As part of its Fall Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host four forum events on Wednesdays in September through December at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

The Fall Puppet Forum schedule includes:

September 23: Margarita Blush: “Unfolding the Story”

Join Puppet Arts Program Assistant Professor Margarita Blush in a discussion about the creation of her new international production Unfolding, which is being presented at the Ballard Institute September 18-20 and 25-27. For this original puppet production a diverse group of artists have come together to create a work delving into the themes of women’s wisdom and empowerment. The show features hand-crafted puppets, live acting, unique design, and original music.

October 28: Professor Sumarsam: “Javanese Puppet Theater and the West”

Javanase musician and scholar Sumarsam of Wesleyan University talks about the hybrid nature of Javanese wayang kulit shadow theater in the context of his fascinating new book, Javanese Gamelan and the West. Professor Sumarsam’s work analyzes the adaptations in gamelan art as a result of Western colonialism in nineteenth-century Java, showing how Western musical and dramatic practices were domesticated by Javanese performers to create hybrid Javanese-Western art forms, such as with the introduction of brass bands in traditional court music and western theatrical idioms in contemporary wayang puppet plays.

November 18: Tim Hunter, Samantha Olschan, and Honey Goodenough: “Puppetry and Digital Performance in Boston Hospitals”

Join us in a discussion of the exciting contemporary intersections of puppetry, digital performance, and medicine as we focus on two projects currently underway at Boston Children’s Hospital: the Interactive Media Wall designed by Professors Tim Hunter, Samanthan Olschan, and others in UConn’s Digital Media & Design Department, and the work puppeteer Honey Goodenough has been doing with the hospital’s Simulator Program.

December 2: Ines Zeller Bass and Eric Bass: “Sandglass Theater, from Thought to Image”

In conjunction with their retrospective exhibition at the Ballard Institute, Eric and Ines Zeller Bass describe their creation process with multiple collaborators over the past thirty years of Sandglass Theater productions. Marking the trajectory of this famed Vermont puppet company, Eric and Ines will trace Sandglass’ development from more dreamlike pieces to characters and themes strongly rooted in a more recognizable Vermont world, even as the puppets themselves remain metaphorical.

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. This forum will also be live-streamed on our UStream page: http://ustre.am/15REP.

 

 

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host its Fall Puppet Performance Series on four Saturdays from October to December 2015, featuring outstanding works for puppet theater by professional puppeteers from the Northeast. There will be two showings of each production, at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m., in the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center. Productions and dates include:

October 3: “Cripps Puppets: A Slice of Crazy Pie in 7 to 11 Acts” by Madison J. Cripps Join Madison and his cabaret style marionettes in this zany interactive show fun for the whole family. Each hand-carved marionette is a character unto itself! With original songs, harmonica and creative puns.

 

October 24: “Spooky-Silly Sing-A-Long” by Nappy’s Puppets Join in the fun as Jim Napolitano of Nappy’s Puppets presents some of the silliest sing-a-long songs known to man and monster alike!

 

 

November 14: “Isidor’s Cheek” by Sandglass Theater The award-winning classic performed by Ines Zeller Bass on a revolving stage. One day, Isidor’s cheek runs away, and he must search around the world to find it.

 

 

December 5: “Lollipops for Breakfast” by Bonnie Duncan A marvelous confection of friendship, invention, and adventure! You can’t have lollipops for breakfast! But today, Sylvie decides she’s going to break that rule, even if it means she has to make her own amazingly perfect lollipop from scratch. The show concludes with an interactive kids’ dance party!

Ticket Prices: Adults: $10; Students: $7; Kids: $5

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 through the CRT website. 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 days of performances. There will be a limited number of seats. For more information about these shows, visit bimp.uconn.edu or call (860) 486-8580.

Margarita Blush and the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry present

“Unfolding”

An original puppet theatre production

Friday, September 18, 7:30pm: Opening and Reception

Saturday, September 19, 7:30pm: Show; 9pm: Talkback

Sunday, September 20, 5pm: Show

Friday, September 25, 7:30pm: Show

Saturday, September 26, 7:30pm: Show; 9pm: Talkback

Sunday, September 27, 2pm: Show

Ticket Prices:

Adults: $15, Students: $10

Tickets can be purchased with CASH ONLY at the Ballard Institute one hour before the performances.

Recommended for audiences ages 10 and up

Unfolding is a new international project in which a diverse group of artists come together to create an original puppet theatre production delving into the themes of women’s wisdom and empowerment.

The show features hand-crafted puppets, live acting, unique design, and original music.

The international creative team for Unfolding is comprised of Bulgarian-American director and project lead Margarita Blush (who is also faculty at the UConn Puppet Arts Program), Bulgarian scenographer Dimitar Dimitrov, American performers Lucia Rich, Ceili Clemens, and Sarah Nolen, Iranian-American composer and musician Amir Khosrowpour, American lighting designer Adam Lobelson, and American dramaturg Lindsay Cummings.

Tickets can be purchased with CASH ONLY at the Ballard Institute one hour before the performances. For more information contact the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at bimp@uconn.edu or 860-486-8580.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at Storrs Center will present an exciting evening program of three family-friendly works for paper theater–also known as toy theater–on Thursday, September 3 at 7:30 p.m.  This travelling paper theater mini-festival features puppeteers from Mexico City’s Facto Teatro, Berlin-based graphic artist and puppeteer Barbara Steinetz, and John Bell and Trudi Cohen of New York City’s Great Small Works company.  Tickets for these family-friendly performances are $12.

The program of international paper theater performances includes three shows. Facto Teatro’s Don Chico with Wings is a funny tale of a man who decides he needs to fly. Based on a story by Mexican writer Eraclio Zepeda, it speaks of ingenuity, creativity, surrealism and human adventure and shows that, for some, the sky is the limit. Trudi Cohen and Ballard Institute director John Bell will perform Living Newspaper, Episode Two: Sidewalk Ballet, in which Jane Jacobs, Robert Moses and a burning bush battle over the right to public space. And Facto Teatro teams up with Barbara Steinitz for Duraznos Azules (Blue Peaches), a story about a boy who wants to find out why the peach tree in his grandmother’s garden is producing blue peaches.

Paper Theater, also known as Toy Theater, is a unique form of puppetry.  Flat paper figures evoke grand worlds, as they did centuries ago in the living rooms of European homes. Through international Toy Theater Festivals in New York and Mexico City, performances around the world, and workshops for people of all ages and persuasions, Great Small Works and Facto Teatro have been responsible for a resurgence of interest in this accessible, inexpensive form. The grandest of tales with the simplest of means! And—you can do it yourself!

Tickets for this program of International Paper Theater Performances can be purchased with cash only at the Ballard Institute one hour before the performances. For more information contact Emily Wicks at bimp@uconn.edu or 860-486-8585.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will once again offer fall community puppet-building workshops with acclaimed Boston puppeteer Sara Peattie, to design and build life-size and over-life-size puppets for the Celebrate Mansfield Parade in downtown Storrs, Connecticut. These free workshops will take place Saturday and Sunday, September 12 and 13 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day at the Ballard Institute workshop space in Storrs Center. Workshop participants will be invited to parade with their puppets as part of the Celebrate Mansfield Parade on Sunday, September 20 at noon (Line-up begins at 11:00 AM at Farrell Field near the Post Office). The Parade is a part of the 12th Annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival.

This year’s puppet-building workshops will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by designing and creating puppets based on the colorful and fantastic figures that populate Carroll’s fanciful world: the White Rabbit, the Red Queen, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, and Alice herself–which character would you like to create?

Sara Peattie’s dramatic puppet creations have been central features of community parades and pageants across the United States. Long a mainstay of Boston First Night festivities and the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in New York City, Sara Peattie’s work–through her Boston-based Puppeteers Cooperative company and Puppet Free Library–combines community participation; simple, cheap, and practical puppet-building techniques; and a brilliant design sense to allow community members of all ages to take part in the age-old pleasures of participatory puppet performance in public spaces. Sara recently designed and directed the community puppet parade and pageant in Storrs Center as part of the 2015 Puppeteers of America National Puppetry Festival.

To participate in these free community puppet-building workshops with Sara Peattie, register by contacting the Ballard Institute at bimp@uconn.edu or 860 486 8580.

This community puppet project is sponsored by the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut and Mansfield Downtown Partnership, Inc.

12th Annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival

Sunday, September 20 On the Mansfield Town Square

Info: http://www.downtownstorrsfestival.org

 

 

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry presents a one-day toy theater workshop for all ages led by Toy Theater Professor Dr. John Bell on April 25 from 1-5 p.m. Create the grandest of tales with the simplest of means!

Toy theater is the 200-year-old invention of flat, cut-out, table-top puppet shows that kids, adults, and families can create and perform by themselves. Recently re-discovered by artists, performers, and puppeteers as a brilliant means of creating do-it-yourself or professional puppet shows, toy theater has experienced a glorious 21st-century revival.

Join us at the Ballard Institute for this public workshop in toy theater creation, building, and performance. Learn about the history and construction of toy theater stages and puppets, and then create your own personal story – in a box!

Workshop cost: $15/person

There is a limited number of seats, so pre-registration is required. Please contact Emily Wicks, Ballard Institute Program Assistant, at emily.wicks@uconn.edu or 860.486.8585 to register.