As part of the 2017Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present a discussion with puppeteers Clare Dolan and Dave Buchen titled Banners and Cranks on Wednesday, April 12, 2017 at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

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. In addition, Dolan and Buchen will perform in the Ballard Institute’s first-ever Banners and Cranks Mini-Festival on April 14 at 7 p.m. and April 15 at 2 p.m. Tickets for the festival are available at bimp.ticketleap.com.

Clare Dolan is a painter, director, and performer of cantastoria, toy theater, outdoor puppetry, and stilt dancing, while simultaneously living a secret double life as a nurse in her small Vermont town. She’s a veteran of the Bread and Puppet Theater, co-curator of Banners and Cranks (along with Dave Buchen), and Founder/Chief Operating Philosopher of The Museum of Everyday Life, a five-year-old museum experiment in Glover, Vermont, whose goal is to explore, analyze and celebrate everyday life objects.

Dave Buchen is an illustrator, performer, and musician who has lived in San Juan, Puerto Rico since the last century. He is the co-founder of Banners and Cranks. With Theater Oobleck, he has been the visual artist for the Baudelaire in a Box project, which is creating cantastorias from all of the poems of Les Fleurs du mal. With El Teatro Bárbaro, he creates cantastoria with his two children. His book projects include The Enciclopedia Deiknumena a multi-year project producing bilingual toy theater books. He also plays with La Banda Municipal de Makula Barun.

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. Visit bimp.uconn.edu or call 860-486-8580 for more information.

As part of its Spring Puppet Performance Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present Hansel and Gretel by the acclaimed National Marionette Theatre. Performances will take place on April 22, 2017 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

The story of Hansel and Gretel has captured the imagination of audiences for generations. In their newest production, National Marionette Theatre brings the most famous of the Grimm Brothers’ stories to life. Featuring exquisitely crafted marionettes, scrolling scenery and the beautiful music of Engelbert Humperdinck, Hansel and Gretel is sure to delight audiences of all ages!

National Marionette Theatre is one of the oldest continually running touring marionette theaters in the United States. Founded in 1967, this award-winning company has been entertaining and amazing audiences around the world for almost 50 years. David J. Syrotiak, son of the founder and artistic director of National Marionette Theatre, David Syrotiak, Sr., has dedicated his life to keeping the tradition of marionette performance alive in the United States and has been involved with every National Marionette Theatre production, including Aladdin, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, and many more. David’s son, Stephen A. Syrotiak, has been working behind the scenes with National Marionette Theatre since his early teenage years and made his performing debut in the summer of 2015. Since then he has become an indispensable member of the company.

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, and no reservations. For more information about these performances, visit bimp.uconn.edu or call 860.486.8580.

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 graphic designer and author Bruce Kennett titled W.A. Dwiggins: Puppetry and Graphic Design on Wednesday, March 29, 2017 at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

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, if not more, influential career as an illustrator, type designer, calligrapher, and book designer—activities he joined together when he invented the term “graphic design” in 1922. Join Bruce Kennett, author of a forthcoming monograph on Dwiggins, in a fascinating and enlightening discussion of this unique polymath of visual design.

Graphic designer, photographer, and teacher Bruce Kennett has lectured and written about W. A. Dwiggins since 1980. Bruce designs books and exhibition graphics, and makes large photomurals, for clients ranging from the Folger Shakespeare Library to L.L. Bean. His comprehensive biography of Dwiggins will be published this summer.

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.

Due to the forecasted winter weather, the Ballard Institute will be closed on Tuesday, March 14. Stay warm!

Due to forecasts of winter weather, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will be closed on Friday, 3/10.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is pleased to host 100 Birds, a new production written, directed, and designed by UConn Puppet Arts Program undergraduate student John Cody ’17 from April 7 to April 9 in the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry Theater located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

A magical and whimsical, if not slightly chaotic, group of birds have flocked to the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry! 100 Birds follows Jada Jones, captain of her middle school’s basketball team, who finds out that her school doesn’t have the money to get the team to their playoff game. The 100 Birds, an intergalactic troupe of feathered friends, come from outer space to help Jada after she wishes upon a shooting star for help. Using their skills as birds and their love of math, the avian crew bands together with Jada to host the biggest fundraiser ever and create the world’s largest pizza! But the nefarious Dr. Allundrious Pepper, who hates birds, is dead set on foiling their plans. Will Jada and the birds make it out alive, giblets and all? Speaking to his creative process, Cody explains “this fantastical, silly dose of positive entertainment came about in the middle of the night, which sounds far more dramatic than it actually was. I came up with the title of 100 Birds, and the next day I came up with three sentence stories that could serve this title … I have found this brainstorming method particularly effective, and it was through these short stories I wrote that the seed of the show’s story was planted.”

John Cody, along with fellow UConn Puppet Arts Program undergraduate student Katayoun Amir-Aslani ’18 weave together rod puppets, hand puppets, string puppets, and more into an experience that both adults and children will love, with a focus on comedy and positivity. “I think children are far smarter than adults give them credit, and I have developed 100 Birds with that in mind. 100 Birds is not a show that I am making for children, but rather is something that I, as a young adult, would like to see, with audiences young and old taken into account when it comes to the exact vocabulary of the show,” states Cody. This show is made possible by UConn’s IDEA Grant, which provides funding for independent projects by undergraduate students.

John Cody is a New York-based puppeteer who will be graduating with a BFA in Puppet Arts this May. Deciding he wanted to be a puppeteer before the age of five, John has since worked on many projects of all different kinds, from marionettes to hand puppets to giant character costumes. He has had the tremendous opportunity to learn and work alongside some of the folks behind The Muppets, Sesame Street, and Bear in the Big Blue House.

Performances of 100 Birds will take place in the Ballard Institute Theater according to the following schedule:

April 7             7:30 p.m.

April 8             2:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.

April 9             2:00 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.

Admission is free. Due to limited seating, tickets must be reserved at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, by calling 860-486-8580, or online at http://bimp.ticketleap.com/. This show is recommended for ages 6 and up. For more information about this production, visit bimp.uconn.edu or call 860-486-8580.

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.