Join the Ballard Institute for our second Summer 2020 Online Puppet Forum Series event on Facebook Live! These forums, hosted by Ballard Institute director and puppet historian John Bell, will consist of discussions with notable scholars and practitioners around the world about the past, present, and future of puppetry and puppetry studies.
On June 11 at 4 p.m. ET, Theodora Skipitares will speak with John Bell about “Puppetry and Translation, from Autobiography to Benjamin Banneker.” Skipitares will discuss the development of her work from visual art to performance art and puppetry, and her ongoing focus on translating biography into puppet performance, most recently with The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker, which relates the surprisingly little-known story of an 18th-century free black man, independent farmer, self-taught astronomer, mathematician and civil rights advocate.
Theodora Skipitares is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist and theater director based in New York. Trained as a sculptor and designer, she is the author/director of 30 performance works, each featuring documentary texts, original music, video, and as many as 300 puppet figures. She is a resident artist at La MaMa Theater. Ms. Skipitares has worked and taught master classes in Brazil, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea, and Iran. She is a Professor at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn.
Forums will be available afterwards on our Facebook page and YouTube channel.