The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2017 UConn Fall Puppet Slam on Friday, September 15, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. in UConn’s Nafe Katter Theatre. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam will feature short works by professional puppeteers and performers, including Lone Wolf Tribe, Veronica Barron, and Isaac Bloodworth, as well as new works for puppet and object theater by students from UConn’s School of Fine Arts.
The 2017 UConn Fall Puppet Slam includes work by an array of renowned Northeast puppet professionals and talented UConn students. From New York City, acclaimed puppeteer Kevin Augustine, who performs as Lone Wolf Tribe, will present Body Concert, a haunting solo piece with exquisitely sculpted foam-rubber puppets influenced by Japanese Butoh dance. UConn Puppet Arts alumnus and New Haven puppeteer Isaac Bloodworth will perform Curled, a crankie (moving scroll performance) about a black girl who is ordered to change her hairstyle in order to attend school. Boston-based theater artist and musician Veronica Barron will perform two pieces, Black is the Color and My Eyes Off of You. In addition, the UConn Fall Puppet Slam will feature new works by UConn graduate and undergraduate students studying puppetry, digital animation, and stop-motion filmmaking. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam will be hosted by UConn Puppet Arts graduate Shane C.S. McNeal, performing as the eccentric Doctor Thaddeus J. Foster, whose unique brand of storytelling brings a hint of the strange and a twist of the macabre to the stage. Funding for the UConn Fall Puppet Slam is made possible in part by the HBH fund, created by Heather Henson.
The UConn Fall Puppet Slam is free and open to the public; donations are greatly appreciated. Seating is limited and is on a first-come, first served basis. The event will take place in UConn’s Nafe Katter Theatre located at 820 Bolton Rd, Storrs, Connecticut. For directions to the Nafe Katter Theatre, visit crt.uconn.edu/directions/. These performances are recommended for mature audiences. For more information, call the Ballard Institute at 860-486-8580, visit bimp.uconn.edu, or email us at bimp@uconn.edu.