Katy Curtis – Co-Director
This hand is your hand, this hand is my hand… from Arcata, California, it moved to Southern Oregon in search of a new adventure. During its education in theatre at Southern Oregon University, this hand held its first puppet and fell in love. After performing in two Puppeteers For Fears shows and directing another, it is now co-directing Cabaret at The End of The World. When it isn’t working with these talented weirdos, it enjoys writing music and learning the piano while the cutest dog in the world is curled up nearby. Cutest thing ever. Seriously. Be jealous.
Alyssa Marie Mathews – Co-Director/Puppeteer
This hand does so many things, it can barely hold onto it all! In this show, it’s co-directing, puppeteering, and fabricating a few new puppets. It has been inside many puppets before with Puppeteers For Fears, being a long-time member involved in almost every show since 2016. It would like a massage, please. In the past few years, it wore mittens to brave the east coast winter while getting a masters degree in Puppet Arts(yes, that really exists) at the University of Connecticut, and before that, grasped a BFA in Acting at Southern Oregon University. Currently, it lives in Sacramento, CA and pets a very needy cat often.
Jake Raiter – Puppeteer
It’s this hand’s first time as a Puppeteer for Fear so be gentle with it. Although it did catch a lot of PFF shows while it was wandering around Ashland for four years and attending the Oregon Center for the Arts at SOU. Since then it’s lived in LA and twiddled its fingers, and now is happy to be back and acting in Oregon. In its spare time, it wanders the woods like a certain creature with large feet and desperately wants to be held.
Forest Gilpin – Puppeteer
This hand has been with Puppeteers for Fears for [REDACTED] Years. It is a Graduate from Southern Oregon University and has been in Several previous Puppeteers shows including Cthulhu the Musical, Robopocalypse, and Cattle Mutilation. It joined the group when a mysterious orb appeared in the puppet Box, the luminous orb warped and shifted taking on a humanoid shape for Foul Purposes, Like puppeteering. This hand enjoys Long walks on the Desolate sands of a Crumbling Empire, Pickled Foods, and [COGNITOHAZARD DETECTED REDACTED FOR VIEWER SAFETY]
Hunter Prutch – Puppeteer
This hand was last seen in the Ashland, Oregon area attending classes at Oregon Center for the Arts at Southern Oregon University and pulling a BFA in performance. It is now believed to be in Seattle, Washington where it rolls dice, plays games, and returns to its primal home, the inside of a puppet. If you see this hand DO NOT APPROACH, call your local puppet troupe and let them know it has returned.
Josh Gross – Company Director/Playwright/Band (Drums)
Hey. Listen. This hand is more than just the company’s drummer. It has arms and shoulders and a beard and a rich inner life that helps to birth these sick beats. Respect it as a whole being not just a collection of fingers. Also, nbd, but it wrote the show.
Joel Tefteller – Band (Guitar)
Patiently perfecting persistent periodic plastic plectrum plucking perhaps producing profits pending potential progression. Wait wait…nope nope. That’s dumb. Ok, I think I fixed it. This hand has been writing and recording original music for nearly 18 years. It can also be spotted playing around Southern Oregon disguised as The Elephant. Now for the first time it has learned a slew of a professional peer’s prewritten passionate puppet performance pieces…nononono. Can’t start that again. This hand should not be trusted with its own bio.
Daniel King – Band (Bass)
This hand knows a thing or two about fingering. Honing their skills at Hendershott School of Guitar in Grants Pass, OR beginning in 2003 and graduating a few years later, these fingers went on to pluck guitar and bass strings in a variety of genres and bands, most notably and recently for The Elephant and Casey & the Cut Offs in Ashland, OR. When these fingers aren’t plucking bass strings for Puppeteers for Fears, they can be found gripping bike handlebars, lifting perspiring glasses, and squeezing scissors to make cut offs.
Aubry Hollingshead – Technical Designer
This hand has been with PFF since the dawn of PFF — first wielding a box cutter to craft cardboard-on-stick props for the inaugural Halloween show in 2015, then computering a computer to design the digital scenery and sound effects for every show since. This hand also makes the company’s videos, and designs the marketing — and nbd but it also designed the company logo and dubbed the operation Puppeteers for Fears (narrowly overtaking the contending name suggestion, Hand-in-Butt Theatre). When not doing all of the above, this hand can be found peddling black market charcoal art downtown or helicopter parenting its brood of unruly house plants.
Voiceovers by Alex Giorgi
Puppets made by Brooke Sharpe and Alyssa Marie Mathews
(pizza box puppet made by Alsacea Stauffer)
Cast featured in videos:
Lauren Taylor, Alex Giorgi, Mikayla Mattocks, Eric Solis, Reece Bredl, Forest Gilpin
Special Thanks to the Prutch family for providing us with a rehearsal space!