(Click here for a pdf of Anne's resume)

Anne Sawyer-Aitch has been performing in community and professional theater settings since her first grade debut as Persephone at Pratt School in Minneapolis. She studied Commedia Dell’Arte and improvisational theater at Oberlin College, but graduated from University of Wisconsin, Madison with a B.A. in Latin American Studies and Creative Writing. She went on study Creative Writing at the University of Arizona in the M.F.A. program. She also worked for a time as an English and Spanish instructor, using theater and Total Physical Response Storytelling techniques to liven up her classes.

Anne continues to learn the manifold art of puppetry through courses, apprenticeship, and constant practice. For seven years, she was a full-time artist with Galumph Interactive Theater, where she was involved in both creative and managerial aspects of creating full-length shows. She belongs to the Twin Cities Puppeteers Guild and to the all women’s stilting group Chicks on Sticks. In 2000, she founded Magic Lantern Puppet Theater with puppeteer Amy Ballestad and musician Laura Harada. With Magic Lantern, Anne built two full-length color shadow shows that received funding from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council.

Anne has also worked with In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater, Barebones Productions, Three Legged Race, the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, Wise Fool New Mexico, and Kari Tauring and Company. She has performed locally at the Minnesota Children’s Museum, the Minnesota Science Museum, the Southern Theater, Patrick’s Cabaret, the Walker Arts Center, the Ordway, Mill City Museum, and the Minnesota Fringe Festival. She has also performed in upstate New York, the Detroit Museum of Arts and at the National Puppetry Festival in Seattle. In addition to Metropolitan Regional Arts Council grants, she has received grant awards from the Center for Arts Criticism, the Jerome Foundation, and private foundations.

Anne lives in Powderhorn Park with her computer geek husband, Jemiah Aitch.