters, Donkey Hodie, OddSquad, and several other PBS shows. In

her other life, Liz has built puppets for Broadway, including Avenue Q, Spider-Man, and The

Lion King. Liz is an alum of Vassar College, has a Graduate Certificate in Anti-Racism in Urban Education from UNCC, and recently received her Masters in Education Leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. There she learned many things, including that her giant head is too big for that goofy graduation hat, which kept falling off during the ceremony.

Liz is also a fantastic dancer, is super fun at weddings, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of candy.

Neda Izad was born in Tehran in 1987. Her artistic odyssey was ignited at the age of 9 when she began her exploration of drawing and painting under the tutelage of a seasoned artist. This early passion propelled her towards a graphic design diploma, where she skillfully wove visual narratives that seamlessly melded tradition with modernity.

A fortuitous encounter with puppetry luminary Dr. Sedigh, kindled Neda’s intrigue for this captivating form of storytelling. Fusing her expertise in painting, sculpting, and dramatic arts, she discovered her true artistic calling – puppetry. This harmonious amalgamation of skills led Neda to attain a bachelor’s degree in fine arts of Puppetry from Sooreh University in 2010. Over six transformative years, Neda’s puppetry prowess graced the stages of Tehran, enriching audiences with her evocative performances.

Seeking fresh horizons, she embarked on a journey to the United States, where she pursued a Master’s in Fine Arts in Drama with a specialized focus on puppetry at the University of Connecticut. There, she delved into contemporary puppetry techniques, refining her mastery of fabrication, performance, and direction. Neda’s remarkable contributions extend to over 30 national and international puppetry productions, including acclaimed works like “The Tiger of Zhao”, “Song of the North”, “After Dawn”, “Mina”, “ If We Were Birds”, “Yikes and Yippe”, “Beautifully, Hiva” and “Lullabies and Lies”. Her creations are an exquisite fusion of visual art and theatrical expression, transcending conventional boundaries to craft immersive experiences that deeply resonate.

Neda’s commitment to advancing the discourse of puppetry extends to academia and beyond. In 2022, she served as a keynote speaker at the University of Connecticut, where she eloquently addressed puppet arts and human rights.

Her dynamic influence was further exemplified through a talk about puppetry and Iranian puppeteers at Little Shadow Productions. Neda’s scholarly pursuits are underscored by her insightful publication “Kheimeh Shabbazi” in UNIMA Magazine (Issue 45, Summer 2019), and her exploration of “Aesthetics: Makeup in Puppet Theater”, at the University of Sooreh, Tehran, Iran in 2010.

With a steadfast commitment to pushing artistic boundaries, Neda Izadi continues to weave enchanting stories that capture the hearts and minds of audiences worldwide. Her journey exemplifies the boundless power of visionary

storytelling, forever enriching the tapestry of artistic expression.