As part of its 2025 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is pleased to host Puppets and Masks in Star Wars, a UConn Puppet Forum with Professor Colette Searls, on Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. This forum will also be broadcast via Ballard Institute Facebook Live (facebook.com/BallardInstitute).
Professor Colette Searls, of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will discuss the essential role of puppets, masks, and performing objects in the many different aspects of the venerable and popular Star Wars epic. Based on her 2023 book A Galaxy of Things: The Power of Puppets and Masks in Star Wars and Beyond, Dr. Searls will examine how, since 1977, creatures, droids, masked figures, and other material characters have been central to Star Wars trilogies and stories, telling meaningful stories that conventional human characters can’t, through the powers of what Dr. Searls calls “distance, distillation, and duality.”
Colette Searls is Professor of Theatre at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) where has directed over twenty productions, including award-winning works of puppetry and material performance. Other directing credits include Noah Haidle’s Vigils at The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company (four Helen Hayes Award nominations), Kendra’s Bay at the inaugural Light City Baltimore International Arts Festival, and Fixed Boundary at San Francisco’s Exit Theatre (winner of the Best of the San Francisco Fringe Festival award). She has received grants from the Jim Henson Foundation, the Maryland State Arts Council, and the Puppeteers of America for her original works in found-object puppetry. Her book A Galaxy of Things: the Power of Puppets and Masks in Star Wars and Beyond received the 2024 Nancy Staub Publications Award; she is also the performance review editor for the journal Puppetry International Research (PIR).
Admission to this event is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. For more information or if you require accommodation to attend a forum, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860.486.8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.