The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will participate in the 13^th Annual Connecticut Open House Day – a unified celebration of the state’s fascinating world of art, history, and tourism – on June 10, 2017. During this one-day event, the Ballard Institute will offer free tours at 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. of its current exhibitions: The World of Puppetry: From the Collections of the Ballard Institute and Banners and Cranks: Paintings and Scrolls in Performance.

On Connecticut Open House Day, more than 200 other organizations and attractions throughout the state will open their doors and offer special incentives to visitors. This exciting statewide event, sponsored by the Connecticut Office of Tourism (COT), is designed to broaden awareness among residents of Connecticut’s exceptional cultural and tourism assets and encourage them to become ambassadors who share their newfound discoveries with visiting family and friends.

The Ballard Institute’s free tours at 1:00 and 3:00 p.m. will feature these current exhibitions:

• The World of Puppetry: From the Collections of the Ballard Institute showcases an array of different puppets carefully selected from the Ballard Institute collections to reflect the amazing richness of global puppet traditions and contemporary innovations in puppetry. The exhibition includes an array of hand puppets, marionettes, rod puppets, toy theaters, and shadow figures from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas, with particular attention to twentieth-century United States puppetry.
• Banners and Cranks: Paintings and Scrolls in Performance (Closing on June 11!): Cantastorias and crankies are forms of sung picture story-telling that trace their origins to sixth-century India. These paintings mounted on sticks, flipped over and revealed, or unfurled on scrolls and moved by means of a crank are performing object precursors to the popular puppet traditions of many countries. Despite the prominence of new technologies in popular culture, an innovative dynamic engagement with the simple mechanical cranky and cantastoria has blossomed among young puppet theater companies, activist educators, folk musicians, visual artists, playwrights, and students who infuse this old form with diverse new content and bold variations in technique.

To qualify for any Open House Day special, at least one person in each visiting group must show a valid Connecticut driver’s license. Connecticut Open House Day also includes opportunities to become a Connecticut Ambassador as part of COT’s Ambassador Program, an ongoing initiative designed to cultivate pride among residents in the state’s many diverse historic, arts, tourism and entertainment treasures. For more information about Connecticut Open House Day, visit www.CTvisit.com or call 1-888-CTvisit.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is open Tuesday-Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. 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. For more information about museum exhibitions or programming, visit bimp.uconn.edu or call 860.486.8580.

As part of its Spring Puppet Performance Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present The Legend of the Banana Kid by Maine’s Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers. Performances will take place on May 13, 2017 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

Little Chucky heads to the Wild West to outwit outlaws in this cowboy adventure! With a fistful of bananas, Chucky rides into town on his trusty goat for a showdown with Big Bad Bart and his gang of bandits. The Legend of the Banana Kid features 20 hand-crafted glove, mouth and rod puppets, and a slew of flying and twirling styrofoam bananas. The performance runs approximately 45 minutes in length and is recommended for children ages 4 and up.

Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers is a puppetry troupe based in Bar Harbor, Maine, and comprised of three siblings—brothers Erik and Brian Torbeck and sister Robin (Torbeck) Erlandsen. Founded in 2000, Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers has performed at festivals, schools, libraries and theaters in the United States and Canada. They write and create all the shows they perform and have received three Citations of Excellence from UNIMA-USA, the highest national award in puppetry.

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. 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. For more information about these performances, visit bimp.uconn.edu or call 860.486.8580.

The 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. performances of Hansel and Gretel by National Marionette Theatre on 4/22 are SOLD OUT. Get your tickets for The Legend of the Banana Kid by Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers on 5/13 in advance at bimp.ticketleap.com!

The Ballard Institute will be closed on Sunday, 4/16 for the Easter holiday.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is pleased to host the premiere of Jack & Jill by UConn Puppet Arts Program MFA candidate Mark Blashford with indoor performances at the Ballard Institute Theater and outdoor shows in the Betsy Paterson Square in downtown Storrs on April 29 and 30 and May 6 and 7.

Jack & Jill is a one-man puppet show featuring hand-carved, folk-toy-inspired puppets and live music. The show addresses water conservation and water rights in the tradition of the Appalachian Jack Tale. A young coal miner and his companion go “up a hill to fetch a pail of water” just like they do in the nursery rhyme, but this time there is one BIG problem. They have to take on a selfish giant and save a whole neighborhood! Travel by train with Jack and Jill to meet a colorful cast of characters in a world created solely from wood, steel and leather. Everyone is welcome to a big ol’, heapin’ helpin’ of this good-natured, heartland American story of teaming up and looking out for the little guy. This production was funded in part by the Mark’s Family Endowment Award.

Mark Blashford is an actor, puppeteer, and musician from Pennsylvania. Jack & Jill is Blashford’s culminating project for his Masters of Fine Art from UConn’s Puppet Arts Program. His recent stage credits include: Band of the Black Hand, Twelfth Night, and Peter and the Starcatcher at the Connecticut Repertory Theatre. Blashford has worked on several UConn Puppet Arts productions including Ancestral, Treeples, El Beto, and Puppets Take the Pops! with the Boston Pops in May 2016. Mark has also performed at Hartford’s March of Dimes, Envisionfest, and Anne Cubberly’s Night Fall.

Indoor performances will take place in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs Center, at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 29 and Saturday, May 6.

Outdoor performances in the Betsy Paterson Square in downtown Storrs will occur at 2 p.m. on Saturday, April 29, Sunday, April 30, Saturday, May 6, and Sunday, May 7. Seating is not provided for outdoor shows, so patrons are encouraged to bring their own chairs or blankets.

Admission is free, and no reservations are necessary. Seating will be available on first-come, first-served basis. This show is recommended for ages five and up. For more information about these performances, call 860.486.8580.

 

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!