The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will once more present its popular Summertime Saturday Puppet Shows for family audiences on six Saturdays, June 20-August 1, 2015. Each show will be performed twice, at 1 and 3 p.m. All performances will take place at the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle, Storrs CT.

The schedule of Summertime Saturday Puppet Shows includes the following:

June 20 – “A Journey Around the World” by Ants in Your Pants: Anthony the Ant discovers puppet stories and traditions of the globe. Ana Craciun and Kalob Martinez, MFA students in the UConn Puppet Arts Program, present an entertaining and informative performance for globetrotters of all ages.

June 27 – “The Krista and Anders Variety Show” by Krista Weltner and Anders Nerheim: Live music, marionettes, hand puppets, toy theater, and much, much more! Featured pieces include The House That Jack Built, Mr. Sandman, and A Coming of Fang Tale. 

July 11 – “The Nature of Nature” by Anna Fitzgerald and Gavin Cummins: Join current and future UConn Puppet Arts alumni Anna Fitzgerald and Gavin Cummins as they take you on adventures in and about the natural world around us. Some stories are true and some stories are not; bring your imagination and discover which is which.

July 18 – “Hotel Molière” by Sarah Nolen: Hotel Molière is a cockroach hotel murder mystery told in the style of a ridiculous noir shadow show. Detective Agent Gray of Chicago follows the leads to learn what led to the untimely murder of a leading lady roach, Roachel.

July 25 – “Aladdin” by Stevens Puppets: From the pages of The Arabian Nights comes the timeless story of Aladdin!  This Middle Eastern folktale comes alive with the help of Martin Stevens’ hand-crafted marionettes.  Join us for a rare visit to the East Coast by this famed Indiana-based marionette company.

August 1 – “Superheroes, Villains, and Spaceships, Oh My!” by Anatar Marmol-Gagne: A fantastical tale of superheroes, villains, wizards, monsters and space.

Admission is $5 for children, $7 for adults.

 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. The CRT Box Office is open Monday through Friday, 12-5 p.m. Tickets may also be purchased at the Ballard Institute on the day of performance. There will be a limited number of seats. For more information, call (860) 486-8580 or email bimp@uconn.edu.

Amy Trompetter collaborates with East Harlem poet (not4)Prophet in reconfiguring her Punch and Judy show to create Biblical Rapper’s Trilogy.  References include the Bible, Medieval mystery plays, Commedia scenarios and the daily news, including recent events in Ferguson, Missouri. The stage is an automated, vertical box with painted backdrops reminiscent of cantastoria balladeers’ picture stories. 

Amy Trompetter designs, directs and performs puppet shows. Her roots are in the Bread and Puppet Theater in 1960’s NYC. She is the founder of the Redwing Blackbird Theater, a workshop and performance space in the Hudson Valley.

(not4)Prophet creates and performs hip-hop aesthetic poetry. He is an experimentalist, performance poet, singer, song writer,-activist and Nuyorican-style emoter, with roots in the Nuyorican Poet’s Café. He regularly presents original work in East Harlem and throughout NYC including the Bowery Poetry Club. Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Co-op Bookstore at Storrs Center.

The event will take place in the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry/UConn Co-op Bookstore performance space at 7:30 p.m. on October 15, 2015. Admission is free. Donations are gratefully accepted.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host its first-ever Fall Puppet Performance Series on four Saturdays from September to December 2014, 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:

September 27: Punschi, an enchanting performance for the whole family featuring hand puppets and a miniature circus, by Sandglass Theater in collaboration with Jana Zeller and Shoshana Bass.

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

October 25: The Selfish Giant, by Chicago puppeteer Blair Thomas and singer/songwriter Michael Smith, who use original puppets and music to tell the story of this Oscar Wilde classic about a grumpy old giant and the children of his village who rejuvenate his garden. Special performance in conjunction with the gala opening of Stages of Enchantment: The Little Puppet Theaters of Blair Thomas & Company.

Adults: $12; Students: $8; Kids: $6

November 15: Shadows around the World, a production by famed Connecticut puppet master Jim Napolitano focusing on global history, oral traditions of storytelling, and the international development of shadow puppetry as an art form.

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

December 13: Lava Fossil, by Beth Nixon, a suitcase-theater show about a dad, a crab, a dentist, and where things go when they are gone. Plus! The secret life of eel grass, an ash-encrusted visitor from Pompeii, and how to measure grief with a ruler.  Recommended for children aged 11 and above due to show content.

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

Tickets will be sold through the Connecticut Repertory Theatre Box Office located in the lobby of the Nafe Katter Theatre.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2014 , on  The  will feature short works by professional puppeteers from the Northeast, including Little Did Productions from New York City; Great Small Works from Cambridge; and Connecticut’s Xing Xin Liu; as well as new works by talented students from UConn’s Puppet Arts Program. The  is supported by a generous grant from the Puppet Slam Network.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2014 UConn Fall Puppet Slam, on Saturday, September 13 at 8:00 p.m. in the Dramatic Arts Department’s Studio Theatre. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam will feature short works by professional puppeteers from the Northeast, including Little Did Productions from New York City; Great Small Works from Cambridge; and Connecticut’s Xing Xin Liu; as well as new works by talented students from UConn’s Puppet Arts Program. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam is supported by a generous grant from the Puppet Slam Network.

Little Did Productions’ The Lost Children, directed by Jessica Lorence and designed by Lorence and Katarra Peterson, is a shadow puppet show retelling the French folk tale which inspired Hansel and Gretel, with original music by Luke Santy.

Trudi Cohen and John Bell, Cambridge-based members of the Great Small Works theater company, will perform Sidewalk Ballet, which considers the world history of public space, and the 1960s battle between developer Robert Moses and urban activist Jane Jacobs over the future of Washington Square Park; and includes a new song by Woody Guthrie and Frank London of the Klezmatics.

UConn Puppet Arts alumna Xing Xin Liu will perform a traditional Chinese shadow show, Monkey’s Kung-Fu Lesson, based on the popular trickster figure Monkey King, whose exploits feature in the great Chinese epic Journey to the West.

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 Puppet Slam 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/. For more information, call the Ballard Institute at (860) 486-8580, visit bimp.uconn.edu, or email us at bimp@uconn.edu.

Carlos Garcia writes: “Tito’s Dream is a collection of short poems that describe the poetic journey of a boy (Tito) searching for his mother who left forever.  Tito, naively believing that his mother moved to the moon, confronts many elements as he tries to reach her.  He will also feel the pain of saying goodbye to his childhood friend, Paulina.  This journey is an allegory of the passage from childhood to adulthood.

Cast: Darek Burkowski, Posy Knight, James Jelkin and Sarah Jensen

Puppetry: Anna Fitgerald

Music: Nick Trautman, Michael Albaine

Drawings: Kayla Blanchard

Costumes: Pat Ubaldi

Production: UCONN, Scott Ripley and Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry

Directed by Carlos García Estévez

Assistant Director: Paulo Serantes

at Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppertry, Storrs (CT)

Punto en el cielo

Go beyond the space,
get here.
Go beyond the time,
get now.
The here and now
is a beautiful star,
punto en el cielo
con ojos azules como la vida!

Little point,
there is no time, no space
but only here and now…
-pure state of an emotion-
Then sleep! Beyond it…
in that point
where you dream!

Tito’s Dream, 2nd Poem

Carlos García Estévez