[Caption: Heather Henson, Brenna Ross, and Anatar Marmol-Gagné will discuss Puppet Slams: Short-Form Puppetry for the 21st Century in a UConn Puppet Forum Wednesday, September 18 at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry.]

As part of its 2024 Fall Puppet Forum Series and in conjunction with the 2024 UConn Fall Puppet Slam on Sept. 20, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is pleased to host Puppet Slams: Short-Form Puppetry for the 21st Century, a discussion with Puppet Slam Network (PSN) founder Heather Henson; Brenna Ross, the Producer & General Manager for Green Feather Foundation, which oversees the PSN; and Anatar Marmol-Gagné, director of the Pinned and Sewtered Puppet Slam in New Haven, Connecticut; on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024 at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. This forum, moderated by Ballard Institute director (and puppet slam performer) John Bell, will also be broadcast via Ballard Institute Facebook Live (facebook.com/BallardInstitute).

This forum will explore puppet slams, which are live performances of curated, short-form puppetry acts for adult audiences that emerged from avant-garde puppet performance practices in the 1980s, with older roots in vaudeville and other popular practices. The Puppet Slam Network, founded by Heather Henson and IBEX Puppetry in 2005, encourages the growth and diversity of the puppet slam scene, and currently supports over 50 slams in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Heather Henson is a producer, puppet artist, and founder of the Green Feather Foundation (formerly IBEX Puppetry), an organization that promotes healing for the planet through immersive experiences. In 2005 Henson began the Puppet Slam Network to support the burgeoning underground community of adult short-form puppetry presenters, and through the Network has continued to fund and support Puppet Slams across North America. Henson also produces her own theatrical works, including Ajijaak on Turtle Island and Panther and Crane, and supports the work of other independent artists through the Handmade Puppet Dreams film series.

Brooklyn-based Brenna Ross is the Producer and General Manager of Green Feather Foundation and has overseen the Puppet Slam Network since 2017. She recently represented PSN in the Czech Republic as part of the International Puppet Slam partnership; produced the online National Puppetry Slamdemic in 2020; and is producing the upcoming International Puppet Slam in NYC in October 2023. A Midwestern ex-pat, Brenna holds degrees in physics and theater from Grinnell College and a certificate in Arts & Culture Strategy from University of Pennsylvania.

Originally from Caracas, Venezuela, Anatar Marmol-Gagné earned an MFA degree from the University of Connecticut’s renowned Puppet Arts Program, and a BA in English/Creative Writing from Hunter College. Anatar trained at the National Puppetry Conference at the O’Neill Theater Center, has taught children’s puppet workshops and performed in puppet slams and festivals at venues such as Dixon Place in NYC; and founded and curates the Pinned & Sewtured Puppet Slam in New Haven.

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.

The Ballard Institute and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2024 UConn Fall Puppet Slam on Friday, September 20, 2024 at 8 p.m. in UConn’s Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre, on the lower level of the Jorgensen Performing Arts Center at 2132 Hillside Road, Storrs, Conn. 06269. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam will feature new and experimental short works by professional puppeteers and performers from around the Northeast, including UConn Puppet Arts alumnus Esme Roszel and Boston-area puppeteer Harry LaCoste, 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.

Harry LaCoste will perform slam pieces: Bean Brain, about a boy acting out his mental health struggles; and Cheers!, a found-object show about the uncle that Harry never got to meet. UConn Puppet Arts alumni Esme Roszel and Ray Dondero will perform their new production Bingo Street. 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.

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 Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre, located at 2132 Hillside Road, Storrs, Conn. 06269, on the lower level. (use rear entrance). For directions to the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre, visit crt.uconn.edu. 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 its 2024 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is pleased to host Taking Care: Puppets and Their Collectors, a discussion with UConn Dramatic Arts Professor Dr. Jungmin Song, on Wednesday, March 27, 2024 at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. This forum will also be broadcast via Ballard Institute Facebook Live (facebook.com/BallardInstitute). 

In conjunction with the Ballard Institute’s new exhibit, Dr. Jungmin Song and Dr. John Bell will discuss the various puppet collectors whose donations have built the Ballard Institute’s puppet collections, from 1930s marionettes to Sicilian pupi, overhead projector innovations, and Frank Ballard musicals. This event is co-sponsored by the UConn Humanities Institute. 

Dr. Jungmin Song is Assistant Professor in Residence at the Department of Dramatic Arts, Research Associate at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, and a performance artist. Korean-born, she studied Costume and Textile at Seoul National University and Theatre Design at Central Saint Martins, University Arts London before completing a Ph.D. in performance at the University of Roehampton, London. Her research interests include contemporary theater, performance art, and puppetry. She curated the exhibitions Shakespeare and Puppetry (2020) and Puppetry’s Racial Reckoning (2021) at the Ballard Institute. She has published in Performance Research, Theatre Journal, Contemporary Theatre Review, and Asian Theatre Journal and was the editor of a special issue of Puppet Notebook on Shakespeare and puppetry.

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. 

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2024 UConn Spring Puppet Slam on Friday, March 22, 2024 at 8 p.m. in UConn’s von der Mehden Recital Hall, located at 875 Coventry Rd, Storrs, Connecticut 06269. The UConn Spring Puppet Slam will feature new and experimental short works by professional puppeteers and performers from around the Northeast, including UConn Puppet Arts alumna Stoph Scheer and the Stringpullers Puppet Company from Ithaca, New York, as well as new works by UConn Puppet Arts students; music by Derek Waldron, Teresa Bielecki and other musicians from Waldron’s Studios 88; and the coveted BIMPY Awards.

UConn Puppet Arts alumna Stoph Scheer will present Sharing Update, a comedic hand-and-rod puppet monologue in which an aging Long Island father processes his child’s trans identity through his limited vocabulary. The Ithaca, New York based Stringpullers Puppet Company (Linda Wingerter and Evgeni Nudelman) will perform a sock-puppet romantic comedy, Galaxy Laundromat. The UConn Spring Puppet Slam will also feature new works by graduate and undergraduate students from the UConn Puppet Arts Program, as well as the coveted annual BIMPY awards for puppetry excellence. Funding for the UConn Spring Puppet Slam is made possible, in part, by the Puppet Slam Network. These performances are recommended for mature audiences.

The UConn Spring 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 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. 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 its 2023 Fall Puppet Forum Series and in conjunction with the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry’s current exhibit, Tradition and Revolution in Indian Shadow Puppetry, the Ballard Institute is pleased to host an Indian Shadow Puppetry puppet forum with Tradition and Revolution exhibition curator Rahul Koonathara and Indian puppetry scholar Dr. Claudia Orenstein, on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023 at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs. This forum will also be broadcast via Ballard Institute Facebook Live (facebook.com/BallardInstitute). 

Rahul Koonathara is a UConn graduate student in the Department of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies, and a 12th-generation puppeteer in the Pulavar family of Tholpavakoothu shadow performers in Kerala, India. Dr. Claudia Orenstein is a professor of theater at Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center whose work focuses on performing object theatre and puppetry forms in India and Japan. Koonathara and Orenstein will discuss the spectacular South Indian shadow puppet traditions of Tolu Bommalatta and Tholpavakoothu, as well as recent innovations reflecting the changing nature of the form, all of which can be seen in the current Ballard Institute exhibit Tradition and Revolution in Indian Shadow Puppetry. The exhibition will be on display through Dec.17, 2023. 

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. 

About the Speakers

Rahul Koonathara is the younger son of legendary shadow puppet master Padmashri Ramachandra Pulavar and puppeteer Rajalakshmi Ramachandra Pulavar. He was born into a family of puppeteers which has preserved Tholpavakoothu shadow theater traditions for twelve generations. Rahul is currently a graduate student in the Department of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies at the University of Connecticut, under the guidance of Professor Matthew Cohen, and practices traditional shadow puppetry together with contemporary puppet productions, as well as scholarly research in the puppet arts. Rahul has a Bachelor’s degree in Physics, and a Master’s degree in Folklore Studies, as well as a degree in Acting from the National School of Drama in Bangalore. Rahul has performed major roles in traditional and contemporary shadow puppet productions at the Tholpavakoothu and Puppet Centre in Kerala, and at national and international festivals around the world. 

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: 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, is Board Member of UNIMA-USA and Associate Editor of Asian Theatre Journal. Current book projects: Thinking Through the Puppet: Essays on Puppet Dramaturgy and a two-volume co-edited anthology with Tim Cusack, Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects.