In collaboration with epidemiologist Felicia Rabito and her lab at the Tulane School of Public Health, Anna Fitzgerald created a puppet-based performance for and with children with asthma. Together, they created characters with objects like inhalers to tell a story relevant to the children’s daily lives. Meeting regularly with youth from the Sojourner Truth Community Center, they explored puppetry and objects in workshops, and then Fitzgerald built a performance about asthma, air, and breathing to perform for them. With these children, Fitzgerald explored the personal side of asthma, how it is a part of you, and how to live with it.

Anna Fitzgerald is a puppeteer based in Baltimore, MD and holds a MFA in Puppet Arts from the University of Connecticut. She is the artistic director of Red Ball Theatre Company. She has performed at festivals around the world including International Puppet Days in Izmir, Turkey, The Puppeteers of America National Puppetry Festival, The Green Mountain Puppet Festival, Baltimore’s Artscape and Whartscape, EnvisionFEST Hartford, and in theaters around the country.

“Everything here is inspiration. The beams in the house, the stained glass, the driftwood that has been made into the handle on the door […] the woods, the sounds that change from the morning to the dark, dark evening. The space is magical.” – Anna Fitzgerald

“My collaboration with the Flint and Steel Residency program was interesting and fun.  It was a unique experience to see the epidemiology of asthma depicted through a puppet show.  The children (and adults) really enjoyed it and I think it was an impactful and novel health education approach.” – Felicia Rabito