Month: March 2025

2025 UConn Spring Puppet Slam on 4/11

Posted on March 21, 2025April 1, 2025 by Wicks, Emily

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2025 UConn Spring Puppet Slam on Friday, April 11, 2025 at 8 p.m. in UConn’s Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre, on the lower level of the Jorgensen Performing Arts Center at 2132 Hillside Road, Storrs, CT 06269. The UConn Spring Puppet Slam will feature new and experimental short works by professional puppeteers and performers, including Tau Bennett and Charlotte Lily Gaspard from New York City, as well as new works by UConn Puppet Arts students. Mansfield’s Waldron’s Studios 88 will return once more as the Puppet Slam house band.

The 2025 UConn Spring Puppet Slam welcomes acclaimed Brooklyn-based puppeteers Tau Bennett and Charlotte Lily Gaspard. Bennett will perform Herbert’s Lament, which explores how life isn’t easy when you’re not only broke, but also narcoleptic. Shadow puppet artist, educator, entertainer, and “bona fide fairy princess” Charlotte Lily Gaspard will perform her crankie production A Mermaid’s Life Story and Strange Bird, a shadow-puppet show played with an umbrella screen. The UConn Spring Puppet Slam also features new works by graduate and undergraduate students from the UConn Puppet Arts Program. Funding for the Slam is made possible, in part, by the Puppet Slam Network. These performances are recommended for mature audiences.

The UConn Spring Puppet Slam is free and open to the public; donations are greatly appreciated. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. The event will take place in UConn’s Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre, located at 2132 Hillside Road, Storrs, Conn. 06269, on the lower level. (use rear entrance). For directions to the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre, visit crt.uconn.edu. For more information about these performances or if you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860-486-8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

Puppetry and Photography Forum with Richard Termine on 4/2

Posted on March 21, 2025March 21, 2025 by Wicks, Emily

As part of its 2025 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is pleased to host Puppetry and Photography, a Puppet Forum with Richard Termine on Wednesday, April 2, 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).

Join us in person or online on Wednesday, April 2 for a Puppet Forum discussion with famed photographer (and UConn Puppet Arts alumnus) Richard Termine, whose compelling work is celebrated in American Puppet Theater Today: The Photography of Richard Termine, the current Ballard Institute exhibition. Termine, who has documented American puppet theater for over 30 years, will share his insights on the arts of photography and puppetry, and how they can combine in stunning still images evoking the powerful movement potential of the material world in performance. Termine is the lead performing arts photographer for The New York Times and has been the in-house photographer for Sesame Street since 1988. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, People, American Theatre, USA Today, and other publications around the world.

Richard Termine attended the University of Connecticut and completed his MFA in Puppet Arts in 1978. In 1980, he began his association with The Jim Henson Company as a puppet designer and builder for a variety of Muppet productions. While working on the set of Sesame Street, Termine began photographing behind the scenes, leading to a new career as a performing arts photographer. He has been the in-house photographer for Sesame Street since 1988 and has been on the board of The Jim Henson Foundation since 1987, currently serving as the Foundation’s Vice President.

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.

Now on Exhibit! “American Puppet Theater Today: The Photography of Richard Termine”

Posted on March 19, 2025March 19, 2025 by Wicks, Emily

Photo: *Mirror Mirror* by Alex Kahn and Sophia Michahelles of Processional Arts. Created for New York City’s 50th Annual Village Halloween Parade, Jeanne Fleming, Artistic and Producing Director. Photograph: © 2023 Richard Termine

The Jim Henson Foundation and the Ballard Institute presents American Puppet Theater Today: The Photography of Richard Termine as part of the 60th anniversary celebration of UConn’s Puppet Arts Program in 2025. The exhibition, including over 150 images and selected puppets featured in Termine’s photographs, including work by Torry Bend, Basil Twist, Dan Hurlin, Tarish Pipkins, Theodora Skipitares, Bread and Puppet Theater, Janie Geiser, Tom Lee, and Paul Zaloom. American Puppet Theater Today will be on display through Sunday, May 11 at the Ballard Institute.

Termine, an alumnus of the UConn Puppet Arts Program, has documented American puppet theater for over 30 years with a unique perspective that invites the viewer into the vivid world of puppetry. He is the lead performing arts photographer for The New York Times and has served as the in-house photographer for Sesame Street since 1988. His images have also appeared in the Washington Post, The Village Voice, Time, Newsweek, People, American Theatre, USA Today, Entertainment Design and Der Spiegel, and other publications.

Termine’s performing arts photography includes a wide range of images capturing notable artists globally (Lincoln Center, London’s Globe Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, and Dublin Theatre Company, among others), in theater (The Phantom of the Opera, Little Shop of Horrors, Cirque du Soleil), dance (Alvin Ailey, Merce Cunningham, Moscow Festival Ballet), opera (Metropolitan Opera, Folkoperan of Stockholm), television (The Today Show, Blue’s Clues, Live at Lincoln Center, The CBS Evening News), classical music (Lincoln Center Festival, Salzburg Camerata, Mostly Mozart), and concerts and cabaret (Liza Minelli, Michael Feinstein, Ray Charles, Yo-Yo Ma, Tony Bennett, Yoko Ono, Kristin Chenoweth).

“Richard brilliantly captures the vibrancy of the performances he photographs; even in static images, the puppets come to life,” said John Bell, a puppeteer, puppet historian and the director of the Ballard Institute. “The photos and puppets in the exhibition illustrate the dynamic range of this expansive art form and honor the lively community of artists creating puppet theater, from established experts like Basil Twist and Julie Taymor to emerging artists.”

Termine completed his MFA in Puppet Arts at UConn in 1978. He began his association with The Jim Henson Company in 1980 as a puppet designer and builder for a variety of Muppet productions. While working on the set of Sesame Street, he began photographing behind the scenes, leading to a new career as a performing arts photographer. He has been the in-house photographer for Sesame Street since 1988 and has been on the board of The Jim Henson Foundation since 1987, currently serving as the Foundation’s vice president.

Puppets and Masks in Star Wars Forum with Colette Searls on 3/12

Posted on March 6, 2025March 6, 2025 by Wicks, Emily

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).