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 The Wonderful World of Wonder by UConn Puppet Arts MFA student Gavin Cummins and Philadelphia-based artist and musician Gwendolyn Rooker on Saturday, July 16 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., at the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, CT.

The Wonderful World of Wonder bridges the gap between the weird and wonderful. Join the water bear on its MacGuffin-fueled international game of hide and seek! Experience a crustacean’s unseeable art gallery by the lake on the bottom of the ocean! Discover how a corpse flower finds love! This show is guaranteed to be educational and entertaining!

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.

Upcoming Summertime Saturday Puppet Shows by UConn Puppet Arts students include:

July 23 – Victoria’s Not So Bedtime Story by Krista Weltner and Shane McNeal: Two sisters, Victoria and Margaret, don’t always get along, but when the goal is avoiding bedtime, there is no end to what this dynamic duo will do. Come watch several stories unfold, including The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, The Clockmaker and the Elves, and The House That Jack Built.

July 30 – Luminary by Ana Crăciun-Lambru: Luminary is the tale of a second chance! When humankind takes the world for granted, Raven, its supreme creator, hides the Sun. His daughter, Little Darkness, sets on a quest to bring back the light to the world. Join a rogue storyteller on a journey of light and shadow, found objects and empowering adventures!

August 6 – Superheroes, Villains, and Spaceships, Oh My!–The Return by Anatar Marmol-Gagné and Zach Broome: Anatar Marmol-Gagné & Zach Broome bring you a fantastical tale of intergalactic battles between good and evil.

Admission is $6 for children (12 years and under), $8 for adults.

Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, by phone at 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 a limited number of seats. For more information about these performances, visit bimp.uconn.edu or call 860.486.8580.

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.

Jacks in the Box is a one-man puppet show starring the Appalachian folk hero Jack. Two suitcases and an old steamer trunk provide the backdrop for three distinct Jack tales featuring different styles of puppetry. This show for all ages offers a unique opportunity for an audience to be a part of the development process of Blashford’s Master of Fine Arts’ project in puppetry, Jack and Jill, which will use elements of this show and premiere in April 2017.

Upcoming Summertime Saturday Puppet Shows by UConn Puppet Arts students include:

July 16 – The Wonderful World of Wonder by Gavin Cummins: Discover the world of creatures impossible to see, yet who live in this blue marble we call earth. Sea crabs, corpse flowers, and water bears, oh my!

July 23 – Victoria’s Not So Bedtime Story by Krista Weltner and Shane McNeal: Two sisters, Victoria and Margaret, don’t always get along, but when the goal is avoiding bedtime, there is no end to what this dynamic duo will do. Come watch several stories unfold, including The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, The Clockmaker and the Elves, and The House That Jack Built.

July 30 – Luminary by Ana Crăciun-Lambru: Luminary is the tale of a second chance! When humankind takes the world for granted, Raven, its supreme creator, hides the Sun. His daughter, Little Darkness, sets on a quest to bring back the light to the world. Join a rogue storyteller on a journey of light and shadow, found objects and empowering adventures!

August 6 – Superheroes, Villains, and Spaceships, Oh My!–The Return by Anatar Marmol-Gagné and Zach Broome: Anatar Marmol-Gagné & Zach Broome bring you a fantastical tale of intergalactic battles between good and evil.

Admission is $6 for children (12 years and under), $8 for adults.

Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, by phone at 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 a limited number of seats. For more information about these performances, call 860.486.8580.

Meet Christopher Mullens, an MFA candidate in the Puppet Arts Program at University of Connecticut. Christopher is hard at work creating an original piece that will be showcased during the MFA Puppet Festival week in March.

Presenting ECHO, a multi-media immersive spectacle combining puppets, digital projection, and original music in a re-invention of the classic Greek tale of a mountain nymph who finds the true meaning of voice. Echo, an air nymph, can only repeat what other people say to her. “In my story,” Christopher says, “that’s the reason Narcissus rejects Echo.” Heartbroken, she runs into the mountains and fades away, leaving only her voice. Christopher seeks to explore the missing parts of the story, though, and discover what Echo means to us today. “She’s still very much here today in the modern world,” he says. “We’re showing why she’s so important.”

Pictured above is the digital media and design crew setting up five large projectors that will be used during the show. Before setting things up, I got to speak with Christopher about the show and why he decided to create this piece for his MFA project.

THERESE M (TM): What inspired this story?

CHRIS MULLENS (CM): Every artist–and I believe every human–has their voice and is searching for that. What is your voice? What does voice look like to someone who feels like they don’t have one? So many people in the world today don’t have a voice. They have something to say but have no way to express it. I’ve loved mythology since I was a child. I think it’s fascinating, the stories we tell and have told. And thinking about this idea of voice, Echo came to mind. Because here was a character from mythology that could only repeat what people said to her. That got me thinking–What type of voice did Echo have? Not only voice like the sound you hear, but how does she communicate? How did she make that connection with humanity? Did she just become an amazing mime and be able to act things out? What happened if she needed to communicate something much deeper like, “I love you Narcissus”? That just kind of got the ball rolling and we went from there.

TM: What does the term “creative process” mean to you? How did you use it for this production?

CM: Well, I love starting with story–I think that’s horribly important–and how that story is relative and relevant to humanity. How does it connect to us and how does it affect us? So I start with one of those questions and from there, I kind of just let my imagination roll. And then the playful side of the art form comes. I love taking long walks and just blocking, and imagining, and seeing what can be created. Echo is an air nymph in my story. But you can’t show air on stage. You can show objects being affected by air, and that turned into large pieces of fabric. She’s moving through the air and we can show this through the flow of fabric. I use that playful domino effect.

TM: So would you say this is the process you use every time you create pieces?

CM: Different every time. That’s the way it happened with this show. But every project is different and has to be approached differently. The puppets that work for this project are not going to work for the next. You definitely have your style, but each process is a universe in itself.

TM: So far, what has been the biggest challenge?

CM: The biggest challenge for this I think has been gathering the team. Everyone in this department and the university is extraordinarily busy. A project like this is not an easy one. Now we’re in rehearsal seven days a week. Colby Herschel is my composer. We needed to find someone who can sing, someone who can act. If we’re bringing in someone who’s primarily an actor, we have to teach those people how to manipulate a puppet. It’s been a lot of finding quadruple threats and having those take out a large chunk of time.

TM: Who are some of the biggest contributors, the people you’ve found you can absolutely count on? The people who’ve helped you the most?

CM: Oh Colby Herschel. He’s been a partner on this since its conception, he’s given this piece music. He’s made it sing. He’s arranged the string quartet that’s going to be backing us up. He’s just an amazing collaborator to work with. I couldn’t be more grateful to have him.

If you’re thinking about creating an artistic project of any caliber, Christopher says, “Let your imagination go wild, know what you want, don’t be afraid to ask for it, and be ready to collaborate.” Christopher’s conception of the show was limitless at first, and as time progressed, he found an amazing way to work with the materials and space he had been given. It’s important to dream big, and then find a way to fit your ideas into the real world. Christopher says he experienced modifications of his ideas, “because what I want doesn’t always work, let’s say, into physics. Gravity is something we have to think about. For example, I want this person to fly right now, but wait, gravity. Hmm…But parameters give you freedom sometimes, and it’s fun to be able to learn to play within the bookends you’re given.”

ECHO will be presented at the Ballard Institute Theater at the following dates and times:

Tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students and Connecticut Repertory Theatre subscribers. Tickets will be sold in advance through the Connecticut Repertory Theatre Box Office, located in the lobby of the Nafe Katter Theatre at 820 Bolton Rd, Storrs CT 06269. Tickets may be purchased in person at the Box Office, by calling (860) 486-2113, or online at https://itkt.choicecrm.net/templates/UCRT/index.php?prod=bimp. A $3.00 surcharge will be added to any purchases made online or over the phone. Tickets may be purchased at the Ballard Institute on the day of performance. There will be a limited number of seats. This show is recommended for ages 12 and up.

As part of its Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host three forum events on Wednesdays in February through April at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center. The Spring Puppet Forum schedule includes:

February 3: Roger Danforth, Playwriting for Puppet Theater

Noted director and dramaturg Roger Danforth, who also leads playwriting for puppetry workshops at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, will talk about the particular needs and possibilities playwrights face when writing for actors and objects

February 24: Alexander Gref and Elena Slonimskaya, Russian Puppet Theater

Join us in a discussion with two of Russia’s most dynamic puppeteers as they show us how the rich traditions of Russian vertep and Petrushka puppetry survive and flourish in contemporary performance and art therapy in the Russian Republic.

April 20: Laura Heit, The Puppetry and Animation of Laura Heit

In conjunction with her exhibition at the Ballard Institute—The Bureau of Small Requests—artist and professor Laura Heit (Northwest Pacific College of Art) will discuss her richly varied work in stop-motion film, live-action puppetry, drawing, and computer animation.

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. Visit bimp.uconn.edu for more information.