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.