In a world shaped by increasingly complex challenges, how do we expand our sense of what is possible? For Amanda Petefish-Schrag, associate professor in the Department of Music and Theatre, the answer is puppetry.
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) Dean Benjamin Withers has selected Petefish-Schrag to deliver the Fall 2026 LAS Dean’s Distinguished Lecture on Monday, Nov. 2, at 6 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. The event is free and open to the public. A live Q & A session will follow the lecture, which will also be livestreamed.
The possibilities of puppetry
In her lecture, “What Is and What Could Be: Puppetry and the Practice of Possibility,” Petefish-Schrag will discuss how puppetry is inherently interdisciplinary, an art form built on contradiction while simultaneously engaging what something is and what it could be.
Internationally recognized for her work in applied puppetry and material-based performance, Petefish-Schrag teaches courses at Iowa State in puppetry, performance, and theatre history. She also directs productions for ISU Theatre. She is currently directing and designing puppets for ISU Theatre’s November production of “A Christmas Carol,” featuring more than 70 puppets created from repurposed fabric scraps and discarded paper.
Through projects that weave together performance, unique materials, and community collaboration, Petefish-Schrag will share in her lecture how puppetry makes abstract ideas tangible and open to exploration. She’ll talk about how puppetry can illuminate relationships that are often overlooked and challenge assumptions that seem fixed or inevitable.
Through that process, she says, puppets and their materials transform into more than just a tool for performance; they become active participants in how possibilities are perceived, explored, and understood. In doing so, puppetry becomes a practice of possibility – a way to envision, test, and build alternative ways of thinking, which relate to one another and the world.
A life of puppetry
Petefish-Schrag is a puppeteer, director, playwright, and educator. She began her puppetry career at age 4 with her family’s touring company, The Petefish Puppeteers, and has worked professionally in the field for more than four decades.
Petefish-Schrag’s research and practice focus on puppetry, materiality, and community-engaged performance, examining how common materials become powerful tools for storytelling, learning, and civic engagement.
Petefish-Schrag has presented at festivals and conferences across North America and collaborated with communities to create performances that amplify local voices and stories. Her puppetry designs have been featured in national exhibitions, and her designs and plays have been presented throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ecuador.
Petefish-Schrag has received numerous honors for her puppetry, directing, and teaching, including national commendations from the American College Theatre Festival, a Kennedy Center National Teaching Artist Grant, the American Theatre in Higher Education Innovative Teaching Award, and the LAS Cassling Innovation Award.
The LAS Dean’s Distinguished Lecture Series showcases faculty excellence in learning, discovery, and engagement in Iowa State’s most academically diverse college. Each spring and fall semester, the dean invites LAS faculty of distinction to present lectures from their areas of expertise on topics of interest to the public. The lectures are designed to prompt faculty, staff, students, and community members to engage in intellectual discussions.
