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A Conference Celebrating the Contributions of Dr. John Bell on 10/18!

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The Ballard Institute is pleased to host Annals of Object Performance: A Conference Celebrating the Contributions of Dr. John Bell on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1  Royce Circle, Storrs, CT, and online via Zoom.

This hybrid international conference celebrates Dr. John Bell’s remarkable contributions to puppetry. Throughout his career, Bell has shaped the field through museum curation, academic scholarship, and community-based performance. Conference presentations by North American and European artists and scholars will highlight Bell’s influential research and productions, culminating in a keynote where he reflects on his decades of performance, curatorship, and scholarship. Together, we’ll honor his legacy and envision a flourishing future for puppetry.  

This conference is free to attend in-person or virtually, but registration is required. Events with an asterisk can only be attended in person. The listing below denotes which panels will be in-person or hybrid.

9:00–9:15 AM: Arrival & Registration 

9:15–9:30 AM: Opening Remarks (in-person speakers)

9:30–10:45 AM: Session 1: Puppetry Research and Practice (hybrid speakers)

11:00 AM–12:15 PM: Session 2: Exhibiting Puppets (hybrid speakers) 

1:15–2:15 PM: Session 3: Puppet Modernism (hybrid speakers)

2:45–3:30 PM: Making Meaning in Puppetry Book Launch (in-person speakers)

3:45–4 PM: Toy Theatre Performance by Felicia Cooper (in-person performer)

4:15–5 PM: Annals of John Bell (in-person speakers)

5–5:30 PM: John Bell Keynote (in-person speaker)

5:30–6 PM: Great Small Works Performance

6:00–8:00 PM: Celebration! *

To learn more about the speakers and schedule and to register to attend in person or virtually, visit https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/bimp-0/john-bell.

This event is co-sponsored by the UConn Humanities Institute. For more information or if you require accommodation to attend a forum, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860.486.8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

2025 UConn Fall Puppet Slam on 10/24

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[Caption: The 2025 UConn Fall Puppet Slam on 10/24 will feature UConn Puppet Arts alumni (left to right), Mark Blashford, Sarah Frechette (photo by Briana Jones), and Anatar M. Gagné, in addition to works by current Puppet Arts students.]

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2025 UConn Fall Puppet Slam on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025 at 8 p.m. in UConn’s Nafe Katter Theatre, located at 820 Bolton Rd, Storrs, Conn. 06269. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam will feature experimental short works by professional puppeteers and performers, including UConn Puppet Arts alumni Mark Blashford, Sarah Frechette, and Anatar M. Gagné, as well as new works by UConn Puppet Arts students. Mansfield’s Waldron’s Studios 88 will return once more as the Puppet Slam house band.

In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the UConn Puppet Arts Program, the 2025 UConn Fall Puppet Slam will welcome back three alumni: Mark Blashford, Sarah Frechette, and Anatar Marmol Gagné. Mark Blashford will perform Home, where a string puppet paints, from his heart, the place he longs to be. In Out of the Darnkess, Sarah Frechette embeds deep emotion into every curve of her hand-carved figure and sorrowful silhouettes. Enhanced with heartfelt, hand-cut shadow projections, this piece becomes a moving portrait of sensitivity, grief and grace. Anatar M. Gagné’s (Pinned & Sewtured) Widow Bunny started as a photography documentation of her grieving process after she lost her husband unexpectedly last year. She is now transforming it into a puppet theatre production and will premiere an excerpt at the slam. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam also features new works by graduate and undergraduate students from the UConn Puppet Arts Program. Funding for the slam is made possible, in part, by the Puppet Slam Network. These performances are recommended for mature audiences.

The UConn Fall Puppet Slam is free and open to the public; donations are greatly appreciated. Seating is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. The event will take place in UConn’s Nafe Katter Theatre, located at 820 Bolton Rd, Storrs, Conn. 06269 (directions here). For more information about these performances or if you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860-486-8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

UConn Puppet Arts Alumni Puppet Forum on 10/1

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As part of its 2025 Fall Puppet Forum Series and in conjunction with its exhibition Art, Movement, Imagination: 60 Years of UConn Puppeteers, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is pleased to host an Alumni Puppet Forum on Wednesday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, CT.

 In honor of the 60th anniversary of the UConn Puppet Arts program, this lively discussion, led by Ballard Institute Director John Bell, will feature alumni Frankie Cordero (BFA 2004), Joe Therrien (MFA 2017), and Megan and John Regan (BFA 2005) to explore UConn’s internationally acclaimed puppetry program and the fascinating work that UConn puppeteers create after graduation This forum will also be broadcast via Ballard Institute Facebook Live.

Chicago native Frankie Cordero is an Emmy-nominated puppeteer, puppet builder, and director for live and television puppetry, best known for his roles as Purple Panda and Turtle-Lou on Spiffy Pictures’ Donkey Hodie, as Rudy on Sesame Street, and in theater productions with such companies as Phantom Limb, Blair Thomas & Co., and Walking with Dinosaurs. He also teaches television-style puppetry in the Chicago area.  

Joe Therrien builds, directs, and performs in puppet shows throughout the Northeast, working with groups including Bread and Puppet Theater, Great Small Works, Papel Machete, and Al Limite, among others. He is a founding member of the Brooklyn-based Boxcutter Collective. In 2011, he founded the People’s Puppets of Occupy Wall Street, a democratic art collective which created street performance, puppets, and visual art for various grassroots and community organizations in New York City and the surrounding area. 

Megan and John Regan created CactusHead Puppets in 2010 after they both graduated from the UConn Puppet Arts program. Since then, they have created several fun family shows, often based on favorite folktales, and have toured throughout the Northeast. CactusHead Puppets also hosted the Paper City Puppet Slam in Holyoke, MA for several years. They are affiliated artists with Boston’s Puppet Showplace Theater.

Admission to this event is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. For more information or if you require accommodation to attend a forum, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860.486.8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

“Not My Grandmother’s Daughter” by Harley Brooke Walker on 7/24

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut presents a special performance of Not My Grandmother’s Daughter by UConn Puppet Arts MFA candidate Harley Brooke Walker on Thursday, July 24 at 7 p.m. The show will take place at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. This will be a preview presentation before their run at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August.  

Not My Grandmother’s Daughter is a newly revised work that explores the relationship a young woman has with her mother through the relationship she has with her grandmother. She interconnects the history of their hands through generations with the help of shadow, sound, and paper mâché. A love letter through time. The runtime of the show is approximately 45 minutes. Recommended for ages 15+.  

This will be a free performance with no reservation required. Donations to the museum are greatly appreciated! Doors will open at 6:45 p.m. Visitors can park in the Downtown Storrs Garage located at 33 Royce Circle. For more information, or if you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860.486.8580 or bimp@uconn.edu. 

“The Little Red Hen” by WonderSpark Puppets on 7/26 at 11 a.m.

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As part of the 2025 Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series, WonderSpark Puppets will perform The Little Red Hen on July 26 in Betsy Paterson Square. Photo by Jane Kratochvil.

As part of its 2025 Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is pleased to present The Little Red Hen by New York City’s WonderSpark Puppets on July 26 at 11 a.m. in Betsy Paterson Square in Downtown Storrs.

WonderSpark company member (and UConn Puppet Arts program alumna) Julia Darden presents the classic story of a Hen who needs YOUR help to make some bread. The Little Red Hen is an interactive tabletop puppet show that gets kids moving their bodies, calling out and laughing. Every animal on the farm wants to eat the Hen’s bread, but no one wants to help make it. The audience learns the benefits of helping and teamwork while exercising and singing along!

WonderSpark Puppets is a New York City-based puppet theater company led by Chad Williams and UConn Puppet Arts Program alumna Z Briggs. The company’s mission is to spread joy, spark imagination, and share laughter through high-quality puppet performances. They have partnered with NYC Public Schools, the New York Public Library, and such companies as CAMP and Bed Bath & Beyond, and have toured original productions and puppetry workshops internationally to festivals in Thailand and Taiwan.

Reservations are not required. Chairs will not be provided, and audience members are encouraged to bring their own blankets and seating. Seating space will be first come, first served. In case of rain, the shows will take place in the Ballard Institute Theater at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. For more information about the show, visit bimp.uconn.edu/2024/06/17/cookie-jar/.

The Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series is co-sponsored by the Mansfield Downtown Partnership and supported by a generous gift from Phillip Mairorana in memory of his wife Theresa Mairorana and donations by Ballard Institute supporters to UConn Gives.

For more information, or if you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860.486.8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

“Whale Tales” by Talking Hands Theatre on 8/2 at 11 a.m.

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Caption: As part of the 2025 Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series, Anna Sobel of Talking Hands Theatre will perform Whale Tales in Betsy Paterson Square on Aug. 2. Photo credit: Talking Hands Theatre.

As part of its 2025 Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is pleased to present Whale Tales by Talking Hands Theatre on Aug. 2 at 11 a.m., outdoors in Betsy Paterson Square in Downtown Storrs.

It’s the aquarium that comes to you! As part of this musical puppet show the audience will meet a bevy of creatures that live in the sea, including a walrus, a seahorse, a giant beluga whale, a horseshoe crab, and many more. The show features whimsical songs by acclaimed children’s musician Brent Holmes.

Talking Hands Theatre was founded in 2004 by artist Anna Sobel, who has been a professional puppeteer since 1998. In 2003 she was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to study puppetry in India as a tool for social change and education. She is now based in Western Massachusetts and performs all over New England.

Reservations are not required. Chairs will not be provided, and audience members are encouraged to bring their own blankets and seating. Seating space will be first come, first served. In case of rain, the shows will take place in the Ballard Institute Theater at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

The Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series is co-sponsored by the Mansfield Downtown Partnership and supported by a generous gift from Phillip Mairorana in memory of his wife Theresa Mairorana and donations by Ballard Institute supporters to UConn Gives.

For more information, or if you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860.486.8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

“An Hour of Clown” on 7/12 at 11 a.m.

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Caption: To kick off the 2025 Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series, Anthony Sellitto-Budney will perform An Hour of Clown by BreakFAST Puppets on July 12 in Betsy Paterson Square. Photo credit: BreakFAST Puppets.

As part of its 2025 Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is pleased to present An Hour of Clown by BreakFAST Puppets on July 12 at 11 a.m. outdoors in Betsy Paterson Square in Downtown Storrs.

In this fun-filled production created and performed by UConn Puppet Arts alum Anthony Sellitto-Budney, join Hour the Clown, who carries their life on their back but keeps encountering hilarious problems and mishaps. Enjoy a variety of stunts, tricks, juggling, and puppetry in this funny, nonverbal, and interactive clown show. Recommended for all ages.

Founder and Co-Artistic Director of BreakFAST Puppets Anthony Sellitto-Budney (they/them) is a graduate of the UConn Puppet Arts BFA Program, and a prolific puppeteer currently touring across the United States to great acclaim. Their approach to art and life often overlaps artistically and scientifically, using concepts from both fields of study. Sellitto-Budney is constantly creating, performing, and devising new work for both children and adults.

Reservations are not required. Chairs will not be provided, and audience members are encouraged to bring their own blankets and seating. Seating space will be first come, first served. In case of rain, the shows will take place in the Ballard Institute Theater at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

The Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series is co-sponsored by the Mansfield Downtown Partnership and supported by a generous gift from Phillip Mairorana in memory of his wife Theresa Mairorana and donations by Ballard Institute supporters to UConn Gives.

For more information, or if you require accommodation to attend this event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860.486.8580 or bimp@uconn.edu.

2025 Summer Puppet Show Series

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[The Ballard Institute will present three shows on Saturdays in July and August, including (left to right): July 12: An Hour of Clown by BreakFAST Puppets (photo credit: BreakFAST Puppets); July 26: The Little Red Hen by WonderSpark Puppets (photo credit: Jane Kratochvil); August 2: Whale Tales by Talking Hands Theatre (photo credit: Talking Hands Theatre)].
The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is excited to present its 2025 Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series with free, outdoor, family-friendly puppet shows on three Saturdays in July and August at 11 a.m. on Betsy Paterson Square in Downtown Storrs.

July 12: An Hour of Clown by BreakFAST Puppets In this fun-filled production created and performed by Anthony Sellitto-Budney, join who carries their life on their back but keeps encountering hilarious problems and mishaps. Enjoy a variety of stunts, tricks, juggling, and puppetry in this funny, nonverbal, and interactive clown show.

July 26: The Little Red Hen by WonderSpark Puppets Julia Darden of New York City-based WonderSpark Puppets performs the classic story of a Hen who needs YOUR help to make some bread. The Little Red Hen is an interactive tabletop puppet show that gets kids moving their bodies, calling out and laughing. Every animal on the farm wants to eat the Hen’s bread, but no one wants to help make it. The audience learns the benefits of helping and teamwork while exercising and singing along!

August 2: Whale Tales by Talking Hands Theatre In Massachusetts-based Talking Hands Theatre’s Whale Tales it’s the aquarium that comes to you! As part of Anna Sobel’s musical puppet show you’ll meet a bevy of creatures that live in the sea, including a walrus, a seahorse, a giant beluga whale, and many more.

Reservations are not required. Chairs will not be provided, and audience members are encouraged to bring their own blankets and seating. Seating space will be first come, first served. In case of rain, the shows will take place in the Ballard Institute Theater at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

The Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series is co-sponsored by the Mansfield Downtown Partnership and supported by a generous gift from Phillip Mairorana in memory of his wife Theresa Mairorana, and by UConn Gives donations by Ballard Institute supporters. 

Grand Opening of Art, Movement, Imagination: 60 Years of UConn Puppeteers on 5/31

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UConn Puppet Arts alumnus Jim Napolitano performing a shadow puppet show at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center. Photo by Richard Termine.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will present the grand opening of its new exhibition Art, Movement, Imagination: ​60 Years of UConn Puppeteers on Saturday, May 31, with refreshments served at 4 p.m. and an in-person exhibition tour at 4:30 p.m. by curators Matthew Sorensen and Dr. John Bell, with Puppet Arts Program head Bart Roccoberton. The tour will also be streamed on Ballard Institute’s Facebook Live feature (facebook.com/BallardInstitute). All events will take place at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

In conjunction with the 60th anniversary of UConn’s internationally acclaimed Puppet Arts program in 2025-2026, the Ballard Institute will celebrate the talents of scores of UConn Puppet Arts alumni who have graduated from the program over the past 60 years, and the diversity of their creations since their time at UConn. Art, Movement, Imagination will highlight over 50 puppeteer alumni and their work in design, building, live performance, film, television, education, and innovative technologies. It will feature a rich array of hand puppets, rod puppets, shadow puppets, toy theater, giant puppets, video, and photographs.

The exhibition opening is free (donations greatly appreciated), and reservations are not required.

The museum will be closed through May 31 while the new exhibition is installed. After the opening, the Ballard Institute will be open Wednesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. There is no set admission, but visitors are encouraged to pay as they wish. Learn more at bimp.uconn.edu.