Down the Rabbit Hole: Ballard Celebrates 150 years of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

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This past Saturday and Sunday, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry offered fall community puppet-building workshops with acclaimed Boston puppeteer Sara Peattie.

This year’s free workshops held at the Ballard Institute workshop space celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Participants brought the colorful and fantastic figures that popular Carroll’s fanciful world to life, rendering the White Rabbit, the Red Queen, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, and the eponymous Alice into puppet form.

Workshop participants are invited to parade with their puppets as part of the Celebrate Mansfield Parade that will be held on Sunday, September 20 at noon (Line-up begins at 11am at Farrell Field near the Post Office). The parade is part of the 12th Annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival.

Sara Peattie’s dramatic puppet creations have been featured at 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 that allows community members of all ages to take part in the age-old pleasures of participatory puppet performance in public spaces. Sara recently designed and directed the community puppet parade and pageant in Storrs Center as part of the 2015 Puppeteers of America National Puppetry Festival.

For information on the 12th Annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival, visit http://www.downtownstorrsfestival.org

2015 Fall Puppet Performance Series

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host its Fall Puppet Performance Series on four Saturdays from October to December 2015, 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:

CrippsPuppetsHeadshot300October 3: “Cripps Puppets: A Slice of Crazy Pie in 7 to 11 Acts” by Madison J. Cripps Join Madison and his cabaret style marionettes in this zany interactive show fun for the whole family. Each hand-carved marionette is a character unto itself! With original songs, harmonica and creative puns.

 


spooky-sillySmallOctober 24: “Spooky-Silly Sing-A-Long” by Nappy’s Puppets Join in the fun as Jim Napolitano of Nappy’s Puppets presents some of the silliest sing-a-long songs known to man and monster alike!

 

 

Isidor27s CheekWeb November 14: “Isidor’s Cheek” by Sandglass Theater The award-winning classic performed by Ines Zeller Bass on a revolving stage. One day, Isidor’s cheek runs away, and he must search around the world to find it.

 

 

Fall2015SeriesDecember 5: “Lollipops for Breakfast” by Bonnie Duncan A marvelous confection of friendship, invention, and adventure! You can’t have lollipops for breakfast! But today, Sylvie decides she’s going to break that rule, even if it means she has to make her own amazingly perfect lollipop from scratch. The show concludes with an interactive kids’ dance party!

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

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. Tickets may be purchased at the Ballard Institute on the days of performances. There will be a limited number of seats. For more information about these shows, visit bimp.uconn.edu or call (860) 486-8580.

“Unfolding” by Margarita Blush on 9/18-9/20 and 9/25-9/27

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Margarita Blush and the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry present

“Unfolding”

An original puppet theatre production

Friday, September 18, 7:30pm: Opening and Reception

Saturday, September 19, 7:30pm: Show; 9pm: Talkback

Sunday, September 20, 5pm: Show

Friday, September 25, 7:30pm: Show

Saturday, September 26, 7:30pm: Show; 9pm: Talkback

Sunday, September 27, 2pm: Show

Ticket Prices:

Adults: $15, Students: $10

Tickets can be purchased with CASH ONLY at the Ballard Institute one hour before the performances.

Recommended for audiences ages 10 and up

Unfolding is a new international project in which a diverse group of artists come together to create an original puppet theatre production delving into the themes of women’s wisdom and empowerment.

The show features hand-crafted puppets, live acting, unique design, and original music.

The international creative team for Unfolding is comprised of Bulgarian-American director and project lead Margarita Blush (who is also faculty at the UConn Puppet Arts Program), Bulgarian scenographer Dimitar Dimitrov, American performers Lucia Rich, Ceili Clemens, and Sarah Nolen, Iranian-American composer and musician Amir Khosrowpour, American lighting designer Adam Lobelson, and American dramaturg Lindsay Cummings.

Tickets can be purchased with CASH ONLY at the Ballard Institute one hour before the performances. For more information contact the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at bimp@uconn.edu or 860-486-8580.

Ballard Institute presents International Paper Theater Performances on 9/3 at 7:30 p.m.!

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at Storrs Center will present an exciting evening program of three family-friendly works for paper theater–also known as toy theater–on Thursday, September 3 at 7:30 p.m.  This travelling paper theater mini-festival features puppeteers from Mexico City’s Facto Teatro, Berlin-based graphic artist and puppeteer Barbara Steinetz, and John Bell and Trudi Cohen of New York City’s Great Small Works company.  Tickets for these family-friendly performances are $12.

The program of international paper theater performances includes three shows. Facto Teatro’s Don Chico with Wings is a funny tale of a man who decides he needs to fly. Based on a story by Mexican writer Eraclio Zepeda, it speaks of ingenuity, creativity, surrealism and human adventure and shows that, for some, the sky is the limit. Trudi Cohen and Ballard Institute director John Bell will perform Living Newspaper, Episode Two: Sidewalk Ballet, in which Jane Jacobs, Robert Moses and a burning bush battle over the right to public space. And Facto Teatro teams up with Barbara Steinitz for Duraznos Azules (Blue Peaches), a story about a boy who wants to find out why the peach tree in his grandmother’s garden is producing blue peaches.

Paper Theater, also known as Toy Theater, is a unique form of puppetry.  Flat paper figures evoke grand worlds, as they did centuries ago in the living rooms of European homes. Through international Toy Theater Festivals in New York and Mexico City, performances around the world, and workshops for people of all ages and persuasions, Great Small Works and Facto Teatro have been responsible for a resurgence of interest in this accessible, inexpensive form. The grandest of tales with the simplest of means! And—you can do it yourself!

Tickets for this program of International Paper Theater Performances can be purchased with cash only at the Ballard Institute one hour before the performances. For more information contact Emily Wicks at bimp@uconn.edu or 860-486-8585.

Free Puppet-Building Workshops on 9/12 and 9/13, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

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WorkshopThe 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 for the Celebrate Mansfield Parade in downtown Storrs, Connecticut. These free workshops will take place Saturday and Sunday, September 12 and 13 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 20 at noon (Line-up begins at 11:00 AM at Farrell Field near the Post Office). The Parade is a part of the 12th Annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival.

This year’s puppet-building workshops will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by designing and creating puppets based on the colorful and fantastic figures that populate Carroll’s fanciful world: the White Rabbit, the Red Queen, the Cheshire Cat, the March Hare, and Alice herself–which character would you like to create?

Sara Peattie’s 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. Sara recently designed and directed the community puppet parade and pageant in Storrs Center as part of the 2015 Puppeteers of America National Puppetry Festival.

To participate in these free community puppet-building workshops with Sara Peattie, register by contacting 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 Mansfield Downtown Partnership, Inc.

12th Annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival

Sunday, September 20 On the Mansfield Town Square

Info: http://www.downtownstorrsfestival.org

 

“The Work That Follows: 50 Years of UConn Puppeteers,” July 11-November 1, 2015

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From Hua Hua Zhang's "Who Are You?" Photograph by Bill Hebert.
From Hua Hua Zhang’s “Who Are You?” Photograph by Bill Hebert.

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry  presents its new exhibition The Work That Follows: 50 Years of UConn Puppeteers at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs, Connecticut.

For 50 years, puppeteers have passed through UConn’s unique Puppet Arts Program to study the skills and techniques of imagining, designing, building, and performing new works for puppetry. Though the basic skills of puppetry taught at UConn are perpetually consistent, the work that follows graduation is specific to the hands that created it. The Work That Follows, curated by Anna Fitzgerald (MFA ’14), highlights the work of Puppet Arts Program alumni, and how these puppet artists have incorporated their own distinctive perspective with skills learned at UConn. The exhibition features puppets and objects created for live performance, film, and video; as well as photographs and video documentation of performances. The exhibition will be on display through November 1, 2015.

2015 Summertime Saturday Puppet Show Series!

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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.

Toy Theater Workshop, Saturday, April 25, 1-5 p.m.

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IMG_8343The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry presents a one-day toy theater workshop for all ages led by Toy Theater Professor Dr. John Bell on April 25 from 1-5 p.m. Create the grandest of tales with the simplest of means!

Toy theater is the 200-year-old invention of flat, cut-out, table-top puppet shows that kids, adults, and families can create and perform by themselves. Recently re-discovered by artists, performers, and puppeteers as a brilliant means of creating do-it-yourself or professional puppet shows, toy theater has experienced a glorious 21st-century revival.

Join us at the Ballard Institute for this public workshop in toy theater creation, building, and performance. Learn about the history and construction of toy theater stages and puppets, and then create your own personal story – in a box!

Workshop cost: $15/person

There is a limited number of seats, so pre-registration is required. Please contact Emily Wicks, Ballard Institute Program Assistant, at emily.wicks@uconn.edu or 860.486.8585 to register.

 

“Reed + Light: Works by Anne Cubberly” and “Masters of the Marionette: Rufus and Margo Rose,” March 7-June 28, 2015

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present the grand opening of two new exhibitions: Reed + Light: Works by Anne Cubberly, and Masters of the Marionette: Rufus and Margo Rose, on Saturday, March 7 at 2 p.m. at the Ballard Institute in Storrs Center.  The opening events will include a tour of Reed + Light by curator and artist Anne Cubberly and a demonstration of Rose marionettes by puppeteer Fred Thompson.

In Reed + Light, acclaimed Hartford visual artist and spectacle creator Anne Cubberly presents some of her trademark giant puppets and costumes representing the strong, the fragile, and the temporary. In this installation Cubberly shows how—with reed, paper, fabric, and repurposed materials—she works on life-size and giant scales to create the honesty of a sketch.

Guest curator Fred Thompson and UConn Art History student Hannah Kennedy present the work of Connecticut’s most famed puppeteers of the 20th century, Rufus and Margo Rose, in the new exhibition Masters of the Marionette. Spanning the decades between their early cross-country tours of the 1920s and the newer technologies of film and television, this exhibition traces the path of these pioneers of American puppetry.

Both exhibitions will be on display through June 28, 2015.

In conjunction with the opening celebration, both Anne Cubberly and Fred Thompson will participate in the Ballard Institute’s Spring Puppet Forum Series. On Wednesday, March 11 at 7 p.m., Cubberly will lead a presentation titled Making Art with Your Community, in which she will talk about her extensive work in the Hartford area, and its focus on creativity, process, community, and re-purposed materials. On Wednesday, April 8 at 7 p.m., celebrated puppeteer and teacher Fred Thompson will illuminate the Masters of the Marionette exhibition by describing his own work with puppeteers Rufus and Margo Rose. These events are free and open to the public.