Author: Wicks, Emily

“Word Play” by Good Hearted Entertainment on 3/25 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

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As part of its Spring Puppet Performance Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present Word Play by Good Hearted Entertainment. Performances will take place on March 25, 2017 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

Word Play uses clowning and puppetry to take audiences on an adventure through the alphabet. Words come to life in the hands of two skilled performers, who clown around with sounds and colorful puppet letters to create dozens of dynamic, interactive characters and imaginative scenes. Audiences can make friends with vowels, teach tricks to a “C-A-T” and “D-O-G,” and visit a Word Zoo full of surprises. It’s the perfect blend of education and entertainment — a play on words, literally!

Good Hearted Entertainment creates performances that combine puppetry and clowning to educate and delight young audiences and the young at heart. The company was founded by Honey Goodenough, who has a master’s degree in educational theater from NYU. Honey has over 10 years of experience creating literacy-based puppetry programs for NYC public schools and for specialized learning institutions for children with learning challenges and varying abilities. Word Play is inspired by Honey’s experience learning to manage her own dyslexia and literacy challenges. The show combines her experiences as a touring puppeteer, educator, clown, magician, and children’s entertainer to bring words to life in new and exciting ways. Paired with the performance talents of fellow educator, Harry LaCoste, and musical composition of Paul Watkins, Good Hearted Entertainment works to inspire and ignite a love of creative learning. This 45-minute show is recommended for ages three and older. This program was developed with support from Puppet Showplace Theater’s Incubator Program.

Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Members/Seniors $10; Students: $8; Kids: $6 (12 years and under).

Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, by calling 860-486-8580, or online at http://bimp.ticketleap.com/. A surcharge will be added to any purchases made online. Tickets may also be purchased at the Ballard Institute on the day of performance starting at 10 a.m. There will be open seating, no reservations. For more information about these performances, visit bimp.uconn.edu or call 860-486-8580.

“Puppetry and Animation” with Michael Bannon on 3/8 at 7 p.m.

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As part of the 2017 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present a discussion with Michael Bannon, Director of Advertising Production for Bob’s Discount Furniture, entitled Puppetry and Animation on Wednesday, March 8, 2017 at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center. This event is co-sponsored by UConn’s Art and Art History Department.

Stop-motion animation artist Michael Bannon’s Wreckless Abandon Studios has produced and directed award-winning commercials for scores of companies across the United States, as well as the famous “Little Bob” spokespuppet for Connecticut-based Bob’s Discount Furniture. At the forum he will explain the dynamics and opportunities of contemporary visual storytelling with the arts of stop-motion puppet animation.

Michael Bannon is the Director of Advertising Production for Bob’s Discount Furniture, a successful furniture chain founded by UConn alumni Bob Kaufman and Eugene Rosenberg. Bannon earned his BA in sculpture, printmaking, and art history from Plymouth State University with the goal to make a career personifying brands through character animation. Bannon joined forces with documentary filmmaker Ron Wyman to form Atlantic Media Services. Their client list grew to include numerous furniture stores, along with notable news networks such as CNN. In 1991, Bannon added Bob’s Discount Furniture to the roster and helped propel the business into the fastest-growing furniture chain in the U.S. In 1997, Bannon founded Wreckless Abandon Studios, an award-winning stop-motion and digital animation studio located near Hartford, Connecticut. Over nine years, Wreckless Abandon grew to employ a staff of over 75 artists and production personnel, including many alumni from UConn’s Puppet Arts Program and Art and Art History Department. As Executive Vice President & Creative Director of Wreckless Abandon Studios, Bannon was responsible for creative direction of the studio, which has produced animated commercials for national clients including PepsiCo, Fisher-Price, Talbots, Dannon and Sony Music Entertainment, as well as the animated Fisher-Price Little People television series, an NBC prime-time Christmas special, and stop-motion productions for such clients as the Late Show with David Letterman, the Today Show, Lego and Nickelodeon. Today, Bannon continues to bring “Little Bob” to life for an audience of millions, while training a stable of talented young artists in the age-old visual storytelling technique of stop-motion animation.

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. Forums will be broadcast via Facebook Live. Call 860-486-8580 for more information.

UConn Students Needed for the Ballard Institute Student Outreach Committee!

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is looking for UConn students to form a Ballard Institute Student Outreach Committee to serve as advisors and creators of events, exhibits, and programming geared towards the UConn student population. No puppetry experience is required, and we welcome students from all departments! If you are interested in learning more, please email bimp@uconn.edu.

“Banners and Cranks: Paintings and Scrolls in Performance”, February 23-June 11, 2017

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Cantastorias and crankies are forms of sung picture story-telling that trace their origins to 6th-century India. These paintings mounted on sticks, flipped over and revealed, or unfurled on scrolls and moved by means of a crank are performing object precursors to the popular puppet traditions of many countries. Despite the prominence of new technologies in popular culture, an innovative dynamic engagement with the simple mechanical cranky and cantastoria has blossomed among young puppet theater companies, activist educators, folk musicians, visual artists, playwrights, and students who infuse this old form with diverse new content and bold variations in technique.

Ballard Institute galleries closed 2/13-2/22 (Museum still open!)

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From February 13 through February 22, 2017, Ballard Institute staff will be deinstalling our current exhibitions Frank Ballard’s Marionette Modernism: ‘Peer Gynt’ and ‘The Love for Three Oranges’ and Object, Image, Text: The Bread & Puppet Press and installing our new exhibition Banners and Cranks: Paintings and Scrolls in Performance.  While the main galleries at the Ballard Institute will be closed during this process, the museum will remain open during normal business hours, and our exhibit titled The World of Puppetry: From the Collections of the Ballard Institute will be on display in the lobby.

We  invite you to join us for the grand opening of Banners and Cranks: Paintings and Scrolls in Performance on Thursday, February 23 at 5:00 p.m.  at the Ballard Institute. The opening events will include a free tour by exhibit curator Clare Dolan and live performances of crankies and cantastorias by the curator, as well as by Great Small Works theater company.

“The Business of Puppetry,” a Spring Puppet Forum on 2/8 at 7 p.m.

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As part of the 2017 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present a discussion with professionals in the puppetry field entitled The Business of Puppetry on Wednesday, February 8, 2017 at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

What combinations of artistry, entrepreneurship, and management are needed for success in 21st-century puppetry? Join Roxie Myhrum, Artistic Director of Puppet Showplace Theater; acclaimed Boston-area puppeteer and dancer Bonnie Duncan; and New York City puppet designer, builder and performer Matt Acheson for an incisive discussion about how to make a living in the arts today.

BusinessofPuppetryHeadshots

Matt Acheson is a puppet and theater artist living in Brooklyn. Matt was the Resident Puppetry Director for Warhorse at Lincoln Center Theater and Associate Puppetry Director for the Warhorse North American tour. Matt has designed, built, and directed puppets for productions including Radio City’s Spring Spectacular and Sarah Ruhl’s play The Oldest Boy. In 2015, Matt and UConn Puppet Arts Program Adjunct Professor Fergus J. Walsh founded AchesonWalsh Studios. Most recently, they designed and fabricated a Tyrannosaurs Rex for On The Town, and masks for the 2015 revival of The King and I at Lincoln Center Theater. Currently, Matt is directing and curating the annual St. Ann’s Warehouse Puppet Lab with Krissy Smith.

Bonnie Duncan has blended puppetry, dance, and physical theatre in surprising and delightful ways for the past 16 years. She currently heads up The Gottabees, making super-fun theater for families. She tours two shows for families (Squirrel Stole My Underpants & Lollipops for Breakfast) that are selling out theaters and inspiring homemade puppet shows throughout the U.S. and abroad. She also creates small shows for adult audiences. Prior to her work with The Gottabees, Bonnie was a company member of Snappy Dance Theater for eight years, performing sculptural, acrobatic dances internationally.

Roxanna Myhrum is the Artistic Director of Puppet Showplace Theater, where she has produced and directed hundreds of puppetry events, from Boston’s annual First Night Puppetry Festival to the site-specific Halloween attraction The Midnight Zoo. She is a sought-after puppetry coach and director in Greater Boston. Roxanna has taught puppetry to students of all ages and has been a guest teaching artist at several colleges and universities. Roxanna recently completed a term on the Puppeteers of America Board of Trustees and was part of the Artistic Committee for the 2015 National Puppetry Festival at UConn.
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. Forums will be broadcast via Facebook Live. Visit bimp.uconn.edu or call 860-486-8580 for more information.

Grand Opening of “Banners and Cranks: Paintings and Scrolls in Performance” on 2/23 at 5 p.m.

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present the grand opening of its new exhibition Banners and Cranks: Paintings and Scrolls in Performance on Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 5:00 p.m., with refreshments served at 5:00 p.m. and a free tour and performances from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. All events will take place at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

Banners and Cranks: Paintings and Scrolls in Performance will feature a global array of traditional and contemporary cantastorias and crankies—forms of sung picture story-telling that trace their origins to 6th-century India. Paintings mounted on sticks, flipped over and revealed, or unfurled on scrolls and moved by means of a crank, these performing objects were precursors to the popular puppet traditions of many countries. Today, even as advanced electronic technology becomes more and more integral to popular media and culture, a new dynamic engagement with the simple mechanical cranky and cantastoria has blossomed among contemporary artists, activists, puppeteers and musicians, who infuse this old form with diverse new content and bold variations in technique. Curated by puppeteer Clare Dolan, the director of Vermont’s Museum of Everyday Life, Banners and Cranks features a multitude of picture performance works from new young puppet theater companies, activist educators, folk musicians, visual artists, playwrights, and students, as well as historical examples of the form from Europe and Asia. The opening events will feature a tour led by Clare Dolan, and live performances of crankies and cantastorias by the curator, as well as by Great Small Works theater company.

As part of our Spring Puppet Forum Series, on Wednesday, April 12 at 7:00 p.m. Banners and Cranks curator Clare Dolan, and Puerto-Rico-based puppeteer, author, and visual artist Dave Buchen talk about the old-and-new international painting and performance medium they have nurtured since the first Banners and Cranks festival in 2010. Free admission, donations greatly appreciated.

In connection with the exhibition, a Banners and Cranks Mini-Festival will present cranky and cantastoria performances created by puppeteers, musicians, and artists from throughout the Northeast on Friday and Saturday, April 14-15. Friday evening performances, starting at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, will feature productions geared for adult audiences; Saturday afternoon performances, starting at 2 p.m., are geared for family audiences. Ticket prices for each day: Adults: $12; Members/Seniors $10; Students: $8; Kids: $6 (12 years and under). Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Ballard Institute, by calling 860.486.8580, or online at http://bimp.ticketleap.com/. A surcharge will be added to any purchases made online. There will be open seating and no reservations.

2017 Spring Puppet Forum Series

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For its 2017 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host four free scintillating discussions with puppeteers, animators, designers, producers, and writers on Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. in February through April at in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center. The Spring Puppet Forum schedule will include the following talks:

BusinessOfPuppetryImageFebruary 8: The Business of Puppetry with Bonnie Duncan, Roxie Myhrum, and Matt Acheson

What combinations of artistry, entrepreneurship, and management are needed for success in 21st-century puppetry? Join Roxie Myhrum, Artistic Director of Puppet Showplace Theater; acclaimed Boston-area puppeteer and dancer Bonnie Duncan; and New York City puppet designer, builder and performer Matt Acheson for an incisive discussion about how to make a living in the arts today.

Bannon_Little_Bob_CURESIVEDMarch 8: Puppetry and Animation with Michael Bannon

Stop-motion animation artist Michael Bannon’s Wreckless Abandon Studios has produced and directed award-winning commercials for scores of companies across the United States, as well as the famous “Little Bob” spokespuppet for Connecticut-based Bob’s Discount Furniture. Hear Michael explain the dynamics and opportunities of contemporary visual storytelling with the arts of stop-motion puppet animation.

BruceKennett1200March 29: W.A. Dwiggins: Puppetry and Graphic Design with Bruce Kennett

While William Addison Dwiggins (1880-1956) has long been recognized in American puppetry as a singularly innovative early 20th-century modernist, he had an equally influential career as an illustrator, type designer, calligrapher, and book designer. Join Bruce Kennett, author of a forthcoming monograph on Dwiggins, in a fascinating and enlightening discussion of this unique polymath of visual design.

Dolly Wagglers2April 12: Banners and Cranks with Clare Dolan and Dave Buchen

In conjunction with the concurrent Banners and Cranks exhibition at the Ballard Institute, curator Clare Dolan, puppeteer and director of Vermont’s Museum of Everyday Life; and Puerto-Rico based puppeteer, author, and visual artist Dave Buchen talk about the old-and-new international painting and performance medium they have nurtured since the first Banners and Cranks festival in 2010.

Admission to these events 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. Forums will be broadcast via Facebook Live. Visit bimp.uconn.edu or call 860-486-8580 for more information.