AMANDA PETEFISH-SCHRAG
PUPPET ARTIST · DIRECTOR · PLAYWRIGHT

I am a teaching artist and theatre practitioner working across puppetry, directing, and playwriting. My work is grounded in theatre’s social and ethical life within communities, and in a desire to engage with ecological questions in ways that are felt rather than abstract.

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Materials are central to my practice. Through puppetry, I work at the intersection of materiality, imagination, and human agency. Puppetry insists that “stuff” matters: its processes of making and animation draw attention not only to human story, but to the presence, history, and sensory life of materials themselves. Materials are not neutral—they carry traces, histories, and possibilities, shaping how relationships form and performance unfolds. I am especially drawn to discarded materials, where the tension between what has been, what is, and what might be opens space for reflection and transformation.

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Across this work, I’m compelled by what happens when materials are allowed to lead—when their limits, resistances, and histories shape the direction of the work. A different kind of attention emerges: rooted in curiosity, care, and the unfolding relationships between people, materials, and the worlds they inhabit.

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