Staff
2025 Festival Staff
Blair Thomas, Artistic Director, Festival Founder, Chicago Puppet Studio Co-Director
Sandy Smith Gerding, Executive Director
Cameron Heinze, Business Manager
Taylor Bibat, Festival Coordinator & Director of Education
Deidre Huckabay, Grant Management Consulting
Lucy Wirtz, Events & Engagement Coordinator
Zach Sun, Studio Coordinator
Margaret Nelson, Festival Production Manager
Frank Rose, Festival Production Manager
Jess Mott Wickstrom, Graphic Design + Website
Jay Kelly, Press Relations
Andy Wickstrom, Video production
Tom Lee, Chicago Puppet Studio & Puppet Lab Co-Director
Grace Needlman, Chicago Puppet Lab Co-Director & Catapult Facilitator
Caitlin McLeod, Chicago Puppet Studio Project Manager
Dr. Paulette Richards, Symposium Co-Director
Samuel J. Lewis II, Catapult Facilitator
Administrative support: Paulette Maher, Lauren Marin, Veronica Timble
Special Thanks
Alex & Olmsted, Anastar Alvarez, Hélène Barreau, Will Bishop, Mark Blashford, Charlie Branda, Barbara Buckasino, Elise Butterfield, Ashwaty Chennat, Chinese Theater Works, Covey Law, Sheri Doyel, Lela & Zygmunt Dyrkacz, Morgan Eklund, Fine Arts Building Staff, Dave Gerding, Glorius Ladies of Puppetry/GLOP, John Gregorio, Handmade Puppet Dreams, Jacob Harvey, Cheryl Henson, Heather Henson, Teresa Hernando Rojo, Jen Hoyt, SK Kerastas, Donna Kimball, Elise-Ann Konstantin, Julie Le Corre, John Lewandowski, George Lyke, Janeen Mays, Mark Messing, Bill Michel, Richard Norwood, Mike Oleon, Diane Pascal, Krista Bryski Richard, Roberto Rossi, Claire Saxe, Doreen Sayegh, Roelle Schmidt, Pam Severns, Colleen Smith, Corey D. Smith, Spoke & Bird Staff, Connie Spreen, Myra Su, Meredith Sutton, Richard Termine, Kenya Thomas, Omar Kortright Torres, Basil Twist, Vanessa Valliere, Élise Vigneron, Mike Wallace, Corey Williams, Linda Wingerter, and Patrick Zakem.
Builders and Interns: Ethan Allen, Chih-Jou Cheng, Maddy DeChurch, Madeline Felauer, Ayla Gibbons, Rachel Hartmann, Rowena Liu, Paulette Maher, Andrew Marchetti, Abby Palen, Justin Perkins, Anna Petersen, Mads Reardon, Averly Sheltraw, Sion Silva, Chelsea Strebe, Sophia Tarducci, and Emilie Helene Wingate.
Photo Saverio Truglia
Blair Thomas, Artistic Director & Founder
The founder and Artistic Director of Blair Thomas & Co., Blair Thomas has twice earned the highest international honor for creators of original work in the medium, the UNIMA Excellence in Puppetry Award (2001, 2004). In addition, Thomas has received the Illinois Arts Council Fellowship Award (2001, 2004), the After Dark Award (2002), and a number of Joseph Jefferson Citations. Currently on faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Thomas has taught at the University of Chicago, University of Illinois at Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, and held the first-ever Jim Henson Artist-in-Residence position at the University of Maryland, College Park.
Co-founder and past Artistic Director of Redmoon Theater, Thomas has vigorously contributed to the Chicago theater scene as an actor, director, puppeteer, designer, and teacher for three decades, contributing to his status as “Chicago’s unofficial puppeteer-general” (TimeOut Chicago). Past President of the UNIMA-USA Board of Directors, Thomas represented the American chapter of the oldest international theater arts organization in the world.
