News

“The Doubtful Sprout” by Liz Joyce & A Couple of Puppets on 11/5 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

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As part of its Fall Puppet Performance Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present The Doubtful Sprout by Liz Joyce & A Couple of Puppets on Saturday, November 5, 2016. There will be two performances, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., in the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, CT.

Get ready to explore the world under your feet in this underground puppet adventure! Tunnel down with Worm and Sprout as they discover the mysterious life found inside soil. Along the way, kids help figure out the secrets that help Sprout grow! Liz Joyce, award-winning performer and Director of Goat on a Boat Puppet Theater in Sag Harbor, Long Island, brings this ecological wonderland to life with multiple puppetry styles, projections and song.

Liz Joyce, an accomplished puppeteer, writes, directs, and performs a growing repertoire of works for audiences of children aged 10 months to 10 years. Subjects include her take on traditional fairy tales, folktales, educational shows and original creations. In each of these productions she amuses and entertains both children and adults.
Trained as a fine artist, Liz also was also certified as a K-12 Art Educator. Her artistic approach to puppetry has been influenced by European puppetry traditions and the eccentric energy of New York’s downtown performance artists. She honed her carving skills working with traditional puppet carvers in Prague, and often collaborates with other puppeteers in the international puppet community. Liz’s puppet operetta, Sing a Song of Sixpence, was awarded an UNIMA Citation, the highest award in American puppetry. She currently is serving on the Board of Directors for the Jim Henson Foundation.

Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Students: $8; Kids: $6 (12 years and under).

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.

Grand Opening of Frank Ballard’s Marionette Modernism and Object, Image, Text: The Bread & Puppet Press on 10/22

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present the grand opening of Object, Image, Text: The Bread & Puppet Press and Frank Ballard’s Marionette Modernism: Peer Gynt and The Love for Three Oranges, on Saturday, October 22, 2016, with refreshments served at 4:00 p.m. and free tours of both exhibitions at 4:30 p.m. All events will take place at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs, Connecticut.

blue-calendar1Object, Image, Text: The Bread & Puppet Press will feature an integral element of Bread & Puppet Theater director Peter Schumann’s prodigious artistic output: the production of pamphlets, books, posters, and book-like constructions that have complemented his dynamic Bread & Puppet shows since the 1960s. The tour of this exhibition on October 22, 2016 will be led by Peter Schumann.

Frank Ballard’s Marionette Modernism: Peer Gynt and The Love for Three Oranges will be a striking exposition of Frank Ballard’s life-long passion for the artistic possibilities of string marionettes as it emerged in his spectacular versions of two modernist classics: Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, with music by Edvard Grieg; and Gozzi’s The Love for Three Oranges, set to music by Sergei Prokofiev. Dr. John Bell, Director of the Ballard Institute, will lead the tour of this exhibition at the grand opening.

As part of our Fall Puppet Forum Series, on Wednesday, November 16 at 7 p.m., Max Schumann (Executive Director, Printed Matter) and Clare Dolan (Chief Operating Philosopher, Museum of Everyday Life) in Vermont, will discuss the work of Bread & Puppet Press. On Wednesday, December 7 at 7 p.m., Steven Brezzo (President, Opar, Inc.), Fred Thompson (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center), and Steve Abrams (Editor, Puppetry Journal) will reflect on Frank Ballard’s work in marionette theater. These forums will be live streamed via Facebook Live.

Ballard Institute Galleries Closed from October 10-21, 2016

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From October 10 through October 21, 2016, Ballard Institute staff will be deinstalling our current exhibition The Bureau of Small Requests: Puppetry and Animation of Laura Heit and installing our new exhibitions Frank Ballard’s Marionette Modernism: ‘Peer Gynt’ and ‘The Love for Three Oranges’ and Object, Image, Text: The Bread & Puppet Press.  While the main galleries at the Ballard Institute will be closed during this process, the museum will remain open during normal business hours, and our exhibit titled The World of Puppetry: From the Collections of the Ballard Institute will be on display in the lobby.

We  invite you to join us for the grand opening of Frank Ballard’s Marionette Modernism: ‘Peer Gynt’ and ‘The Love for Three Oranges’ and Object, Image, Text: The Bread & Puppet Press on Saturday, October 22 at 4:00 p.m. at the Ballard Institute. The opening events will include free tours by John Bell, Director of the Ballard Institute, and Peter Schumann of Bread & Puppet Theater.

“Rumpelstilskin” by Dream Tale Puppets on 10/15 at 11 a.m. & 2 p.m.

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As part of its Fall Puppet Performance Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present Rumpelstilskin by Dream Tale Puppets on Saturday, October 15, 2016. There will be two performances, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., in the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, CT.

In this adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin, the well-known German folktale, Dream Tale Puppets uses beautifully crafted table-top puppets to tell the story of a girl, Kathleen, whose father puts her life in danger after he lies to the king about her ability to spin straw into gold. An odd-looking stranger appears and offers to help her if she will give him her first-born child with the King–a promise she does not think she will have to keep. After the King marries Kathleen and they have a child, she is faced with losing him to the stranger if she cannot pass one more test!

Dream Tale Puppets was founded in 2003 by Jacek Zuzanski, a puppeteer, stage director and theater teacher who, before coming to the United States in 2001, studied, practiced, and taught theater and art in his native Poland. Preschool teacher and storyteller Mary Almeida co-founded the troupe with Jacek. Working at the Cape Cod Children’s Museum, Dream Tale has created a series of shows–Little Red Riding Hood and Three Little Pigs, Rumpelstilskin, and Jack and the Beanstalk–which they perform in schools, libraries, cultural centers and private functions. Today Dream Tale Puppets is a community of artists whose members perform, teach, design, build puppets, and write plays.

Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Students: $8; Kids: $6 (12 years and under)

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.

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Stevens Puppets on 10/2 at 2 p.m.

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut presents a special guest performance of Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by the acclaimed Stevens Puppets of Indiana on Sunday, October 2 at 2 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

In this silly and non-scary version of Washington Irving’s classic story, children of all ages follow the lanky schoolmaster Ichabod Crane as he sings, dances, and falls in love with the giggly Katrina Van Tassel. Audiences will watch breathlessly as Katrina’s father Baltus and the village goofball Brom Bones try to run Ichabod out of town by telling him the tale of…The Headless Horseman. The Stevens Puppets bring this ever-popular classic tale delightfully to life with beautiful wooden marionettes. The entire production is underscored by classical music, and a fun time will be had by all! The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was originally adapted for marionettes in 1965 by legendary puppeteer Martin Stevens. In 2000, Dan Raynor, co-owner of Stevens Puppets, adapted the original script, and took it out on tour that same year.

Stevens Puppets was founded in 1933 by the Peabody-Award-winning Martin Stevens, pre-eminent American puppeteer and a founder of the Puppeteers of America. With his wife, Margi, Mr. Stevens created ground-breaking touring marionette shows. Dan and Zan Raynor, the owners, have been with Stevens Puppets for over 20 years, each coming from live-theater backgrounds of acting and directing. Dan holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater and Zan holds a Master of Theology with a doctorate in Canon Law. Dan has taught theater at the Northwest Arkansas Academy of Fine Arts and directed professionally for theaters in several states. He has performed with and directed many professional musicians like Neil Young and Huey Lewis, and acted professionally with many theater companies in California. In addition to performing on stage as an actor and dancer, Zan has directed high school and college theater programs, and designed lights, costumes, and choreography for numerous theater companies in the Midwest and Northeast. Zan has taught every level of school, from Montessori preschool through university classes. The Raynors divide their time between studio artwork, both original and restoration, training other performing artists, managing complex tours, and performing all around the country at schools, libraries, festivals, and fairs.

Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Students: $8; Kids: $6 (12 years and under).

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.

Fall Puppet Forum: “The Future of Puppetry at UConn” on 10/12 at 7 p.m.

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As part of the 2016 Fall Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present a discussion with acclaimed UConn Puppet Arts Program Director Bart. P. Roccoberton, Jr. and alumni of the UConn Puppet Arts Program entitled The Future of Puppetry at UConn on Wednesday, October 12, 2016 at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

Over the past 50 years, UConn’s Puppet Arts Program has played a major role in shaping the nature of American and international puppetry. What will the next 50 years bring to the world of puppetry, and how can UConn best prepare its students to make substantial contributions to the future? Join Puppet Arts Program director Bart. P. Roccoberton, Jr. and celebrated UConn puppetry alumni in a compelling discussion about the future of puppetry and UConn’s role in it. Puppeteer and voice-over artist Pam Arciero is well known for her work on Sesame Street as Grundgetta, but is also the Artistic Director of the O’Neill Puppetry Conference. Rob Saunders is Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Animax Designs, which develops high-quality animatronics and puppet characters for the theme park and attractions industries.

Upcoming 2016 Fall Puppet Forums include:

November 16: Object, Image, Text: The Bread & Puppet Press, with Max Schumann (Printed Matter) and Clare Dolan (Museum of Everyday Life)

December 7: Making Marionette Theater with Frank Ballard, with Steven Brezzo (Opar, Inc.), Fred Thompson (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center), and Steve Abrams (Editor, Puppetry Journal)

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. Visit bimp.uconn.edu or call 860.486.8580 for more information.

“The Pirate, the Princess and the Pea” by Crabgrass Puppet Theatre on 9/24 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

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As part of its Fall Puppet Performance Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present The Pirate, the Princess and the Pea by UConn alumni Jamie Keithline and Bonny Hall of Crabgrass Puppet Theatre on Saturday, September 24, 2016. There will be two showings, at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., in the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs, CT.

The Pirate, the Princess and the Pea is a swashbuckling adventure about friendship and cooperation, a thrilling voyage chock full of sea monsters, shipwrecks, and mistaken pirate/princess identities. A pirate and a princess are on a treasure hunt, searching for the same clues. The princess stays one step ahead by tricking the pirate at every turn. But when they face danger together, they find that friendship is the best treasure of all. Featuring colorful scenery, multiple styles of puppetry, and original pirate songs, you won’t want to miss the boat on this fun adventure tale!

Crabgrass Puppet Theatre was founded in 1982 by Jamie Keithline and Bonny Hall, who met as UConn students in 1979 and have been working together ever since. They began their company in San Francisco, and now live near Brattleboro, Vermont. Their performing venues have included the World Trade Center, The Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Paper Mill Playhouse, the Smithsonian, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. They have created 25 full-length productions, performed at numerous regional, national, and international puppet festivals, and have been awarded two UNIMA Citations of Excellence.

Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Students: $8; Kids: $6 (12 years and under)

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.

Fall Puppet Forum: “Puppetry, Performance, and the Scale of Things” with Theodora Skipitares on 9/14

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As part of the 2016 Fall Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present a discussion with acclaimed New York puppeteer Theodora Skipitares entitled Puppetry, Performance, and the Scale of Things on Wednesday, September 14 at 7 p.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.

Visual artist, director, and puppeteer Theodora Skipitares has been creating evocative and spectacular works of puppet and object performance for over 25 years. Trained as a sculptor and theater designer, she combined these two art forms to develop such award-winning puppet productions as The Age of Invention, A Harlot’s Progress, Trilogy, and most recently, Six Characters. In her presentation Skipitares will elaborate upon her processes of creation, the interdisciplinary influences on her work, and the dramatic variety of puppets she creates, ranging from the massive to the miniature.

Upcoming 2016 Fall Puppet Forums include:

October 12: The Future of Puppetry at UConn, with Pam Arciero (Sesame Street), Stephen Kaplin (Chinese Theatre Works), and Rob Saunders (Animax Designs), moderated by Bart. P. Roccoberton, Jr.

November 16: Object, Image, Text: The Bread & Puppet Press, with Max Schumann (Printed Matter) and Clare Dolan (Museum of Everyday Life)

December 7: Making Marionette Theater with Frank Ballard, with Steven Brezzo (Opar, Inc.), Fred Thompson (Eugene O’Neill Theater Center), and Steve Abrams (Editor, Puppetry Journal)

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. Visit bimp.uconn.edu or call 860.486.8580 for more information.

2016 UConn Fall Puppet Slam

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2016 UConn Fall Puppet Slam on Saturday, September 17 at 8:00 p.m. in UConn’s Studio Theatre. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam will feature short works by professional puppeteers and performers, including CactusHead Puppets, Lone Wolf Tribe, The Innie Outie Dance Theater Company, and Bryan Papciak as well as new works for puppet and object theater by students from UConn’s School of Fine Arts.

The 2016 UConn Fall Puppet Slam will feature work by an array of renowned Northeast puppet professionals and talented UConn students. From New York City, acclaimed puppeteer Kevin Augustine, who performs as Lone Wolf Tribe, will present Body Concert, a haunting solo piece with exquisitely sculpted foam-rubber puppets influenced by Japanese Butoh dance. Also from New York, UConn Puppet Arts alumna Kali Therrien and Bread & Puppet Theater performer Tom Cunningham, working as The Innie Outie Dance Theater, will present episodes from The Judy Show, a hand-puppet extravaganza re-visiting the classic Punch and Judy tradition. They will also perform their own music as the pop band The Malicious Ones. CactusHead Puppets (UConn graduates Megan and John Regan), from Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley will perform The Dance of the Stoat, a table-top comedy, and Gorlax the Terrible, a comic shadow show about a unintentionally beneficent giant. And Boston-based experimental filmmaker and mixed-media artist Bryan Papciak will present Shadows of the Illuminati, a “paranoid infomercial” about “a mysterious shadowy society that manipulates world events and political figures from behind the scenes.” UConn student performances at the Slam will include Anatar Marmol-Gagné’s performance of a new show about Blue Laws across the United States, and Kimberly Van Aelst’s shadow show Dali’s Moustache.

The UConn Fall Puppet Slam is supported by the Puppet Slam Network. The Puppet Slam movement is a nation-wide flowering of short puppet productions for adult audiences, encouraged by the Puppet Slam Network created by Heather Henson and Marsian De Lellis. UConn Puppet Slams have been taking place since 2008, thanks to the generous support of the Network.

The UConn Fall Puppet Slam is free and open to the public; donations are greatly appreciated. The event will take place in the Studio Theatre located at 820 Bolton Rd, Storrs, CT. For directions to the Studio Theatre, visit crt.uconn.edu/directions/. These performances are recommended for mature audiences. For more information, call the Ballard Institute at (860) 486-8580 or email us at bimp@uconn.edu.

Free Community Puppet-Building Workshop, 9/10-9/11

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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 of Shakespeare characters for the Celebrate Mansfield Parade in downtown Storrs, Connecticut. These free workshops will take place Saturday and Sunday, September 10 and 11 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 18 at noon (Line-up begins at 11:00 AM at Farrell Field near the Post Office), and then help perform iconic Shakespeare monologues, dialogues, and fight scenes on the Town Square. The Parade is a part of the 13th Annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival.

As part of university-wide events celebrating the September exhibition of Shakespeare’s First Folio at UConn, this year’s puppet-building workshops will focus on the creation of eminent characters from Shakespeare’s tragedies and comedies. Which Shakespeare characters would you like to see larger than life in downtown Storrs? Romeo and Juliet? Hamlet? Lady Macbeth? Othello? Join us and Sara Peattie to realize your Shakespearean dreams! Published in 1623, the First Folio is the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, and only 235 copies are known today. This year, to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the Folger Shakespeare Library is sending a First Folio to every state in the United States, and UConn has been selected as the host site for Connecticut. Join us in September 1-25, 2016 in celebrating the greatest playwright of the English language with this exhibit from the world’s largest Shakespeare collection.

Celebrated in a recent front-page Boston Globe article as “the legendary keeper of one of the Back Bay’s best-kept secrets,” Sara Peattie and her 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.

No experience is necessary to participate in these free community puppet-building workshops with Sara Peattie. Minors must be accompanied by an adult. To register for the workshop, contact 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 the Mansfield Downtown Partnership, Inc. For more information about the 13th Annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival, visit www.downtownstorrsfestival.org.

First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare, on tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library, is a national travelling exhibition organized by the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC, to commemorate the 400th anniversary in 2016 of Shakespeare’s death. It is produced in association with the American Library Association and Cincinnati Museum Center. First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare, on tour from the Folger Shakespeare Library, has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor, and by the support of Google.org, The Lord Browne of Madingley, Vinton and Sigrid Cerf, British Council, Stuart and Mimi Rose, Albert and Shirley Small, and other generous donors. To learn more about the First Folio at UConn, visit www.shakespeare.uconn.edu.