As part of its Moonlight Movies series, the Mansfield Downtown Partnership will offer a free screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Friday, July 29. Activities begin at 7 p.m. and the movie begins at dusk on the Mansfield Town Square.
The Ballard Institute will join in the fun with extended museum hours and a free guided tour at 7 p.m. of our current exhibits, The Bureau of Small Requests: Puppetry and Animation of Laura Heit and The World of Puppetry: From the Collections of the Ballard Institute. Bart. P. Roccoberton, Jr., Director of UConn’s Puppet Arts Program, will talk about the use of puppets in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in a special pre-film presentation entitled “Return of the Puppets” at the Ballard Institute. The discussion is free, open to the public, and begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater.
For more information about this event, visit https://www.downtownstorrs.org/calendar/.
Shane McNeal, a third-year MFA candidate in the UConn Puppet Arts Program and native of Bristol, CT has been interested in the art of puppetry for well over a decade. Coming from a background in early childhood education, McNeal has always enjoyed entertaining children of all ages with puppets and storytelling. Over the last two years, McNeal has acted as a puppeteer in several projects, including the children’s television pilot of Treeples and in Hartford’s annual performances of Night Fall and Envision Fest. More recently, he performed in ECHO, the UConn Puppet Arts MFA puppet production by Christopher D. Mullens; and assisted with creating, designing, and performing a puppet production with the Boston Pops in this May. McNeal also performed Canteen Tales: Quest for the Golden Spork as part of the 2016 Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series.
UConn Puppet Arts MFA candidate Krista Weltner was recently seen performing in a UConn Puppet Arts and Boston Pops collaboration called Puppets Take The Pops. She also completed a stop-motion animated short film entitled Partially Compensated, which she presented this past semester in partial completion of her MFA degree. Last summer she performed in Reverse Cascade at the Puppeteers of America National Puppetry Festival and the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center.
During his three years of study at UConn’s Puppet Arts Program, Gavin Cummins has worked as a Graduate Assistant at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. He is delighted to once again be part of the Summertime Saturday Puppet Show series, while also serving as technical assistant for the entire project. He has previously performed George and Martha and The Nature of Nature at the Ballard Institute. Gavin began puppeteering in Seattle, and has presented works as a puppet slam performer across the country, including at La Mama Theater, Puppet Showplace Theater, and the 2013 National Puppet Slam. He is the founder of the Salmagundi Puppet Cabaret at the Ballard Institute and the Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam in Seattle. In 2015 he was named an Emerging Artist at the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Gavin recently presented his MFA production Ok, Love You, Bye as part of the Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s MFA Puppet Arts Festival.
Gwendolyn Rooker is an actor, clown, writer, and musician who holds a Certificate of Training from the Dell‘Arte International School of Physical Theatre. As a volunteer for Clowns Without Borders, Gwen shares laughter with children whose communities are in crisis in Egypt, Sudan, Colombia, Kenya, Haiti, and the U.S. She has worked for Brat Productions as a puppeteer in Haunted Poe, as a sassy singer in Three Chord Fiction, and as Dagoo in Moby Dick Rehearsed. She is one of the Six Lady Dancers for singer Johnny Showcase, has appeared in Shakespeare in Clarke Park’s productions of Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
As part of its popular Summertime Saturday Puppet Shows for family audiences by UConn Puppet Arts students, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present Jacks in the Box by UConn Puppet Arts MFA student Mark Blashford on Saturday, July 9 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, CT.
As part of its popular Summertime Saturday Puppet Shows for family audiences by UConn Puppet Arts students, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will present Canteen Tales: Quest for the Golden Spork by UConn Puppet Arts MFA student and Connecticut native Shane McNeal on Saturday, July 2 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, CT.
uly 16 – The Wonderful World of Wonder by Gavin Cummins and Gwendolyn Rooker
July 30 – Luminary by Ana Crăciun-Lambru
August 6 – Superheroes, Villains, and Spaceships, Oh My!–The Return by Anatar Marmol-Gagné and Zach Broome