Where Play Becomes Practice

Based in Pittsburgh, Agnello is a puppeteer, director, actor and teaching artist whose work spans lauded productions at the Pittsburgh Public Theater, Trusty Sidekick Theater Company and Lincoln Center Education including "Up and Away," a groundbreaking piece designed specifically for audiences with autism and praised by The New York Times as "immersive theater at its most thoughtful and deliberate."

She's the co-designer behind the puppets in the Public's "The Hobbit" and the very visible arm of Cai the chameleon in the YouTube series "Cai & Kate," which helps young viewers navigate emotional regulation. Her teaching artistry, from sensory theater workshops at disability schools to playwriting classes for middle schoolers, remains the bedrock of her creative ethos.

That sense of artistic community began at HWS, where the Jean W. Reeves '34 Arts Scholarship first affirmed her identity as an artist. "It made me feel seen," she recalls. "HWS showed me that if you wanted to make something happen, you could."

In addition, her Honors project "She Makes a Heart-Nest" began under the guidance of the late Professor of English Deborah Tall and was completed with poet and Assistant Professor of English Karl Parker — mentorship that, alongside the late Professor Emeritus of English and Director of Theatre Robert Gross, laid the foundation for the dual MFAs in theatre and poetry she would later pursue at Sarah Lawrence.

She's still making it happen. This fall, Agnello appeared in Quantum Theatre's "Enron" and returned to "A Christmas Story: The Play," reaffirming that in her hands, performance is never mere spectacle — it's an invitation. She's also slated to perform in Anne Washburn's "10 Out of 12" with Quantum Theatre in spring 2026.