Grand Opening of “American Puppet Theater Today: The Photography of Richard Termine” on 1/31!

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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 and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will 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 130 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 from Friday, Jan. 31 to 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. 

The grand opening of American Puppet Theater Today: The Photography of Richard Termine on Friday, Jan. 31 will begin with refreshments served at 6 p.m. and an in-person exhibition tour at 6:30 p.m. by Richard Termine, with Cheryl Henson, the President of The Jim Henson Foundation; this will also be streamed on Ballard Institute’s Facebook Live channel (facebook.com/BallardInstitute/). All events will take place at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. 

2024 Summertime Saturday Puppet Shows!

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is excited to present its 2024 Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series with free, family-friendly puppet shows on three consecutive Saturdays in July and August at 11 a.m. on Betsy Paterson Square in Downtown Storrs.

July 20: Who Took the Cookies from the Cookie Jar? by WonderSpark Puppets

The classic children’s song comes to life in this hilarious mystery show by New York City’s WonderSpark Puppets. Join detective Mystery Max as he searches for clues to find out whodunit. The audience will sing songs and call out to help Max find the missing cookies and solve the case.

 

July 27: Judy Saves the Day by Sarah Nolen

After being pushed around for over 400 years, the famous hand puppet heroine Judy has had enough! Cheer her on as she goes on a quest for respect, justice, and a well-deserved nap. This modern interpretation of the traditional “Punch and Judy” show by UConn Puppet Arts alumna Sarah Nolen is a hilarious, timely, hand-crafted farce that the whole family will enjoy!

 

August 3: I Love Tacos by Paper Heart Puppets

There is joy in the world, and it comes wrapped in a tortilla! Join White Nosed Coati and a cast of amazing Mexican wildlife in three original stories celebrating tacos and the place they were created. Each story in this show by master puppeteer Brad Shur is packed with exuberant humor, and colorful characters.

Reservations are not required. Chairs will not be provided, and audience members are encouraged to bring their own blankets and seating. Seating space will be first come, first served. In case of rain, the shows will take place in the Ballard Institute Theater at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

The Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series is co-sponsored by the Mansfield Downtown Partnership and supported by a generous gift from Phillip Mairorana in memory of his wife Theresa Mairorana, and by UConn Gives donations by Ballard Institute supporters.

B*tch Eat Dog by UConn Puppet Arts student Mel Carter on April 3, 4, 10, and 11

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Photograph by Richard Termine
© 2025 RICHARD TERMINE.

The UConn Puppet Arts Program and Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry present B*tch Eat Dog, a puppet-y sketch show exploring girl bosses, tradwives, and the existential abyss, by UConn Puppet Arts MFA candidate Mel Carter on April 3, 4, 10, and 11 at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

Through grotesque fantasy, irreverent satire, and adaptations of classical texts, B*tch Eat Dog offers a frenetic and pungent interrogation of the gendered ethics of pursuit. B*tch Eat Dog is a puppet-filled sketch show that marries classical texts, feminist theory, and singing dicks. Punch and Judy puppets perform a gender-swapped adaptation of Moby Dick that explores the fallacies of girlboss feminism. A tradwife named Felicity Groundwater hawks her questionable raw milk wares and ultimately breastfeeds a member of the audience with one of her nine pendulous burlap boobs. A new kind of IUD insertion escalates until rats are being shoved down a woman’s cervix.  The evening is hosted by a hapless, well-intentioned white man who flails wildly as his misguided attempts at allyship lead to a painful realization. The show runs for 90 minutes, with a question-and-answer session to follow. Content warning: violence, sexual content, sexual assault, puppet nudity. Recommended for ages 17+.

Tickets are free but seating is limited, so reservations are required: https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/bimp-0/b-tch-eat-dog. Visitors can park in the Downtown Storrs Garage located at 33 Royce Circle. 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.

About Mel Carter

Mel Carter began her professional career in Washington, D.C., where she was a resident artist with the 4615 Theatre Company. While there, she performed with Imagination Stage, Spooky Action Theatre, and Pointless Theatre Co, among others. while simultaneously creating visual art. Her work has been featured in multiple publications, including the Washington Post. Mel has been awarded an Arts and Humanities Fellowship and a Color the Curb grant by the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Since discovering puppetry, she has built and/or performed puppets with Pilobolus Dance Theater, Bread and Puppet Theater, Mosaic Theatre, Paloma Puppet Theatre, and the OddFellows Playhouse, among others. Mel is currently a graduate student at the University of Connecticut where she is on track to receive her MFA in Puppet Arts.

Grand Opening of Becoming Modern: U.S. Puppetry in the Twentieth Century

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Machine #14 by Basil Milovsoroff. Photo credit: Jack Rowell.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present the grand opening of its new exhibition Becoming Modern: U.S. Puppetry in the Twentieth Century on Thursday, March 26 with refreshments served at 5 p.m., and a free tour at 5:30 p.m. The tour will also be streamed on Ballard Institute’s Facebook Live. All events will take place at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

U.S. puppetry in the early twentieth century reflected popular European traditions—as well as African American and some Asian forms—but also saw the emergence of innovations based on the idea of puppetry as a modern performance form. U.S. puppeteers in the 1940s and 50s saw that puppetry was still considered a low-culture entertainment form for children but began to develop new forms and contexts for puppetry to be understood as a modern art form for all audiences in theater, film, and television. This exhibition focuses on puppet innovations in live performance, a variety of forms on varying stages, and multiple different influences.

Becoming Modern: U.S. Puppetry in the Twentieth Century, curated by Ballard Institute Director John Bell, includes work by puppeteers Basil Milovsoroff, Larry Reed, Sandy Spieler, Dan Hurlin, Janie Geiser, Peter Schumann, Theodora Skipitares, Eric Bass, Sidney Chrysler, Amy Trompetter, Brad Brewer, Zuni Maud, Robert Anton, Nicola Seraphine, Charles Ludlam, Bob Baker, and Stephen Kaplin.

The museum will be closed through March 26 while the new exhibition is installed. After the opening, the Ballard Institute will be open Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. There is no set admission, but visitors are encouraged to pay as they wish. Learn more at bimp.uconn.edu.

RESCHEDULED for 3/7: Calle Allende by Pinned & Sewtured

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Due to the impending weather for Friday, 2/20, we are rescheduling Calle Allende by Pinned & Sewtured for Saturday, 3/7 at 7 p.m. If you already purchased a ticket, it has automatically been transferred to that date, but if you prefer a refund, please email emily.wicks@uconn.edu. Tickets are still available for 3/7 here: https://events.ticketleap.com/tickets/bimp-0/calle-allende

Thank you for your understanding and stay safe!

2026 UConn Winter Puppet Slam on 3/6 at 8 p.m.

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[caption: UConn Puppet Arts alumni Joe Therrien (left) and Mackenzie Doss (right) will perform at the 2026 UConn Winter Puppet Slam.]

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2026 UConn Winter Puppet Slam on Friday, March 6, 2026 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 Winter Puppet Slam will feature new and experimental short works by professional puppeteers and performers, including Puppet Arts alumni Joe Therrien and Mackenzie Doss, 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 2026 UConn Winter Puppet Slam welcomes back UConn Puppet Arts alumni Joe Therrien and Mackenzie Doss. Brooklyn-based Joseph Therrien, from Boxcutter Collective, will perform Inside the Palace of Your Mind, which will transport the audience from the Here-And-Now to the upper reaches of the human mind, using hand puppetry, music, and whatever the audience has in their pocket. Vermont-based puppeteer Mackenzie Doss will perform Transcendence, which explores transformation as a universal process governed by chance and the things we are willing to let go, and how entering a state of transformation includes finding that anything is possible. The UConn Winter Puppet Slam also features new works by graduate and undergraduate students from the UConn Puppet Arts Program, and music by Mansfield’s Waldron’s Studio 88 band, led by Derek Waldron. Funding for the Slam is made possible, in part, by the Puppet Slam Network. These performances are recommended for mature audiences. 

The UConn Winter 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. 

Becoming Modern: U.S. Puppetry in the Twentieth Century Forum on 4/22

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Machine #14 by Basil Milovsoroff. Photo credit: Jack Rowell.

As part of its 2026 Spring Puppet Forum Series the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is pleased to host “Becoming Modern: U.S. Puppetry in the Twentieth Century,” a discussion with Dr. Claudia Orenstein, Bart Roccoberton, and John Bell on April 22 at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, CT. This forum will also be broadcast via Ballard Institute Facebook Live. 

This forum will celebrate the Ballard Institute’s new exhibition of the same name, with acclaimed puppet scholar Dr. Claudia Orenstein of the CUNY Graduate Center in New York, UConn Puppet Arts Program Head Bart Roccoberton, and John Bell, Director of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. The speakers will explore the ways that puppetry in the United States transformed during the twentieth century from a popular low-culture entertainment to an accepted form of legitimate theater and a massively influential mass-media phenomenon.

The Becoming Modern exhibition, curated by Professor Bell, includes examples of early 20th-century work by Yiddish puppeteers Zuni Maud and Yosl Cutler, and Russian émigré Basil Milovsoroff; but focuses specifically on innovations in puppetry beginning in the 1960s by such puppeteers as Bob Baker, Robert Anton, Charles Ludlam, Brad Brewer, Dan Hurlin, Stephen Kaplin, Janie Geiser, Larry Reed, Theodora Skipitares, Sandy Spieler, Amy Trompetter, and Charles Ludlam. What made U.S. puppetry “modern,” and how has twentieth-century U.S. puppetry affected what we see today in person and on our screens? 

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.

About the Speakers

Claudia Orenstein is an acclaimed scholar of puppetry, performing objects, and material performance, both in regard to contemporary practices globally and to traditional forms in India and Japan. She is the Founding Editor of Puppetry International Research, an online, peer-review, scholarly journal devoted to puppets, masks, and related arts, and author of Reading the Puppet Stage: Reflections on the Dramaturgy of Performing Objects. Dr. Orenstein has co-edited several scholarly anthologies devoted to puppetry: Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects, with Tim Cusack, Women and Puppetry: Critical and Historical Investigations, with Alissa Mello and Cariad Astles, The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance, with Dassia Posner and John Bell. She has also worked as dramaturg on Stephen Earnhart’s multimedia production Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and on Tom Lee and kuruma ningyō master Nishikawa Koryū V’s Shank’s Mare. 

Bart Roccoberton is Program Head of UConn’s internationally renowned Puppet Arts Program and has been a professional puppet artist for nearly fifty years. He studied puppetry at UConn under Professors Frank Ballard and Albrecht Roser, and has toured popular puppet performances to schools, libraries, colleges, theaters and museums with his troupe The Pandemonium Puppet Company and with the students of The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s Institute of Professional Puppetry Arts and The University of Connecticut’s Puppet Arts Program. Bart has created and performed characters for television programs, Broadway productions and special commissions, and conducted workshops for elementary, secondary and college students and teachers across the United States. 

John Bell is the director of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, teaches at UConn’s Puppet Arts Program, and is a puppeteer and theater historian. He is the author of American Puppet Modernism and other books and articles about puppetry. A member of the Bread and Puppet Theater company from 1976 to 1986, and a founding member of the Great Small Works theater collective in New York City, he is also a founder of the Honk! Festival of Activist Street Bands in Somerville, Massachusetts.  

“Sidney Chrysler’s Miniature Puppet Operas” Puppet Forum on 3/4

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As part of its 2026 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is pleased to host “Sidney Chrysler’s Miniature Puppet Operas,” moderated by John Bell on Wednesday, March 4 at 7.pm. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, CT. This forum will also be broadcast via Ballard Institute Facebook Live. 

This event focuses on the work of Chaplin, Connecticut artist and puppeteer Sidney Chrysler (1915-1999), building on current research at the Ballard Institute. The forum will include Puppet Arts alumnus Stefano Brancato, director Michael Goldfried, Victoria Northrup (who performed with Chrysler as a child), and Puppet Arts student and researcher Alfi Free.

Frank Ballard considered Sidney Chrysler to be the best Connecticut puppeteer of his time, but his work remains relatively unknown. Chrysler’s extravagant miniature puppet operas were performed infrequently, and only for the few people who could fit into his shed theater. Those who were able to see Chrysler’s work were thrilled as they watched operas like Aida and Tosca through Chrysler’s miniature opera glasses. A rare news article noted that Chrysler “turned paper doilies, netting from a produce bag and spray paint into Gothic cathedral windows; tiny hand-stitches are used to gather strips of draped crepe paper into full skirts and ruffles.” Frank Ballard noted that “once the house lights die and the curtain goes up, it seems like you’re in the second balcony at the Met.”

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.

Mexican Puppetry: Lormiga Títeres Puppet Forum on 2/18 at 7 p.m.

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As part of its 2026 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is pleased to host a “Mexican Puppetry:  Lormiga Títeres” with Ailin Ruiz and Sarina Pedroza of the celebrated puppet company Lormiga Títeres on Wednesday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, CT. This forum will also be broadcast via Ballard Institute Facebook Live.

This event, moderated by Ballard Institute director John Bell, will take place in conjunction with the Ballard Institute’s current exhibition Somos Uno: Mexican and Mexican American Puppetry, and is co-sponsored by UConn’s Puerto Rican and Latin American Cultural Center (PRLACC) and El Instituto, the Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies.

Lormiga Títeres is a non-profit puppet company headed by directors and dramaturgs Ailin Ruiz and Sarina Pedroza. The organization’s objective is to support “full and happy childhoods,” and their work incorporates the production and performance of puppet shows and puppet films as well as publishing materials through their press Editorial L. Their community programming includes Theater at School, Theater Saturdays, research into Sonora’s puppet history, and online programs such as Cuentos para Contar Estrellas (Stories for Counting Stars). Lormiga Títeres curates the Puppet Slam México, sponsored by Green Feather Foundation, Arroyo Arts Collective, and the Puppet Slam Network. The company has performed in festivals across Mexico and represented Mexico internationally. Their work is represented in Somos Uno: Mexican and Mexican American Puppetry by image frames from their stop-motion animation films, La Casa de mi Abuela (My Grandmother’s House), Como una Niña (Like a Child), and Olivia y el Don Extraordinario (Olivia and the Extraordinary Gift).

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.