Mission Statement:

Wit’s End Puppets is an innovative and experimental puppet theater in the national capital region, producing original work for adventurous audiences, collaborating with local partners to bring quality puppetry into contemporary performance and educating both children and adults about the craft of puppetry.

Performance: We believe that puppetry is an art for all ages; we are committed to exploring the diverse forms of puppetry that our stories call for, and we work to tell stories that inspire in our audiences a sense of wonder and possibility.

Collaboration: We believe that puppetry can enhance artistic expression and we provide expertise as puppet builders and puppeteers to other artists for their performances and projects.

Education: We believe that puppetry fosters empathy, curiosity and imagination as well as providing students with a positive outlet for expression and connection with others.

Collaborators

Cecilia Cackley is a puppeteer and playwright based in Washington, DC. As a puppeteer, she has worked with GALA Hispanic Theatre, the O’Neill Puppetry Conference, the Avignon Off and the Source Theater Festival. Cecilia is a three time recipient of an Artist Fellowship from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and she has directed for the Capital Fringe Festival, Young Playwright’s Theater, Rorschach Theatre and The Inkwell. Her bilingual children’s plays have been developed by the Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New Voices festival, produced by GALA Hispanic Theater and toured to public schools in Washington DC. Cecilia is an affiliated teaching artist with Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, Ford’s Theater, Imagination Stage and Young Playwright’s Theater. She is a proud company member of GALA Hispanic Theatre and Young Playwright’s Theater.

Contact Cecilia at cecilia@witsendpuppets.com

Genna Beth Davidson is a Washington DC based actress, puppeteer and musician. She graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2008 with a BA in Theatre. In addition to Wit’s End Puppets, she has performed with The Hub Theatre, dog & pony dc, Deviated Theatre, The Bay Theatre Company, as well as workshop productions with the Rude Mechanicals (Austin, TX), 500clown (Chicago) and various local devised-theatre ensembles.

Contact Genna Beth at genna@witsendpuppets.com.

Patricia Germann works in the Office of Digital Humanities at the National Endowment for the Humanities. She holds dual master’s degrees in Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz School of Public Policy and in Innovation and Organization of Arts & Culture from the University of Bologna’s School of Economics. As her graduate student practicum at the British Council, she supported programs that connected UK artists with venues and audiences in the US. Patricia is an accomplished dancer and choreographer, and she has a keen interest in puppetry, animation, and contemporary performance.

Amy Kellett is an actress and scene painter based in Washington DC.  Some of the other companies/festivals she has performed with as a puppeteer or human in the MD/DC area include The Puppet Co., Source Festival, Landless Theater, Madcap Players and Bay Theatre Company.

 

 

Nina Budabin McQuown is a poet, essayist, and puppeteer from the Bronx. They are currently at work on Cruise Ship, an epic about a queer afterlife. They perform with Wit’s End Puppets and Bread and Puppet Theater, where their past roles have included a seal, a door, disgruntled proletarians, snobby proletarians, two gods, two-dimensional horses and the back half of a cow. Puppetry productions created from their poems Tits Tailor Astray and The Story of the Orca’s Silver Tongue as told by the Manager of the Only Taco Bell in Juno have been staged with Anna Lublina and collaborators in Brooklyn and Vermont. They live in Washington DC, where they are series editor for the Hilary Tham Capital Collection at The Word Works Press, and blog at yeswehaveno.com. You can find more of their poetry published or forthcoming with Thethepoetry.com, SAND, The Cimarron Review, and Hotel Amerika.

Contact Us

If you are a performer, designer or artist with an interest in puppetry, we are always looking new collaborators! If you are interested in working with us, please email info@witsendpuppets.com.