Month: January 2012

Ballard Institute Director awarded research prize from the Institut International de la Marionnette

On September 19, 2011, the Institut International de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mézières, France (France’s premiere puppet institute) awarded Ballard Institute Director John Bell the “Prix de la Recherche” (research prize) for his book American Puppet Modernism (published by Palgrave/Macmillan in 2008). This award comes soon after Dr. Bell was given the Jalal Sattari prize at Iran’s Third International Traditional-Ritual Performances Seminar in July for his essay “Shalako Puppets and Nineteenth-Century Ritual,” which appears in American Puppet Modernism.

UConn Puppet Slam! — Saturday, January 21st at 8 p.m.!

Lindsay McCaw of the Dolly Wagglers

Join us Saturday night, January 21st at 8 p.m. in the Studio Theater on UConn’s Main Campus to experience the Spring 2012 UConn Puppet Slam!  See exciting new works by celebrated puppeteers from the Northeast, as well as new creations by emerging artists from UConn’s famed Puppet Arts Program.

The UConn Puppet Slam will include Lindsay McCaw and Adam Cook, who, as The Dolly Wagglers, will perform Polka Your Finger Out Polka (a cantastoria or picture performance) and Everything In Moderation All at Once (a cranky); Rose Friedman and Justin Lander of Vermont’s Modern Times Theater, performing The City, a toy theater show based on a story by Herman Hesse; Jim Napolitano (of Nappy’s Puppets) performing one his famed shadow puppet shows; and works by students from the renowned University of Connecticut Puppet Arts Program, including Carianne Hoff, Nicole Hartigan (joined by special guest performer Ryan Hartigan), Anna Fitzgerald, Leah Sylvain, Seth Shaffer and Kali Therrien.

Modern Times Theater

This event is free and open to the public–tell your friends, and better yet bring them with you for an exciting evening of surprising innovation and thought-provoking artistry.  For directions to the Studio Theater see this site.  The UConn Puppet Slams are supported by a generous grant from the Puppet Slam Network.

See “Mi Casa es Su Casa” at The Wadsworth Atheneum on Saturday, February 11th!!

As part of its year-long “World of Puppetry in Hartford” project the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, Mi Casa Family Service & Education Center, and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art will present a free performance of Mi Casa es Su Casa on Saturday, February 11 as part of the Wadsworth Atheneum’s Second Saturdays for Families series.  The entire Second Saturday event begins at 10 a.m. and ends at 12:30.  Mi Casa es Su Casa will begin at 11:30.  The Wadsworth Atheneum is located at 600 Main Street in Hartford.

The workshops and performance are all part of the Ballard Institute’s  yearlong “World of Puppetry in Hartford” project, a series of exhibitions, workshops and performances dedicated to spreading the word about puppetry in Hartford, in collaboration with the UConn Health Center, the Mark Twain House and Museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, and Billings Forge Community Works.

For more information see the Wadsworth Atheneum webpage for this event.

This project has been made possible by the generous assistance of the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation and Judith Zachs.