Tickets for “The Three Little Pigs” by Liz Joyce & A Couple of Puppets are now SOLD OUT! Get your tickets to our other upcoming Spring Series performances at bimp.ticketleap.com.

For its first installment of the 2019 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host Choose the Path of Creation: Art and Life of the Independent Theater Maker on Wednesday Feb. 20 at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

Drawing from her own exceptional career and artistic path, puppeteer and singer Yael Rasooly will look with a candid eye at the liberation of the imagination, and at the practical and mundane aspects of a challenging and rewarding profession and life style. The focus of the talk will tune into the intricate and rich medium of visual theater and puppetry, as a source of self-expression and inner development of an artist.

Yael Rasooly is one of Israel’s prominent independent theater makers. She specializes in contemporary visual and object theater and has directed several Internationally acclaimed performances, both in Israel and Europe, which have been performed in over 30 countries worldwide. Yael was the international guest artist at the 2018 National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. Yael Rasooly is also a singer of international reputation and her cabaret performance, Glamour in the Dark, is currently touring around the world. Yael Rasooly’s work in the United States is supported by the Israel Institute’s Visiting Israeli Artists Program.

Admission to this event is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. Come early, and experience our puppet exhibitions, as well as the video resources in our library nook. Forums will be broadcast via Facebook Live. For more information, or if you require an accommodation to attend a forum, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860.486.8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2019 UConn Winter Puppet Slam on Friday, Feb. 22, 2019 at 8 p.m. in UConn’s Doris & Simon Konover Auditorium in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center located at 405 Babbidge Road, Storrs, CT 06269. The UConn Winter Puppet Slam will feature short works by professional puppeteers and performers from around New England, including New York City’s Kate Brehm and Boston’s Harry LaCoste, as well as new works by students and faculty from UConn’s School of Fine Arts. 

The 2019 UConn Winter Puppet Slam will feature work by New York-based movement director Kate Brehm, who devises visual theater with puppets and physical acting. She will perform To Be Continued Indefinitely, a toy theater puppet show that presents a minute and finite representation of the infinite cycle of creation and destruction in the universe. Boston puppeteer Harry La Coste will perform Uke Can Do It!, which features a ukelele-playing puppet named Big Red Bernie and audience participation. UConn Puppet Arts Technical Supervisor Paul Spirito will present a live video projection of a toy theater show performed from his seat in the front row. The UConn Winter Puppet Slam will also feature new works by UConn graduate and undergraduate Puppet Arts students, and digital animations by students of Digital Media and Design Professor Anna Lindemann. Funding for the UConn Winter Puppet Slam is made possible in part by the Puppet Slam Network.

The UConn Winter 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. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. The event will take place in UConn’s Doris & Simon Konover Auditorium in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center located at 405 Babbidge Road, Storrs, CT 06269. Attendees can park in the South Garage. To locate the South Garage by GPS, use the UConn Bookstore address: 2075 Hillside Road, Storrs, CT 06269. For directions to Konover Auditorium, visit thedoddcenter.uconn.edu/. These performances are recommended for mature audiences. For more information about these performances or if you require an accommodation to attend this event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860-486-8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

As part of its 2019 Spring Puppet Performance Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is pleased to present The Three Little Pigs by Liz Joyce & A Couple of Puppets of Long Island, New York on Feb. 16, 2019 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

In this version of The Three Little Pigs, BB (a reformed wolf with allergies) sells real estate to the new pigs in town. This puppet show by acclaimed Long Island puppeteer Liz Joyce features hand-carved marionettes, musical numbers, and lots of laughs. This show is 35 minutes and is recommended for ages 3+.

A Couple of Puppets is actually a lot of puppets and a bunch of wonderful puppet shows. The company was created in 1990 by Liz Joyce. Since then, over 25 shows for children and their families have been brought to life. Themes such as growing things and saving the environment, along with classic fairy tales with a twist, have been added to the company’s long list of puppet shows. Shows are performed live with music and hand-crafted puppets. In the early stages of her career, Liz worked with and apprenticed with Terry Snyder, a master puppeteer from Richmond, Va. Her artistic approach to puppetry has also 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, Czech Republic, and often collaborates with other puppeteers in the international puppet community. 

Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Members/Seniors: $10; Students: $8; Kids: $6 (12 years and under).

Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, by calling 860-486-8580, or online at 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 open seating and no reservations. Visitors can park in the Storrs Center Garage located at 33 Royce Circle. Parking is free for the first two hours and $1 per hour thereafter, with a daily maximum charge of $8. For more information about these performances or if you require an accommodation to attend this event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860-486-8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

Due to inclement weather, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will be closed on Tuesday, 2/12. Stay warm!