As part of its 2023 Spring Puppet Performance Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is pleased to present The Baffo Box Show by the Vermont-based Modern Times Theater on Feb. 25, 2023 at 11 a.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. 

Performed in a one-of-a-kind suit-stage by Modern Times Theater member Justin Lander, this show packs classic hand puppetry, Dadaist ventriloquism, and stand-up comedy into a cardboard box and delivers it, with impeccable timing, live on stage. Inside the box are the Baffos — two slapstick chaps who keep the sun, moon and everything else running on schedule. From the moment the lid opens, audiences are captivated as the Baffos juggle and dance their way through the day’s chores, despite the undeniable evidence that their world is changing. A daring work of puppetry and object manipulation, full of beautiful images, junk music sonatas, and Modern Times Theater’s unique brand of all ages comedy. 

To learn more about the show and purchase tickets, visit: bimp.ticketleap.com/the-baffo-box-show/

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 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 the 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. 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. Masks recommended but not required. 

About the Company

Modern Times Theater has been making and touring puppet shows and variety acts, and creating public community events since 2007. They pursue a radically divergent model of art making, creating venues in unlikely locations, and revitalizing the historic, run-down, and defunct. Working in populist theater forms, they seek to reinvent and reimagine classic American entertainment. Co-founders Rose Friedman and Justin Lander are a husband and wife duo, producers for Vermont Vaudeville and alumni of the Bread and Puppet Theater.

The Ballard Institute will be closed 12/17/22 through 1/26/23 as we install our new exhibition.

Join us on 1/26/23 at 5:30pm for the grand opening of Myths, Legends, and Spectacle: Masks and Puppets of Ralph Lee!

As its final 2022 Fall Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host Topics in Japanese Puppetry moderated by Dr. Claudia Orenstein, with panelists Dr. Mari Boyd, Dr. Yoko Yamaguchi, and filmmaker Zach Dorn, on Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. ET. This forum will include a pre-recorded discussion followed by a live Q and A with the audience and will take place on Zoom (registration required) and Facebook Live and will be available afterwards on the Ballard Institute’s Facebook page and YouTube Channel. 

Japanese puppetry is a diverse field that goes beyond the well-known bunraku tradition. Guests will present their current research related to Japanese puppetry including the influence of German modernism on the development of puppetry in twentieth-century Japan, the contemporary and traditional work of Youkiza marionette theater as a new generation prepares to take over, and Japan’s tradition of fusuma, shifting painted screen performances. Pre-recorded presentations will be followed by further live discussion on related topics and Q and A with the audience. This forum is co-sponsored by the UConn Asian American Cultural Center and Asian and Asian American Studies Institute.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Moderator – Claudia Orenstein, Theatre Professor at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, has spent nearly two decades writing on contemporary and traditional puppetry in the US and Asia. Recent publications include the co-edited volumes Women and Puppetry: Critical and Historical Investigations and The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance. She worked as dramaturg on Tom Lee and kuruma ningyō master Nishikawa  Koryū V’s Shank’s Mare. She is a Board Member of UNIMA-USA and Associate Editor of Asian Theatre Journal. Current book projects are Reading the Puppet Stage: Reflections on Dramaturgy and Performing Objects and a two-volume co-edited anthology with Tim Cusack, Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects. She received a 2021-22 Fulbright Research Fellowship for research on ritual puppetry in Japan.

Mari Boyd is Professor Emeritus at Sophia University, Tokyo and a researcher and translator of modern Japanese theatre including material performance. Mari Boyd is the author of The Aesthetics of Quietude: Ota Shogo and the Theatre of Divestiture (Sophia University Press, 2006) and Japanese Contemporary Objects, Manipulators, and Actors in Performance (Sophia University Press, 2020). She has contributed numerous articles to Japanese- and English-language theatre periodicals and books, such as “Modern Meta-patterns” in A History of Japanese Theater (Cambridge University Press, 2016). As translator, contributed to the 10-volume Half a Century of Japanese Theatre series (Kinokuniya, 1999-2008) and is on the editorial committee for the ENGEKI: Japanese Theatre in the New Millennium anthology series (Japan Playwrights Association, 2016-). She is also an editor of e-Journal (Japan Society of Theatre Research).

Zach Dorn is a filmmaker, performing artist, and writer. Dorn’s multimedia puppet performances and stop-motion films have premiered at Ars Nova (New York), St. Ann’s Warehouse (New York), REDCAT (Los Angeles), and The Toronto International Film Festival. In 2016, Dorn was selected as an inaugural Julie Taymor World Theater Fellow and spent one year studying the use of automata in festival performance. While in Tokyo, he apprenticed under psychoanalyst turned experimental theatre director, Kuro Tanino. In 2022, Dorn expanded his research into Japanese sliding panel theater, fusuma karakuri, on the island of Tokushima as an Ishibashi Foundation /  Japan  Foundation  Fellow for Research on Japanese  Art. Dorn received his MFA in Experimental Animation from Calarts in 2021 and is currently developing a new puppet performance in collaboration with the experimental musician Aron Dahl and the Norwegian Arts Council.

Yoko Yamaguchi is Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and Lecturer at Waseda University. She also serves on the editorial board of the Japan Unima Yearbook and is an international programmer of Puppet Theatre PUK, Tokyo. She earned her Ph.D. in Aesthetics from Tokyo University of the Arts in 2017, and received research fellowships from Klassik Stiftung in Weimar in 2019 and from Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte in Munich in 2022.  Her current research focuses on the evolution of the discourse on puppet theater (ningyo-geki/ningyo-shibai) in Japan since the 1900s as well as the the formation of modern Japanese puppetry beginning in the 1920s under the influence of European puppetry.

The Ballard Institute is closed Monday, 11/21 through Thursday, 11/24. The museum will reopen on Friday, 11/25.

Happy Thanksgiving!

As part of its 2022 Fall Puppet Shows, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut is pleased to present Squirrel Stole My Underpants by the Boston-based ensemble The Gottabees on Nov. 19, 2022 at 11 a.m. in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. 

In this poignantly silly adventure tale for families, Sylvie is sent to the backyard to hang up the laundry. The moment her back is turned, a mischievous squirrel steals her favorite piece of clothing and runs off. When Sylvie gives chase, an entire world emerges from her laundry basket, and curious characters show her the way through mysterious lands. Blending puppetry, dance, and physical theater, The Gottabees (thegottabees.com) create a world that transforms in scale, color, texture, and time! This award-winning puppetry show with live music accompaniment is created and performed by Bonnie Duncan with music by Brendan Burns and Tony Leva. The total run time is 35 minutes plus a Q&A. Masks recommended but not required. 

To learn more about the performance, visit: bimp.ticketleap.com/squirrel-gottabees

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 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 the 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. 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.

As part of the 2022 Fall Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute will host “The Making of Feel Your Best Self: Development and Scriptwriting” moderated by Sandy Chafouleas and Emily Wicks and featuring Sarah Nolen and Yanniv Frank on Thursday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. ET. This forum will take place on Zoom (registration required) and Facebook Live and will be available afterwards on the Ballard Institute’s Facebook page and YouTube Channel. 

In this forum, Feel Your Best Self creators Sandy Chafouleas and Emily Wicks and script writers Sarah Nolen and Yanniv Frank talk about the development of this unique interdisciplinary collaboration between UConn’s Collaboratory on School and Child Health and Ballard Institute to use puppetry to promote emotional well-being in elementary-aged children. The team discusses the challenges and methods used to take wellness strategies, such as “belly breathing” and “shake out the yuck” and turn them into simple, yet engaging stories starring three puppet friends, Nico, Mena, and CJ.

Feel Your Best Self is designed for elementary-aged kids as an educational toolkit for learning strategies to calm yourself, catch your feelings, and connect with others. The FYBS strategies offer fun and easy ways to help kids (and grown-ups) experience lifts in emotions, feeling, or mood. The toolkit, which features short videos, facilitator steps, reflection journals, strategy cards, and tip sheets, is free and accessible on the website. 

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Sandra M. Chafouleas, Ph.D., is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and Neag Endowed Professor in the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Chafouleas also is the founder and co-director of the UConn Collaboratory on School and Child Health (CSCH). She is a licensed psychologist, and teaches primarily in the school psychology program. Dr. Chafouleas makes frequent media appearances, and authors a popular Psychology Today blog on promoting student well-being. Her work focuses on assisting schools in implementation of evidence-informed policies and practices that support the whole child, with specific expertise in strategies to support mental health and emotional well-being. 

For more information: education.uconn.edu/person/sandra-chafouleas

Yanniv Frank is a Sesame Workshop trained puppeteer and a current member of the cast of Sesame Street: The Musical, playing Off-Broadway. He is a current third year Puppet Arts MFA candidate at the University of Connecticut and a graduate of the CUNY Baccalaureate program for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies where he studied Performing and Visual Arts. As an actor, Yanniv has performed in various educational and professional theaters and received Hunter College’s Theatre Workshop Award for the most promising student actor. Yanniv holds a certificate in music and video production from Berklee College of Music and is releasing his first full length album As I Am in November 2022.

Sarah Nolen is a puppeteer and filmmaker known for her versatile and witty work across multiple puppetry styles. Originally from Texas, Sarah now resides in Massachusetts, where she works as a freelance puppeteer, director, and puppet builder for both stage and screen through her company Puppet Motion. She received her MFA in Puppet Arts at the University of Connecticut in 2016. Currently, she is the resident artist at Puppet Showplace Theater in Brookline, MA, where she tours her own solo puppet shows around New England. As a builder, Sarah earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for “Outstanding Puppet Design” for her work with Sinking Ship Productions’ A Hunger Artist. She has interned with Puppet Heap in Hoboken, built with AchesonWalsh Studios, and most recently, built and performed puppets for Netflix’s DON’T LOOK UP (2021) and another upcoming release, MOTHERSHIP (2023).

You can learn more about her work at her website: puppetmotion.com

Emily Wicks is the Interim Co-Director of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry (BIMP). She received her MA in History and MLIS degree, with a specialization in Museum Studies and Archival Management, from Kent State University in Ohio. She has experience in cultural resource management, historical research, and museums. Before joining the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, Emily worked for the Shaker Historical Society in Shaker Heights, Ohio and the ACLU of Ohio.

 

As part of the 2022 Fall Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host “Maurice Sendak and the World of Puppetry” with panelists Jonathan Weinberg, Lynn Caponera, Tyler Fallas, and Nick Kraczyna on Thursday, Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. ET. This forum will take place on Zoom (registration required) and Facebook Live and will be available afterwards on the Ballard Institute’s Facebook page and YouTube Channel. 

Although Maurice Sendak was not a puppeteer, he understood the nature of puppetry’s never-ending fascination with objects, images, movement, music, and text, and how the creation of those combinations with a collaborative team of artists can make puppets come alive. This forum, moderated by Ballard Institute Interim Co-Director Matt Sorensen, will feature Jonathan Weinberg, Lynn Caponera, and Tyler Fallas of The Maurice Sendak Foundation, as well as Nick Kraczyna, husband of the exhibition’s prominently featured artist, the late Amy Luckenbach, to look at the various ways Sendak designed, collected, and collaborated with puppets and puppet productions. This forum is co-sponsored by The Maurice Sendak Foundation.

Forum Speakers

Jonathan Weinberg, Ph.D. is a painter, art historian and curator. He is Curator of the Maurice Sendak Foundation. He is the author of several books including Pier Groups: Art and Sex Along the New York Waterfront and Ambition and Love in American Art. He is the recipient of numerous grants, residencies and fellowships, including a Guggenheim Fellowship.  He was the lead curator for the touring exhibition Art After Stonewall, 1969-89 organized by the Columbus Museum of Art to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots in 2019. He is the curator of Wild Things Are Happening: The Art of Maurice Sendak, which opens at The Columbus Museum of Art that runs from October 21, 2022-March 12, 2023. An exhibition of his GENESIS window paintings and prints is on view at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art in New Haven until January.

Lynn Caponera President of the Board and Executive Director of The Maurice Sendak Foundation. Lynn met Maurice when he and Dr. Eugene Glynn moved to Ridgefield Ct in 1971.  Lynn spent her childhood at the Sendak / Glynn household helping in the garden playing with the dogs and modeling for Maurice for numerous books.  At 19 she moved in as caretaker and companion. Over the years she took on a more rigorous role in Maurice’s professional and personal life till his death in 2012.

Swietlan Nicholas Kraczyna is a painter/printmaker of Russian origin, raised in Poland and Germany, educated in the United States, and resident of Florence, Italy, since 1964. Best known for his multi-plate color etchings, his artwork can be found in private collections and galleries around the world, as well as in the Uffizi Gallery’s Permanent Collection of Prints and Drawings in Florence.Since graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1962, Kraczyna has held over 158 solo exhibitions across five continents. In 1963 he met and married Amy Luckenbach while studying for his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Southern Illinois. He has been Artist in Residence at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH (1988); Palacky University in Olomouc, CZ (1992); and Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY (2007-2008).

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2022 UConn Fall Puppet Slam in person on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. in UConn’s von der Mehden Recital Hall, located at 875 Coventry Rd, Storrs, Conn. 06269. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam will feature short works by professional puppeteers and performers from around New England, including Cabot Parsons and Anatar Marmol-Gagne, as well as new works by UConn Puppet Arts students.

The 2022 UConn Fall Puppet Slam will showcase the work of Cabot Parsons, a New York-based visual theater artist and puppeteer who will perform Gemma’s Share, which tells the story of a sheltered suburban housewife who emotionally unravels in a twelve-step meeting at the state of the world. Anatar Marmol-Gagne, a puppeteer and UConn Puppet Arts alumna from New Haven, Conn. will present Sueños, an autobiographical story about a little girl arriving in a foreign land and her struggle to find her place in this world. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam will also feature new works by UConn graduate and undergraduate students from the university’s Puppet Arts Program. Funding for the UConn Fall Puppet Slam is made possible in part by the Puppet Slam Network.

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 7:00 p.m. The event will take place in UConn’s von der Mehden Recital Hall located at 875 Coventry Rd, Storrs, Conn. For directions to the von der Mehden Recital Hall, visit vdm.uconn.edu. These performances are recommended for mature audiences. 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.

In conjunction with its exhibition Swing into Action: Maurice Sendak and the World of Puppetry, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will offer an afternoon of free tours and performances. Join Ballard Institute Interim Co-Director Matt Sorensen for free exhibit tours at noon, 2:00 p.m., and 4:00 p.m. UConn Puppet Arts graduate students Abigail Baird and Jaron Hollander present a brief toy theater performance based on Maurice Sendak’s 1993 book, We Are All in the Dumps With Jack and Guy on Oct. 8 at 1:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m., and 5:00 p.m. 

Abigail Baird is a tenacious and dedicated arts educator, director, choreographer, and acrobatic-actor. Her most notable and successful artistic creation is Aerial Animation, a modern adaptation of silent film storytelling which competed through the semifinals on America’s Got Talent and La France a un Incroyable Talent. For over a decade Abigail was the Creative Director of Educational Programming at Kinetic Arts Center in Oakland, California for ten years. She has a self-designed BFA in technical theatre, sculpture and puppetry from the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico. She is returning to her roots to study puppetry at UConn as a graduate student.

Jaron Aviv Hollander is a circus and theater performer, director, teacher, and now a student at UConn to pursue an MFA in puppet arts. He is the founding Artistic Director (now emeritus) of Kinetic Arts Center, a circus center in Oakland where he has been teaching and directing circus for 12 years. He is also known as the co-creator and co-performer of “The Submarine Show” an internationally award-winning, critically acclaimed physical comedy. His 30-year career includes performing in Cirque Du Soleil, The Aurora Theatre, Make*A*Circus and Impact Theatre, to name a few. Jaron has a BA in theatre from the University of California Santa Cruz and studied at Dell’arte School of Physical Theatre, The San Francisco Circus Center (under master Lu Yi) and Circo Arts New Zealand.

Swing into Action, created in partnership with The Maurice Sendak Foundation, looks at the various ways Sendak designed, collected, and collaborated with puppets and puppet productions, from his childhood days making mechanical toys with his brother, to his collections of Mickey Mouse memorabilia, his inventive collaborations with puppeteer Amy Luckenbach, his puppet designs for Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Mozart Opera Goose of Cairo, and the way Sendak’s book inspired Sonny Gerasimowicz’s creatures for Spike Jonze’s film Where the Wild Things Are. 

Reservations are not required. Masks are recommended but not required. 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.