The 2013 UConn Fall Puppet Slam, on Saturday evening, September 21 in the Dramatic Arts Department’s Studio Theatre will feature short works by acclaimed alumni of the Puppet Arts Program as well as new works by current students in the program. For the first time, the UConn Puppet Slam will offer two performances of the same program: at 8 p.m. and at 10 p.m. Guests at a Ballard Institute fund-raising event will attend the 8 p.m. showing, so the general public is urged to attend to 10 p.m. showing.
The Fall Puppet Slam will feature works by Puppet Arts alumni Zachery Dorn, Carole D’Agostino, Dave Regan, and Joseph Therrien.
Pittsburgh-based Zachery Dorn has recently focused on live-streamed internet performances of toy theater productions using hand-held cameras, some of which he will perform at UConn: What Time is it in Berlin? and A Story About the Saddest Story.
Carole D’Agostino has been performing in New England-area Puppet Slams since 1997. She will present scenes from The Hoarding Show, a miniature spectacle combining tabletop puppetry, shadow theater, and object theater “about the clutter we keep, mentally and physically in our lives,” including the story of the famous Collyer brothers of New York City.
Joseph Therrien, working with puppeteer Jason Hicks, will present scenes from their handpuppet spectacle Weasel, Citizen Hero, an irreverent series of shows featuring found-object puppets and political satire, which the duo have created at Bread & Puppet Theater, where Therrien is now a company member.
And Dave Regan of Fluke Theater will perform a handpuppet piece entitled Fight or Flyght.
The Puppet Slam movement is a nation-wide flowering of short puppet productions for adult audiences, encouraged by the Puppet Slam Network created by Heather Henson and Marsian De Lellis. UConn Puppet Slams have been taking place since 2008, thanks to the generous support of the Slam Network.
The UConn Fall Puppet Slam is free and open to the public–donations are greatly appreciated. Both the 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. showings are open to the general public, but more than half of the seats for the 8 p.m. showing will be reserved for fund-raiser attendees. For directions to the Studio Theater see this site. For more information call the Ballard Institute at 860 486 0339.