The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2018 UConn Winter Puppet Slam on Friday, Jan. 26, 2018 at 8 p.m. in UConn’s Studio Theatre located at 802 Bolton Road, Storrs, Conn. 06269. The UConn Winter Puppet Slam will feature short works by professional puppeteers and performers from around New England, including Bonnie Duncan, Jim Napolitano, John O’Donnell, and Paul Spirito, as well as new works for puppet and object theater by students from UConn’s School of Fine Arts.

UConn Puppet Slams provide an opportunity for established artists and neophyte students alike to try out new and experimental work in all areas of object performance before an audience eager to experience exciting puppetry in all its forms. The 2018 Winter Slam will include Boston-based dancer and puppeteer Bonnie Duncan performing Seraphina, a dark and sexy love story between two hands, presented on a table top. Popular Connecticut-based puppeteer Jim Napolitano (a UConn Puppet Arts alumnus) will perform I Hate Brenda using an innovative projection format, “Way Yang Zerox,” that Napolitano invented with fellow puppeteer Tim Lagasse. Napolitano will also present Bedtime Story with Uncle Nappy, a cautionary tale of procreation. Paul Spirito, UConn Puppet Arts technical supervisor and director of online programs, will be experimenting with combining poetry with objects from the natural world. New media artist John O’Donnell, professor of printmaking in UConn’s Department of Art and Art History, will present Ghost of a Wall, a timely performance piece with elaborate costumes, music, and stacks of boxes. The UConn Winter Puppet Slam will also feature new works by UConn graduate and undergraduate students studying puppetry, digital animation, and stop-motion filmmaking. Funding for the UConn Winter Puppet Slam is made possible in part by the HBH Fund, created by Heather Henson.

The UConn Winter Puppet Slam is free and open to the public; donations are greatly appreciated. Seating is limited and is on a first-come, first served basis. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. The event will take place in UConn’s Studio Theatre located at 802 Bolton Rd, Storrs, Conn. For directions to the Studio Theatre, visit crt.uconn.edu/directions/. These performances are recommended for mature audiences. For more information, call the Ballard Institute at 860-486-8580, visit bimp.uconn.edu, or email us at bimp@uconn.edu.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will be closed:

Friday, December 22 through Tuesday, December 26

Saturday, December 30 through Thursday, January 4

Happy Holidays!

As part of the 2017 Fall Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present a discussion with puppet scholar and historian Matthew Cohen entitled Puppet Riches: The Angst Collection at Yale University on November 30, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

Dr. Cohen, equally acclaimed as a puppet scholar and rod-puppet master, will discuss the rich and exciting details of the new Dr. Walter Angst and Sir Henry Angest collection of over 20,000 Javanese rod puppets and shadow figures at the Yale University Art Gallery—the world’s largest collection of Indonesian puppets.

Matthew Isaac Cohen is Professor of International Theatre and Director of the Centre for Asian Theatre and Dance at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is a historian and anthropologist of Southeast Asian theater and world puppetry, and performs wayang kulit (shadow puppet theatre) under the nom-de-stage of Ki Kanda Buwana, a royal title and name given by the royal court of Kacirebonan of West Java, Indonesia. He has held visiting appointments and fellowships at Sanata Dharma University in Indonesia, the University of Malaya in Malaysia, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. In the fall of 2017, he is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Yale University Art Gallery, researching and helping to curate the Angst collection. Dr. Cohen’s most recent book is Inventing the Performing Arts: Modernity and Tradition in Colonial Indonesia (University of Hawaii Press, 2016).

Admission to this event is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. Come early, and experience our puppet exhibitions, as well as the video resources in our library nook. Visitors can park in the Storrs Center Garage located at 33 Royce Circle. Parking in the Storrs Center Garage is free for the first two hours and $1 per hour thereafter, with a daily maximum charge of $8. Forums will be broadcast via Facebook Live. Call 860-486-8580 for more information or visit bimp.uconn.edu.

As part of the 2017 Fall Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present a discussion with Bonny Hall and Jamie Keithline of Crabgrass Puppet Theatre and Liz Joyce from Long Island’s Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre titled Puppet Survival: The Art of Producing and Performing Puppet Shows on Thursday, October 12, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

At the forum, the three speakers will consider the outlandish question of how puppeteers might possibly make a living by practicing their age-old arts in the 21st century. Join in on a lively and detailed discussion about economics, small-business survival, entrepreneurship, and the fascinating worlds of contemporary puppetry.

Jamie Keithline ’80 (SFA) and Bonny Hall ’81 (SFA) met in 1979 while studying at the University of Connecticut. After graduation, they both toured with Bart. P. Roccoberton, Jr. (now Director of UConn’s Puppet Arts Program) and the Pandemonium Puppet Company. In 1982 Bonny and Jamie moved to San Francisco and started their own company, Puppetwork of San Francisco. After moving back to the Northeast in 1989, they renamed their company Crabgrass Puppet Theatre. Jamie and Bonny focus on creating puppet theater and performing for children’s and family audiences, with theaters, museums, and elementary schools as their primary markets. They have created 26 full-length productions, performed at dozens of regional, national, and international puppet festivals, and have been awarded two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence. Their production of The Pirate, the Princess and the Pea was named “Best Performance” of the Puppeteers of America 2015 National Festival.

Trained as a fine artist, Liz Joyce is also certified in K-12 Art Education. Her artistic approach to puppetry has been influenced by European traditions and the eccentric energy of New York’s downtown performance artists. She honed her carving skills working with traditional puppet carvers in Prague, Czech Republic. Liz’s puppet operetta, Sing a Song of Sixpence, was awarded an UNIMA-USA Citation. For the past 15 years Liz has hosted many talented puppeteers at Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre in Sag Harbor, New York, where she is founder and artistic director. She recently served on the Board of Directors for the Jim Henson Foundation.

Admission to this event is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. Come early, and experience our puppet exhibitions, as well as the video resources in our library nook. Visitors can park in the Storrs Center Garage located at 33 Royce Circle. Parking in the Storrs Center Garage is free for the first two hours and $1 per hour thereafter, with a daily maximum charge of $8. Forums will be broadcast via Facebook Live. Call 860-486-8580 for more information.

As part of the 2017 Fall Puppet Forum Series, and in conjunction with its current exhibit Obstreperous Puppets: The Puppeteers Cooperative, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present a discussion with Sara Peattie, co-founder of the Puppeteers Cooperative, entitled Building Community with Puppets: Boston’s Puppeteers Cooperative on Thursday, September 21, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

Based on her years of nation-wide work with professional and amateur puppeteers, community and civic organizations, and schools, Sara Peattie will explain how and why making giant puppets with and for communities can be a spectacular success. Co-founded by Sara Peattie and George Konnoff in 1976, the Boston-based Puppeteers Cooperative is one of the most prolific, yet un-acclaimed, puppet companies in New England. Peattie, Konnoff, and their colleagues have designed and built puppets with community groups for pageants and celebrations across the United States, including Boston’s famed First Night, the Downtown Mansfield Festival in Storrs, and the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in New York City. Many of these creations are also lent to the general public through the Puppeteers Cooperative’s Puppet Free Library, located in the basement of Boston’s Emmanuel Church.

Admission to this event is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. Come early, and view Obstreperous Puppets, an exhibition celebrating the work of the Puppeteers Cooperative, as well as The World of Puppetry, drawn from our global collections. Visitors can park in the Storrs Center Garage located at 33 Royce Circle. Parking in the Storrs Center Garage is free for the first two hours and $1 per hour thereafter, with a daily maximum charge of $8. Forums will be broadcast via Facebook Live. Call 860-486-8580 for more information.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will present Calle Allende, a new production created and directed by UConn Puppet Arts alumna Anatar Marmol-Gagné ‘17, featuring UConn School of Fine Arts students Katayoun Amir-Aslani ’18, Darren Lee Brown ’17 and Noel Williams ‘19, on Saturday, September 23 at 8:00 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

Calle Allende brings to life the struggle of famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo to reconcile her broken self and dying inspiration. At her expansive Casa Azul on Calle Allende in the Mexico City neighborhood of Coyoacan, Kahlo’s pain has clouded her, but in a moment of clarity inspired by an entry in her diary, she realizes that without her imagination, she will lose her lifeline. “I am not sick,” she writes, “I am broken. But I am happy to be alive as long as I can paint.”. Calle Allende runs approximately 30 minutes and is recommended for mature audiences (ages 16+).

Anatar Marmol-Gagné, originally from Caracas, Venezuela, holds a Master of Fine Arts in Puppet Arts from the University of Connecticut and has as a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Creative Writing from Hunter College. Her strong interests and experience in art, dance, writing, fiber and fabrication all come together seamlessly with her love for puppetry. As a puppeteer, Anatar has trained at the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, taught children’s puppet workshops, performed in puppet slams and festivals, and founded and curates the Pinned & Sewtured Puppet Slam in New Haven, Connecticut.

Tickets are $7 and are available at the door on the night of the show only. No presale tickets will be available.

There will be open seating and no reservations. Visitors can park in the Storrs Center Garage located at 33 Royce Circle. Parking in the Storrs Center Garage is free for the first two hours and $1 per hour thereafter, with a daily maximum charge of $8. For more information about this performance, call 860-486-8580.