- James Godwin in performance. Photograph by Jim Moore.
The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2015 UConn Winter Puppet Slam on Friday, February 6 at 8:00 p.m. in the Dramatic Arts Department’s Studio Theatre. The UConn Winter Puppet Slam will feature short works by professional puppeteers, including famed New York City performer James Godwin, and the Semi-Upright Puppet Theater (UConn Puppet Arts graduate Joe Therrien and Bread & Puppet Theater veteran Jason Hicks), as well as new works by talented students from UConn’s Puppet Arts, Digital Media & Design, and Art Programs. The UConn Winter Puppet Slam is supported by a generous grant from the Puppet Slam Network.
James Godwin is renowned in New York’s prolific downtown performance scene, writing and performing in such popular productions as Uncle Jimmy’s Dirty Basement; but also works regularly with the Muppets, Julie Taymor, and such musical acts as David Bowie and Aerosmith. At the UConn Winter Puppet Slam Godwin will present Rooty, the story of a lonely plant who finds itself in a battle to save his sanity in the face of solitary confinement; and Simulation Theory, a poetic visual narrative that explores identity, reality and possession in the American workplace. Jason Hicks and Joe Therrien’s Semi-Upright Puppet Theater, also based in New York City, will return to UConn with their own lively brand of activist “cheap art” puppetry that brings the iconoclastic spirit of Punch and Judy into the 21st century with such popular favorites as their super-hero serial Weasel. In addition to new works by UConn’s acclaimed Puppet Arts Program students, the UConn Winter Puppet Slam will also feature new works for film animation by Art and Digital Media students.
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 Puppet Slam Network.
The UConn Winter Puppet Slam is free and open to the public; donations are greatly appreciated. The event will take place in the Studio Theatre located at 820 Bolton Rd, Storrs, CT. For directions to the Studio Theatre, visit crt.uconn.edu/directions/. For more information, call the Ballard Institute at (860) 486-8580 or email us at bimp@uconn.edu.