Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry’s Spring Puppet Workshop Series
As Storrs quiets down at the end of the semester, things are getting exciting at the Ballard Institute. We are pleased to present two sets of evening workshops – designed for adults. These will be fun, informative, and accessible to beginners and puppet masters alike.
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Intro to Hand Puppetry
In this class, we will learn to build a hand puppet and experiment with basic methods of hand-puppet performance. We will explore the fascinating hand puppets in our current exhibition: Becoming Modern: U.S. Puppetry in the Twentieth Century.
Instructor: Tom Tuke is a recent graduate of the UConn Puppet Arts Program and has worked with an array of puppets throughout his home New Zealand and, in recent times, New England.
Adults: $60 (4 x 2-hour lessons) | Students (18+ or accompanied by legal guardian): Free
Wednesday, May 13, 7PM-9PM
Session One: Full Steam A-Head!
We will begin with a quick tour of the hand puppets in our latest exhibit, and an introduction to the age-old art of hand puppetry. We will begin to design and build a puppet, starting with sculpting the heads of our characters using clay. This should be a fun, hands-on, and informative introduction to the world of hand puppetry.
By the end of the session, we should begin the papier-mâché process.
Wednesday, May 20, 7PM-9PM
Session Two: Let's get Body-Building!
We will finish the papier-mâché process. Then we will learn a basic pattern and have a hand-sewing session, as we begin to make our puppet bodies.
Wednesday, May 27, 7PM-9PM
Session Three: Dotting the Eyes
We will finish constructing and decorating puppets and begin to play with our hand puppets.
Wednesday, June 3, 7PM-9PM
Session Four: Do We Have a Play on Our Hands?!
In our final session we will develop hand-puppet performance techniques and make short skits with our characters.
All materials supplied. Please contact thomas.tuke@uconn.edu with any inquiries.
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Intro to Shadow Puppetry
Intro to Shadow PuppetryIn this class we will learn techniques for building and performing with shadow puppets, inspired by puppets in the Ballard Institute’s collection.
Adults: $45
Students (18+ or accompanied by legal guardian): Free
Instructor: Tom Tuke is a recent graduate of the UConn Puppet Arts Program and has worked with an array of puppets in New Zealand and the US.
Wednesday 10 June, 7-9PM
Session One: Out of the Shadows
We will begin with a short overview of the history and use of shadow puppetry, looking at puppets in the current exhibitions. Then we will head into the workshop. To begin, we will make basic shadow puppets and develop jointed limbs to give our puppets movement.
Wednesday 17 June, 7-9PM
Session Two: Shadow Play
In this session, we will continue with our puppet construction, thinking about stories we could tell. Then, using our freshly built shadow puppets, we will learn how to move our characters on the screen.
Wednesday 24 June, 7-9PM
Session Three: In the Light of It...
In our final session we will be playing with light, refraction, and shadow. Tom will introduce participants to various tricks and methods to develop effect and shift the mood using shadow and lighting.
All materials supplied. Please contact thomas.tuke@uconn.edu with any inquiries.