Felicia Cooper is a Minneapolis-based puppeteer, researcher, and public arts organizer. She is an administrator for the Puppeteers of America, the Secretary for the Twin Cities Puppetry Guild, and is on the advisory board of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. She serves as the Director of Audience and Volunteer Engagement for the Minnesota Fringe Festival, and recently presented on her work at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, the International Fringe Congress, and as part of a backyard lecture series in Providence, Rhode Island. Her artistic and academic research has been supported by the Jerome Foundation, the National Humanities Center, Puppet Lab, the Connecticut Sea Grant, the Puppet Slam Network, Winterthur Museum and Gardens, the Children's Museum of Pittsburgh, folkLAB, and others. She is a puppet slam super fan and is incapable of saying no to a puppet parade. She holds an MFA from the University of Connecticut. Go Huskies.
Candidate Statement:
I have been working in and around arts nonprofits for the last ten years, and currently serve as the Director of Audience and Volunteer Engagement for the Minnesota Fringe Festival. In running for UNIMA-USA Board, I am focused in three areas of interest. Primarily, I am eager to connect puppeteers around the world with opportunities to deepen their own communities of connection around their practice of puppetry. Living in Minneapolis has allowed me to appreciate an abundance of puppetry, and I believe that we can sow similar seeds across the country. I am also interested in how we can raise the profile of puppetry history as it relates to this moment of American uncertainty, and how we wield that history to understand our present. As a grant writer by trade, I am also interested in supporting fundraising and learning more about the budgeting process of an international institution.
Phillip Jasen
Phil Jasen is an artist and educator based in Montgomery, Alabama, where he serves as an Assistant Professor of Visual Art at Alabama State University. He holds an MFA in Printmaking and Book Arts from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia. His personal art practice focuses on the figure and narrative through mixed media, and his work has been recognized with grants supporting the combination of his fine arts and puppetry. Beyond higher education, Jasen is committed to community engagement, offering visual arts workshops of a wide range of media to audiences of all ages. Jasen’s puppetry work includes shadow puppetry, crankies, and marionettes, as both builder and performer. His collaborative projects span partnerships with visual artists, musicians, and performers. Notable works include his recent touring crankie/puppetry production, The Search for the Skunkape, showcased in galleries and museums, and a large-scale shadow production with a live tango band-Lupita's Revenge. His performances have graced renowned venues, including the 2023 National Puppetry Festival, the Nasher Museum in Durham, North Carolina, the Historic Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, and the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, among many others.
Candidate Statement:
Although new to UNIMA, I have actively contributed to the organization through my work on multiple committees. As an educator at an HBCU, an institution committed to fostering higher education while preserving a rich cultural legacy and strengthening local community- I am deeply embedded in a vibrant artistic environment where dance, theatre, and music flourish. Many within this community have expressed an interest in exploring puppetry, an art form that, like printmaking (the focus of my graduate studies), is rooted in community and collaboration but often remains underappreciated or misunderstood by the general population.
What makes UNIMA-USA truly special is its role as a national branch of an international organization, uniquely positioned to connect puppetry enthusiasts and practitioners across borders. While social media allows for easy viewing of puppetry from around the globe, it does not inherently foster the collaboration and mentorship essential to building a thriving artistic network. Living and working in the Deep South, I understand the challenges faced by regions outside of major cultural hubs, and I aim to bridge these gaps while strengthening rising puppetry trends. My focus would be on connecting individuals and groups- like the teenager posting puppet builds on TikTok, the retiree crafting automata in a woodshop, or small-town theatre performers experimenting with masks and visual storytelling- to resources, expertise, and funding opportunities. These diverse and often overlooked artists, performers, and enthusiasts are vital to building a puppetry society that not only celebrates the art’s rich legacy but also ensures its continued growth and innovation by supporting both emerging talents and seasoned experts.
Kalob Martinez
Kalob Martinez is an actor who combined his professional interests in stage combat and voice acting and found puppetry. His solo hand puppet show, El Beto, stands as the culmination of his theatrical endeavors in puppet arts, and in 2019 received a Jim Henson Foundation workshop grant. He was an associate artist and ensemble member of Sandglass Theater’s, “Babylon: Journeys of Refugees”, and is in the virtual production of “Rock the Boat". For five seasons he was the associate artist at the Classical Theatre Company in Houston,TX, and as co-director 2020's "Peer Gynt" his puppets and direction earned the "Best Use of Puppetry" award by the Houston Press. He has performed as the mascot, Buster Brackets and Fantasy Frank, for the "Tournament Marathon Challenge" and the "Fantasy Football Marathon" live on ESPN. Martinez is also a seasoned voice over actor for the English dubs of Anime. BA Acting, University of Houston. MFA Puppet Arts, University of Connecticut. Advanced Actor/Combatant, Society of American Fight Directors.
Candidate Statement:
I'm hoping to serve a second term on the UNIMA-USA board. My first term has been a bit of a learning curve for someone who seeks the spotlight. Board work is made up of unsung heroes who get the work done behind the scenes for the good of an organization. I firmly believe that puppetry is an artform that explores what connects us as a humanity which itself promotes understanding and friendship by making audiences laugh and cry. Currently, I serve as Board Secretary where I consolidate reports and take meeting notes - work that is definitely behind the scenes but is vital to UNIMA-USA. I hope to get your vote!
Steven Widerman
Steven Widerman is Artistic Director of The Puppet Company, a performing company that produces puppet theater for children and their families. He learned his craft from Master puppeteer, Bil Baird. He has been involved in the application of Puppetry to entertainment, education, industry and advertising. With the assistance of artists, woodcarvers, painters and costumers, he has designed and built a remarkable variety of hundreds of puppets. The Puppet Company owned and operated a puppet theater from 1988 to 1998, at Union Square West in Manhattan. He has served on the Board of Directors of UNIMA-USA. He currently resides in Chicago and is filming puppets with 3D cameras using techniques he developed and trademarked under the name PuppetVid3D®.
Candidate Statement:
I have served on the UNIMA-USA Board twice in the past, primarily working on the Awards Committee, and also on the Development Committee. Achievements included creation of a Legacy Gifts funding program for the organization. As part of my work on the Awards Committee I was tasked with the creation and naming of the Nancy Staub Award for published materials on Puppetry. This award, now entering it's third year, has been extremely well-received and highly successful. I also assured, in writing, the continuance of UNIMA-USA's strong relationship with the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts upon Vince Anthony's retirement as it's Executive Director, providing support staff and office space to the organization. Rejoining the Board, I would expand these efforts, hoping to serve in a position of leadership for the organization. I would like to see a stronger relationship between UNIMA-USA and the international puppet festivals that have become recurring events in the United States, including expanded coverage of those events in the organization's publication "Puppetry International."
F. Elaine Williams
F. Elaine Williams is a scenographer and professor in Bucknell University’s Department of Theatre and Dance. At Bucknell and as an Affiliated Artist at Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble, she has designed scenery and costumes and collaborated on the development of new plays that integrate puppetry and transformational objects within the stage environment. Her collaborations as a scene and puppet designer for the Center for Puppetry include Stellaluna, Beauty and the Beast, The Plant Doctors, and Frankenstein, adapted/written/directed by Jon Ludwig; and Tales of Edgar Allan Poe, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Anne Frank: Within and Without, adapted/written/directed by Bobby Box. The Plant Doctors and Anne Frankreceived Citations of Excellence from UNIMA-USA. She designed puppets and scenery for Georgia’s official folk life play, Swamp Gravy: The Big Picture by Jo Carson and others and strongly supports community performance. Elaine’s passion for puppetry is fueled by making new work, seeing national and international productions, participating in workshops, and hosting residencies with exceptional puppetry artists at Bucknell. She joined Dell’Arte International in Bali to study shadow puppetry and masks. Elaine’s M.F.A. in scenography is from University of Georgia and B.A. in art and theatre is from Agnes Scott College.
Portfolio: http://elainewilliams.blogs.bucknell.edu
Candidate Statement:
UNIMA-USA has deepened my understanding of puppetry in its myriad forms. I welcome the opportunity to give back by helping connect artists with artists and performances with our audiences. My interim board appointment continues to teach me how we can collaboratively amplify artist voices and facilitate community connection and conversation across differences locally and globally. I champion the interdisciplinary intersections in the visual and performing arts as we find new models to best support individuals, companies, and theatres dedicated to developing new work in these challenging times.
Irina Niculescu
Bio:
I am a theatre director recognized internationally for my productions combining: actors, puppets, dancers, singers, and live orchestra, and creating new forms of dramaturgy. I created shows in Romania, U.S.A., Belgium, Switzerland, Norway, Poland, Canada, Taiwan. I conceived and implemented a training program for puppet theatre in Riksteatret, Norway, training a new generation of puppet performers, I designed, and piloted a three-year cultural exchange and coproduction between Switzerland and Romania funded by the Swiss Department of State.
I have been a member of the UNIMA Commission for Professional Training of UNIMA International from 2010 to the present. In 2015, on behalf of the commission, I initiated the cycle of international meetings on puppetry training, participated in the conception and organization of the first 3 meetings in France, Romania and Brazil, which I headed. In 2019, I co-produced together with John Lewandowski the PofA National Festival and invited four foreign companies.
I live with my family in Chicago.
Candidate Statement:
I wish to bring my experience to UNIMA-USA and contribute to build bridges and create collaborations
