2025 Board Members
Sarah Olmsted Thomas
President
Sarah Olmsted Thomas is a fifth generation performing artist. She is half of Alex and Olmsted, an internationally acclaimed puppetry duo that was awarded 2017, 2020, and 2024 Jim Henson Foundation Grants as well as the 2020 State Independent Artist Award for Performing Arts from the Maryland State Arts Council. Alex and Olmsted has toured the Festival of Wonder in Denmark, the Puppet Festival Chuncheon in South Korea, the Festival de Casteliers in Montréal, and Symphony Space in New York City, among others. Since 2012, Sarah has also been a company
member with Happenstance Theater with whom she has devised 11 full-length productions (31 Helen Hayes Award Nominations, 5 wins). Sarah completed an apprenticeship with Bread and Puppet Theater, was awarded a Lisa Simon Scholarship to attend the 2017 National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and has been honored with 2 Helen Hayes Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress by Theatre Washington. She is a proud NCPG member since 2018. B.A., Sarah Lawrence College.
Sarah Bourne
Vice President
Sarah Bourne first joined the National Capital Puppetry Guild in 1998. She’s happy to be back after a long hiatus, rejoining in 2020. She’s currently the Costume and Puppet Shop Manager at West Virginia University, home of one of the two USA-based BFA in Puppetry Programs. She’s previously worked for Austin Peay State University, Animax Designs, VEE Corporation, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, and has been the technical director for Puppeteers of America National Festivals in 2001, 2005, and 2007. She has performed her own puppetry pieces in Minneapolis, Baltimore, Salt Lake City, Shepherdstown, and Boston as well as performing in shows with the Underground Railway Theatre, the University of Utah Lyric Ensemble, and the Contemporary American Theatre Festival. She was a participant at the National Puppetry Conference in 2021 and 2022. Sarah earned a B.F.A. and an M.A. in Puppetry Arts from the University of Connecticut and an M.F.A. in Interdisciplinary Theatre and Performance Art from Towson University. She’s very excited to serve on the NCPG Board of Directors!
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Michael Lamason
Treasurer
Michael Lamason is a cofounder and current Executive Director of Baltimore’s Black Cherry Puppet Theater where he wrangles puppets, builds new shows, and manages its community arts programming, all while trying to conquer a mountain of administrative tasks. He and the other Black Cherry artists have been touring marionettes, as well as other puppets, and creating innovative puppetry based educational programs in city neighborhoods and across the Mid-Atlantic region since 1980.
Heidi Rugg
Secretary
Heidi Rugg is a Richmond-based puppeteer, puppet builder, playwright, director, educator, and founder of Barefoot Puppet Theatre, touring since 1997. Working with a wide variety of puppetry styles, she designs, builds, and writes for puppet theatre. She is passionate about natural materials, puppet mechanisms, playwriting for puppetry, and puppetry applications in education. Heidi is on the teaching artists roster for the Virginia Commission for the Arts and has worked with all ages. She has a special passion for arts integration and has received extensive training through the Kennedy Center, Partner in the Arts, and is a current Wolf Trap Teaching Artist with the Richmond Performance Arts Alliance. In 2005, Barefoot Puppet Theatre was awarded an UNIMA-Citation of Excellence for “Galapagos George.” Heidi has received grant support for her work from the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Arts, The Virginia Commission for the Arts, Puppeteers of America, and the Jim Henson Foundation. Heidi holds a Bachelor’s of Interdisciplinary Studies in Arts Integration from Virginia Commonwealth University with a minor in Art History. She maintains a studio on the edge of a swamp just North of Richmond, where she lives with her husband, Sam, a rescue pup named Naia, and an immortal gecko.
Peter Court
Member at Large
Peter has worked in education, the creative arts and theatre for almost thirty-five years, and in South Africa for over twenty-five years. Much of his current work focuses on strengthening school systems through the creative arts and life orientation programmes. He is also a certified life coach, counselor and a skilled facilitator. He continues to make theatrical work and to perform occasionally. Peter is the Director of Creative Madness (Pty) Ltd. Creative Madness is an award-winning company with international experience in theatre and education and specializes in creating tailor-made productions, processes or curricula for the corporate, not-for-profit and education market. Creative Madness works with the Mr Price Foundation as the Creative Arts implementation partner in its
National Schools Development Programme - EduRise.
Genna Beth Davidson
Member at Large
Genna Beth Davidson is a professional puppeteer, designer, fabricator, and all-around theatre artist. She graduated from the University of Connecticut’s Puppet Arts program with her M.F.A. in 2022. Prior to graduate school, she lived in Washington, DC where she co-founded Wit’s End Puppets and also designed puppets for the likes of Pointless Theatre and Brave Spirits Theatre. She loves designing and building large theatrical puppets, writing and creating her own puppetry work, and filing away puppet theatre history into an ever-growing memory bank of puppet trivia. Most recently she has been performing as a puppeteer in Barefoot Puppet’s “New Squid on the Block.” She has been a member of NCPG for four years and counting. She serves as chair of the Fettig Project. She is also a member of Puppeteers of America and UNIMA-USA.
Melissa Pereson
Member at Large
Melissa Perenson is a writer, puppeteer, and visual storyteller who loves bringing characters to life.
As a board member of the National Capital Puppetry Guild, she promotes puppetry arts education,
collaboration, and community through both in-person and virtual engagement.
Alex Vernon
Member at Large
Alex Vernon is an actor, puppeteer, designer and automata engineer. In 2017, the National Puppetry Conference awarded Alex the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center Scholarship during which time he studied Mechanisms with Jim Kroupa and Marionette Construction with Jim Rose. Since 2012, Alex has been a company member with Washington, D.C.’s award-winning Happenstance Theater with whom he has created 11 original productions. With Happenstance, Alex was nominated twice as Outstanding Lead Actor for the Helen Hayes Awards. In the Spring of 2020 Alex taught as an adjunct professor of Puppetry Arts at the University of Maryland, College Park: Jim Henson’s alma mater. Alex built a 6-foot mechanical horse puppet for the Washington Revels, 21 Wayang Kulit puppets for WSC Avant Bard’s Midsummer, and a transforming chair for Theater Alliance’s Mnemonic; a Bunraku-style puppet that also functioned as a weight-bearing chair. He is one half of the puppet theater duo, Alex and Olmsted.