Puppet Showplace Staff

Veronica Barron, Executive Artistic Director

business@puppetshowplace.org
veronica@puppetshowplace.org
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

As Executive Artistic Director, Veronica Barron is responsible for Puppet Showplace's artistic and organizational vision, and supporting our team of staff, artists, and supporters in delivering meaningful community impact through excellence in puppetry. Her work is wide-ranging: she tours internationally as a puppeteer on Kid Koala's live cinema graphic novel Nufonia Must Fall; coaches executives on authentic storytelling as a consultant with The Ariel Group; and facilitates raucous/joyous street spectacles with the School of HONK! community brass band. A puppeteer, performer, and director, Veronica has earned praise as “magnificent” (WGBH) and “the cast’s best voice” (The New York Times).

Veronica's leadership and management experience includes leadership consulting & coaching for Harvard Business School, BCG, the Social Innovation Forum, Citibank, and others; marketing, communications, and institutional messaging support for New England Conservatory, Tunefoolery, and others; and fundraising & outreach support for Puppet Showplace Theater, Food For Free, and others.

Veronica credits the Puppet Showplace with helping her become the artist and leader she is today, and is honored and excited to work with the theater in this new capacity. Her connection with the theater dates back to 2011, when she was a recent BFA graduate (Boston University) but not yet a puppeteer — until she inserted a brief-yet-crucial puppet moment into a short-form clown tragedy (created with collaborating partner Aimee Rose Ranger). Puppet Showplace booked the piece for a puppet slam, and then several festivals; Veronica took her first puppetry class at PST, and by 2019, Veronica was selected to represent New England puppetry artists for a month-long creative research residency in Montreal with the Casteliers Festival / Maison Internationale des Arts de la Marionnettes, co-sponsored by Puppet Showplace, and in February 2023, PST’s Incubator Program presented Veronica’s first full-length show, Magic Pearl, which premiered in a sold-out run and won support from the Boston Foundation and the Henson Foundation.

Ash Winkfield, Visiting Artistic Associate

artistic@puppetshowplace.org
ash@puppetshowplace.org
Pronouns: Xe/Xem/Xyr

Ash Winkfield is a multidisciplinary artist from Durham, NC where xe grew up surrounded by music and the arts. Xe continued xyr music education at Boston Latin School in the orchestra and vocal programs. Xe began xyr journey into professional performance at UNC-Chapel Hill where xe were introduced to puppetry while workshopping Basil Twist's Rite of Spring. Ash specializes in new and devised works presented in New York (Jazz at Lincoln Center, Abrons Art Center, LaMama Experimental Theatre), North Carolina (Duke University) and internationally. Most recently, xe performed with Pinwheel Works’ The Magic Pearl, Basil Twist’s Book of Mountains and Seas and the Walk with the Amal. Xe currently train with Shannah Rae Vocal Studios and Lucid Body Technique. Ash participated in Puppet Showplace Theater’s Creative Residency for Black Puppeteers in 2023, and in November of that year joined the staff as Visiting Artistic Associate.

Bo Powell, Box Office & Operations Manager

boxoffice@puppetshowplace.org
Pronouns: He/Him/His

Bo joined the Puppet Showplace team in October of 2021. A Cape Cod native, he left Massachusetts to pursue acting in California, but quickly realized that was not for him. Instead he donned a pair of tech blacks and has not looked back! Making, what some would call a triumphant return back east, Bo is pleased to be home after more than 15 years doing what he loves best, theater.

Bo studied theater at The University of La Verne in California. Being a very small school and an even smaller technical theater department he performed most backstage jobs you can name: lighting design, sound design, dramaturg, producing, and prop design. Bo was nominated in the stage management category in The Kennedy Center Awards in 2013 and upon graduating with a BA in Theater Arts, he won the Dean's Award for Excellence in Art for directing and producing Bertolt Brecht’s Baal.

Often tasked with finding puppetry and puppets for shows in Los Angeles, most notably Bo was a producer for a revival of Kurt Vonnegut's stage adaptation of Sirens of Titan and worked with a few different puppeteers to make two of the main characters, a robot and a mastic, come to life through puppetry. Bo also designed the puppets for and directed a shadow puppet show within the Los Angeles premier of Tayor Mac’s Hir. Bo has always admired the ability of puppets to allow audiences to connect with characters regardless of their gender, skin tone, or species. As a theater maker, audience experience is the one of the most important things to him, which is why he is so excited to meet the Puppet Showplace community and welcome everyone back to the theater.

Hannah Anderson-Baranger, Marketing & Communications Manager

info@puppetshowplace.org
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Hannah joined the staff in May 2022 with over five years of experience in communications, marketing, and graphic design. Hannah manages Puppet Showplace’s weekly newsletter, creates content for social media and the website, and spearheads inbound and traditional marketing efforts. As a former theater kid, Hannah has a deep appreciation for the performing arts and is thrilled to once again have a theater to call home. 

Hannah holds a B.A. from Duke University in Sustainable Art and Design, for which she explored the relationship between society and the natural world through traditional and experimental visual art. Her recent creative efforts are focused on graphic and web design; she is also a devotee of the Oxford comma, the em dash, and well-spaced typography.

Originally from North Carolina, Hannah has lived in the Boston area since 2016, and is still searching for worthy biscuits, fried okra, and tea. Please forward any leads to her inbox!

Sarah Nolen, Resident Artist

sarah@puppetshowplace.org
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Sarah Nolen is a puppeteer and filmmaker originally from Austin, Texas. As Puppet Showplace Theater’s resident artist, she performs regularly for youth and family audiences and teaches puppetry in camps, workshops, residencies, and evening adult classes. Her three original productions, The Fairy Tailor, Judy Saves the Day, and Lisa the Wise, are all available to tour. Sarah recently designed puppets for Wee the People's My Night in the Planetarium, Metropolitan Chorale's The Unicorn, the Gorgon, and the Manticore, and for Suffolk University's Loss of Breath: The Death and Life of Edgar Allan Poe. She is currently directing a production for UNIMA-USA featuring puppeteers from across the North American continent that will be performed in Bali this spring at the World Puppetry Festival.

In addition to her work in puppetry, Sarah is an experienced filmmaker. In 2015, she received the Mister Rogers Memorial Scholarship in support of her television pilot Treeples, a show geared towards empowering girls, which screened at film festivals across the U.S.

Sarah earned her BFA in film from Southern Methodist University, and an MFA in Puppet Arts from the University of Connecticut.

Red Hluska, Senior Box Office Associate

red@puppetshowplace.org
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers, It/Its/Its, or He/Him/His

Grace Ellis, Marketing and Communications Intern

intern@puppetshowplace.org
Pronouns: she/her/hers

Grace started as an intern at Puppet Showplace Theater in October 2023. Originally from Washington state, she moved to Boston to attend college in 2020, and earned a BFA in Communication Arts in 2023. She continues to expand her love of storytelling through various artistic mediums, and in her free time enjoys writing fiction, building puppets, and juggling. She has always been a lover of the performing arts and is excited to be a part of the Puppet Showplace community!