Month: October 2016

“The Doubtful Sprout” by Liz Joyce & A Couple of Puppets on 11/5 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

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As part of its Fall Puppet Performance Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present The Doubtful Sprout by Liz Joyce & A Couple of Puppets on Saturday, November 5, 2016. There will be two performances, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., in the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, CT.

Get ready to explore the world under your feet in this underground puppet adventure! Tunnel down with Worm and Sprout as they discover the mysterious life found inside soil. Along the way, kids help figure out the secrets that help Sprout grow! Liz Joyce, award-winning performer and Director of Goat on a Boat Puppet Theater in Sag Harbor, Long Island, brings this ecological wonderland to life with multiple puppetry styles, projections and song.

Liz Joyce, an accomplished puppeteer, writes, directs, and performs a growing repertoire of works for audiences of children aged 10 months to 10 years. Subjects include her take on traditional fairy tales, folktales, educational shows and original creations. In each of these productions she amuses and entertains both children and adults.
Trained as a fine artist, Liz also was also certified as a K-12 Art Educator. Her artistic approach to puppetry has been influenced by European puppetry traditions and the eccentric energy of New York’s downtown performance artists. She honed her carving skills working with traditional puppet carvers in Prague, and often collaborates with other puppeteers in the international puppet community. Liz’s puppet operetta, Sing a Song of Sixpence, was awarded an UNIMA Citation, the highest award in American puppetry. She currently is serving on the Board of Directors for the Jim Henson Foundation.

Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Students: $8; Kids: $6 (12 years and under).

Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, by phone at 860.486.8580, or online at http://bimp.ticketleap.com/. A surcharge will be added to any purchases made online. Tickets may also be purchased at the Ballard Institute on the day of performance starting at 10 a.m. There will be a limited number of seats. For more information about these performances, visit bimp.uconn.edu or call 860.486.8580.

Grand Opening of Frank Ballard’s Marionette Modernism and Object, Image, Text: The Bread & Puppet Press on 10/22

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present the grand opening of Object, Image, Text: The Bread & Puppet Press and Frank Ballard’s Marionette Modernism: Peer Gynt and The Love for Three Oranges, on Saturday, October 22, 2016, with refreshments served at 4:00 p.m. and free tours of both exhibitions at 4:30 p.m. All events will take place at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs, Connecticut.

blue-calendar1Object, Image, Text: The Bread & Puppet Press will feature an integral element of Bread & Puppet Theater director Peter Schumann’s prodigious artistic output: the production of pamphlets, books, posters, and book-like constructions that have complemented his dynamic Bread & Puppet shows since the 1960s. The tour of this exhibition on October 22, 2016 will be led by Peter Schumann.

Frank Ballard’s Marionette Modernism: Peer Gynt and The Love for Three Oranges will be a striking exposition of Frank Ballard’s life-long passion for the artistic possibilities of string marionettes as it emerged in his spectacular versions of two modernist classics: Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, with music by Edvard Grieg; and Gozzi’s The Love for Three Oranges, set to music by Sergei Prokofiev. Dr. John Bell, Director of the Ballard Institute, will lead the tour of this exhibition at the grand opening.

As part of our Fall Puppet Forum Series, on Wednesday, November 16 at 7 p.m., Max Schumann (Executive Director, Printed Matter) and Clare Dolan (Chief Operating Philosopher, Museum of Everyday Life) in Vermont, will discuss the work of Bread & Puppet Press. On Wednesday, December 7 at 7 p.m., Steven Brezzo (President, Opar, Inc.), Fred Thompson (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center), and Steve Abrams (Editor, Puppetry Journal) will reflect on Frank Ballard’s work in marionette theater. These forums will be live streamed via Facebook Live.

Ballard Institute Galleries Closed from October 10-21, 2016

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From October 10 through October 21, 2016, Ballard Institute staff will be deinstalling our current exhibition The Bureau of Small Requests: Puppetry and Animation of Laura Heit and installing our new exhibitions Frank Ballard’s Marionette Modernism: ‘Peer Gynt’ and ‘The Love for Three Oranges’ and Object, Image, Text: The Bread & Puppet Press.  While the main galleries at the Ballard Institute will be closed during this process, the museum will remain open during normal business hours, and our exhibit titled The World of Puppetry: From the Collections of the Ballard Institute will be on display in the lobby.

We  invite you to join us for the grand opening of Frank Ballard’s Marionette Modernism: ‘Peer Gynt’ and ‘The Love for Three Oranges’ and Object, Image, Text: The Bread & Puppet Press on Saturday, October 22 at 4:00 p.m. at the Ballard Institute. The opening events will include free tours by John Bell, Director of the Ballard Institute, and Peter Schumann of Bread & Puppet Theater.

“Rumpelstilskin” by Dream Tale Puppets on 10/15 at 11 a.m. & 2 p.m.

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As part of its Fall Puppet Performance Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present Rumpelstilskin by Dream Tale Puppets on Saturday, October 15, 2016. There will be two performances, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., in the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, CT.

In this adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin, the well-known German folktale, Dream Tale Puppets uses beautifully crafted table-top puppets to tell the story of a girl, Kathleen, whose father puts her life in danger after he lies to the king about her ability to spin straw into gold. An odd-looking stranger appears and offers to help her if she will give him her first-born child with the King–a promise she does not think she will have to keep. After the King marries Kathleen and they have a child, she is faced with losing him to the stranger if she cannot pass one more test!

Dream Tale Puppets was founded in 2003 by Jacek Zuzanski, a puppeteer, stage director and theater teacher who, before coming to the United States in 2001, studied, practiced, and taught theater and art in his native Poland. Preschool teacher and storyteller Mary Almeida co-founded the troupe with Jacek. Working at the Cape Cod Children’s Museum, Dream Tale has created a series of shows–Little Red Riding Hood and Three Little Pigs, Rumpelstilskin, and Jack and the Beanstalk–which they perform in schools, libraries, cultural centers and private functions. Today Dream Tale Puppets is a community of artists whose members perform, teach, design, build puppets, and write plays.

Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Students: $8; Kids: $6 (12 years and under)

Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, by phone at 860.486.8580, or online at http://bimp.ticketleap.com/. A surcharge will be added to any purchases made online. Tickets may also be purchased at the Ballard Institute on the day of performance starting at 10 a.m. There will be a limited number of seats. For more information about these performances, visit bimp.uconn.edu or call 860.486.8580.