Students from UConn Professor John O’Donnell’s Experimental Animation Art class will present their works at the Ballard Institute Performance Space on May 29 at 6:00pm.
Admission is free.
Featuring the works of
Casey Higgins
Desiree Fredericks
Erica Laucella
Nick Ransom
On Monday, May 19, 2014, Ballard Institute Director Dr. John Bell and Puppet Arts graduate student Sarah Nolen appeared on Sarah Cody’s Fox CT Morning News segment Mommy Minute. Watch the video by visiting: UConn’s New Puppet Museum.
On exhibit March 1-June 1, 2014
This photographic exhibition features the revelatory work of Richard Termine, performing arts photographer for the New York Times, Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall and alumnus of UConn’s Puppet Arts Program. In over 60 photographs taken over the past decade, Termine documents the amazing new energy of contemporary puppet performance, from giant spectacles on Broadway and in Las Vegas to avant-garde works of New York’s downtown scene, the set of Sesame Street, and exciting experiments from the Puppet Slam scene, the National Puppetry Conference, and other dynamic venues of the current puppet revival.
On exhibit March 1-June 1, 2014
One of the groundbreaking aspects of Frank Ballard’s teaching at UConn was his innovative use of rod puppets—of all different forms and sizes—in rich spectacles featuring scores of characters and lavish sets.
We invite you to join us on Wednesday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the new Ballard Institute at Storrs Center for our next Spring Puppet Forum event with Roman Paska titled “The Quintessence of Puppetry.”
Internationally acclaimed puppeteer, director, and writer Roman Paska discusses his work for live performance and film, as well as his theoretical writings about the nature of puppet performance.
Admission to this event is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. Come early, and experience our three new puppet exhibitions in our new Storrs Center home, as well as the video resources inour library nook. This forum will also be live-streamed on our UStream page. Visit bimp.uconn.edu for more information.
We invite you to join us this Wednesday, April 16 at 7:30 p.m. in the new Ballard Institute at Storrs Center for our next Spring Puppet Forum event with Richard Termine titled “Puppets Through the Lens: Photography and the Performing Object.”
Acclaimed photographer and UConn Puppet Arts graduate Richard Termine will discuss the dynamics of capturing puppet performance via the camera, and his photographs in the current Ballard Institute exhibition devoted to his work.
Admission to this event is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. Come early, and experience our three new puppet exhibitions in our new Storrs Center home, as well as the video resources in our library nook. This forum will also be live-streamed on our UStream page. Visit bimp.uconn.edu for more information.
We invite you to join us this Wednesday, April 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the new Ballard Institute at Storrs Center for our next Spring Puppet Forum event with Dr. Robert S. Herr titled “Puppets at the Vanguard: The Strident Voice and Radical Politics of Mexico’s Post-Revolutionary Teatro Guiñol.” This forum is co-sponsored by El Instituto: UConn’s Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean and Latin American Studies.
Dr. Robert S. Herr, from Dartmouth College’s Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies Program, will discuss the nature of 1920s and 30s activist puppet theater in Mexico, when artists, teachers and state officials collaborated to stage educational plays in working class neighborhoods and rural communities in an effort to foster revolutionary citizens.
Admission to this event is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. Come early, and experience our three new puppet exhibitions in our new Storrs Center home, as well as the video resources in our library nook. This forum will also be live-streamed on our UStream page. Visit bimp.uconn.edu for more information.
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
The Ballard Institute’s Spring 2014 Puppet Forum Series features an array of fascinating approaches to the world of puppetry from renowned scholars, puppeteers, writers, and photographers in a program of Wednesday evening events at the new Ballard Institute at Storrs Center, 1 Royce Circle in downtown Storrs. Each puppet forum will begin at 7:30 p.m., and will also be streamed on the internet. These events are free and open to the public; donations are gratefully accepted. Refreshments will be served.
The Puppet Forum series includes the following presentations:
March 12: Grant Hayter-Menzies, Shadow Woman: The Extraordinary Career of Pauline Benton.
Co-sponsored by the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute. Author Grant Hayter-Menzies discusses his new book about Kansas-born puppeteer Pauline Benton (1898-1974) who discovered piyingxi shadow theater in Beijing, mastered its techniques, and popularized the form across the United States during the Great Depression. In conjunction with the UConn Co-op Bookstore at Storrs Center.
March 26: “Rod Puppets and the Human Theater: Frank Ballard Productions at UConn.”
Join a panel discussion with student curator Sarah Nolen, Puppet Arts faculty, and alumni about Frank Ballard’s rod puppet productions at UConn, the nature of rod puppetry, and the design, construction, and performance processes of this work.
April 9: Robert Herr, “Puppets at the Vanguard: The Strident Voice and Radical Politics of Mexico’s Post-Revolutionary Teatro Guiñol.”
Co-sponsored by El Instituto. Dr. Robert S. Herr, from Dartmouth College’s Latin American, Latino and Caribbean Studies Program, discusses the nature of 1920s and 30s activist puppet theater in Mexico, when artists, teachers and state officials collaborated to stage educational plays in working class neighborhoods and rural communities in an effort to foster revolutionary citizens.
April 16: Richard Termine, “Puppets Through the Lens: Photography and the Performing Object.”
Acclaimed photographer and UConn Puppet Arts graduate Richard Termine discusses the dynamics of capturing puppet performance via the camera, and his photographs in the current Ballard Institute exhibition devoted to his work.
April 30: Roman Paska, “The Quintessence of Puppetry.”
Internationally acclaimed puppeteer, director, and writer Roman Paska discusses his work for live performance and film, as well as his theoretical writings about the nature of puppet performance.