Month: December 2011

Ballard Museum closing for the season December 18th

If you have not yet had a chance to see our exhibition Frank Ballard: An Odyssey of a Life in Puppetry, we invite you to spend some time during the next two weekends at the Ballard Museum because it will be closing December 18th, 2011.  Frank Ballard: An Odyssey of a Life on Puppetry is paired with our second exhibition, Frank Ballard: Roots and Branches, which will be on display when the spring 2012 season begins.   The museum is open for visitors Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 12-5 p.m.–please come by to see both exhibits, and to find some holiday gifts in our museum store.  The Ballard Museum will reopen Sunday, March 25, 2012 with the return of Frank Ballard: Roots and Branches, and the premiere of a new exhibit of Chinese shadow puppets from the collection of 1930s and 40s puppet pioneer Pauline Benton.

String puppets from Roots and Branches exhibition. Photo by Richard Termine

Frank Ballard: An Odyssey of a Life in Puppetry

Frank Ballard’s rich career as a director, designer, and teacher is celebrated in this retrospective curated by UConn alumna Rolande Duprey.  The exhibition presents the stories, designs, construction processes, and performance of Ballard’s many productions, including rare video footage, as well as the many personal challenges Ballard faced in his career.  Featuring puppets and sets from The BluebirdTwo By TwoH.M.S. PinaforeThe Magic Flute,Peer GyntThe Golden Cockerel and other productions.

Great Small Works performance at Wesleyan University Friday and Saturday includes Ballard Institute Director

Ballard Institute director John Bell will perform with the Brooklyn-based theater company Great Small Works Friday and Saturday, February 3rd and 4th at 8 p.m. Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts.

The performances at Wesleyan will include Three Graces, a cantastoria (picture-based storytelling work) in which three mythical graces-Harmony, Strategy and Splendor-float down to earth for an op-art romp inspired by Grace Paley, Grace Kelly, Grace Jones and Grace Lee Boggs; and Toy Theater of Terror As Usual, Episode 12: Desert and Ocean, a surreal serial drama using excerpted texts and images quickly cut from daily newspapers.

“[Great Small Works has] breathed new, pointed life into the form of toy theater.” – The Village Voice

Tickets are $15 general public; $12 senior citizens and students.

For more information, please visit the Wesleyan University Center for the Arts website.