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The Ballard Institute’s Spring 2014 Puppet Forum Series will feature 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 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 and Proselytizing: Politics and Nation-Building in Post-Revolutionary Mexico’s Didactic Theater”
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
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.
A scene from Reverse Cascade (Photo by Richard Termine).
On Saturday, March 1st the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will inaugurate its brand-new black-box theater in its Storrs Center home with Reverse Cascade, a new Puppet Arts Production by MFA candidate Anna Fitzgerald. The premiere performances of the production at 1:00 and 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 1 will coincide with the grand opening of the Storrs Center complex that day at 2 p.m.
In Fitzgerald’s new found-object puppet production juggling clubs, rings, scarves and clown noses transform before the audience to tell a story based on the life of Judy Finelli, the renowned San Francisco-based “new circus” performer and juggler whose body began to betray her. Eventually diagnosed with rapidly progressing Multiple Sclerosis, Finelli confronts the fact that she will lose the use of her body, and, it seems, her life’s work.
Reverse Cascade highlights the humanity of an artist and performer. At times both funny and tragic, the show the reveals the ups and downs of a life that seems to follow the bell curve of a “reverse cascade” juggling pattern. In addition to careful puppetry manipulation, the production also features Michael Albaine and Nicholas Trauttman of UConn’s Music Department, who accompany the performers with live original music.
There are nine chances to see this unique puppet performance, but seating is limited so reserve your tickets now at the Connecticut Repertory Theatre’s website. Tickets are $10 if purchased ahead online, $12 at the door, and $8 for students.
Performances:
Opening – Saturday March 1st – 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. (Ribbon Cutting for the new Ballard Institute at 2 p.m.)
Sunday March 2 – 8 p.m.
Tuesday March 4 – 8 p.m.
Friday March 7 – 8 p.m.
Saturday March 8 – 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Sunday March 9 – 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.
The new Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at Storrs Center will open its doors on Saturday, March 1 at 2 p.m. with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Institute’s new address: 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs, Connecticut. The festivities will celebrate three new exhibitions in the museum, and also the opening of the entire 1 Royce Circle complex, which includes the UConn Co-op Bookstore and Le Petit Café as well as the Ballard Institute. The opening will also coincide with the production of the first theatrical performances in the Ballard Institute’s new performance space–Puppet Arts student Anna Fitzgerald’s master’s thesis project Reverse Cascade. The opening ceremonies are free and open to the public.
The three new exhibitions featured in the Ballard Museum’s opening will focus on the puppetry of Frank Ballard, the photographic work of UConn Puppet Arts alumnus Richard Termine, and selections from the Ballard Institute’s vast collection of global puppet traditions. These exhibitions will be on display through the end of May.
“The Rise and Fall of Timur the Lame” directed by Theodora Skipitares. Photograph by Richard Termine, copyright 2002.
Puppets through the Lens: Photography by Richard Termine features the revelatory work of Richard Termine, performing arts photographer for The New York Times, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall, and an alumnus of UConn’s Puppet Arts Program. In over 60 photographs 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.
Frank Ballard rod puppet. Photograph by Sarah Nolen, copyright 2013.
Spectacular Extravaganzas: The Rod Puppetry of Frank Ballard focuses on the innovative use of rod puppets by Frank Ballard over the course of his career at UConn. Ballard’s use of a variety of rod puppet techniques in rich spectacles featured scores of characters and lavish sets. This exhibition, curated by Puppet Arts MFA student Sarah Nolen features figures made by UConn students for such productions as The Mikado, H.M.S. Pinafore, Petrushka, The Golden Cockerel, and The Ring of the Nibelung, offering a new perspective on a dynamic aspect of Frank Ballard’s work.
Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers marionettes by Rufus and Margo Rose. Photograph by Richard Termine, copyright 2012.
The World of Puppetry: From the Collections of the Ballard Institute showcases an array of different puppets carefully selected from over 2,600 puppets in the Ballard Institute collections to reflect the amazing richness of global puppet traditions and contemporary innovations in puppetry. The exhibition’s array of handpuppets, marionettes, rod puppets, toy theaters, and shadow figures from around the world will include work by Rufus and Margo Rose, Charles Ludlam, Janie Geiser, Marjorie Batchelder McPharlin, Tony Sarg, Bil Baird, Frank Ballard, and puppets from Indonesia, Africa, Iran, Germany, England, Latin America, and France.
The first performance event of the Ballard Institute’s 2014 season will be the UConn Spring Puppet Slam, on Saturday, February 1 at 8 p.m. at UConn’s Studio Theater. Admission is free, and donations are greatly appreciated. This event is produced with generous support from the Puppet Slam Network.
The Spring Puppet Slam will feature, as always, innovative new works and experiments by the talented students of UConn’s Puppet Arts Program, as well as productions by guest artists from around the Northeast.
Our guest productions next Saturday include the following:
– Fable of the Flying Fox: In this production by the Brooklyn-based Alphabet Arts company, Lawrence Carrillo and Jamie Moore, assisted by Amber West and Chris Borchardt, perform a tabletop show about a gluttonous fox who soars through treetops stealing eggs from unguarded nests.
– Lover’s Waltz: Another Alphabet Arts production, performed by Lawrence Carrillo and Jamie Moore, this show is a love song between two elders, one with dementia, who have not seen each other for many years, performed with pop-up book scenery designed by Kirsten Kammermeyer. Music/story by Annie Bacon.
– Michelina De Cesare, La Brigantessa: a cantastoria, or picture performance, performed by puppeteers Maryann Colella and Angela DiVeglia, of Boston and Providence respectively, taking on one of the richest traditions of southern Italian popular culture: the romantic lives of the bandits.
Please join us for what will surely be an exciting and rewarding evening of compelling puppet theater! These shows will be good for adults, teens, and kids.
This Fall, the Ballard Institute’s popular UConn Fall Puppet Forum Series will feature puppeteers and scholars explaining the past, present, and possible future of puppetry around the world. The Fall 2013 series will focus on current developments in world-wide puppetry and its connections to ancient texts, television dramaturgy, traditional culture, digital media, and puppet museums, as all these factors interact with each other in a global network. The UConn Fall Puppet Forums will take place on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 at the Ballard Institute’s Depot Campus Center and are free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. The roster of Fall Puppet Forum speakers so far includes the following: 1. Wednesday, September 25: Diane Daly: “Que vivan los títeres: Community Support Among Today’s Mexican Puppeteers.”
Diane Daily
Join us for an exciting look at how traditional puppetry thrives in Mexico, when Diane Daly, from the University of Arizona’s School of Information Resources & Library Science, will discuss her research on peer development among Mexican puppeteers, who “continually cultivat[e] a form of puppetry fed by popular international traditions but with distinctly Mexican roots.” Daly’s research “taps into virtual and face-to-face communication within Mexico’s puppetry community to provide dynamic glimpses of this culture and to explore how new tech platforms can help it grow.” Co-sponsored by El Instituto, UConn’s Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies. 2. October 16: Dr. Robin Ruizendaal, “Asian Puppet Theatre and the Puppet Theatre Museum.”
Dr. Robin Ruizendaal
Scholar, puppeteer, and museum director Dr. Robin Ruizendaal will present an overview of the current state of Asian puppet theater in the era of mass communication, and chart how traditional and modern companies function in contemporary Asia. Ruizendaal, the Director of Taiwan’s Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum, and the Managing & Artistic Director of the Taiyuan Puppet Theatre Company, earned a Ph.D. in Chinese studies from Leiden University, Holland, and has been doing research on Asian puppet theatre for over twenty years. His talk will focus on the history and current practices of the Lin Liu-Hsin Puppet Theatre Museum which he directs in Taipei. Ruizendaal will discuss the conservation and collection policies of the museum (which according to Ruizendaal has “the most complete collection of Asian puppets in the world”), as well as its educational projects, interactive exhibitions and performances. 3. Wednesday, October 30: Dr. Marvin Carlson, “The Ibn Daniyal Trilogy: Theatre from Medieval Cairo”
Dr. Marvin Carlson
Famed theater historian Dr. Marvin Carlson will speak about his and his colleagues’ current research into 13th-century Egyptian shadow theater, and the implications of those studies for puppet history. Professor Carlson, a Distinguished Professor of Theatre at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, is well-known throughout the world for his contributions to theater history, including 1993 book Theories of Theatre, which has been translated into seven languages. His 2011 book Theatres of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, written in collaboration with Khalid Amine, explored the history of drama in the Arab world. At UConn Professor Carlson will further explore the history of Arabic theater by reading from his latest project, The Ibn Daniyal Trilogy: Theatre from Medieval Cairo, a series of plays translated and edited by Dr. Safi Mahmoud Mahfouz and Dr. Carlson. These “thirteenth century shadow plays of remarkable sophistication from Egypt by the author Ibn Daniyal,” Dr. Carlson recently wrote, “are going to make a major impact on medieval drama studies,” and “puppet theatre studies as well, since almost nothing is known of these important works.” 4. Wednesday, November 6: Annie Evans, “Writing for Sesame Street.”
Annie Evans
Drawing from her experience as a principal writer for Sesame Street since 1994, Annie Evans will discuss her journey from college to Sesame Street, and the show itself. She will explain “how we write it, how we use puppetry to its best advantage, shooting on the street or on blue screen, and how the show has changed and adapted in the past twenty years.” Evans will discuss the ways that new technology and research methods affect Sesame Street, and her experience working with international Sesame Streets around the world, particularly in East Asia. In addition to her Sesame Street work, Evans has been a principal writer for Elmo’s World, and has written scripts and lyrics for many television puppet shows, and has also served as a consultant on Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian co-production of Sesame Street. All of the 2013 UConn Fall Puppet Forums will take place at the Ballard Institute’s Depot Campus Center. For more information call the Ballard Institute at 860 486 0339.
The 2013 UConn Fall Puppet Slam, on Saturday evening, September 21 in the Dramatic Arts Department’s Studio Theatre will feature short works by acclaimed alumni of the Puppet Arts Program as well as new works by current students in the program. For the first time, the UConn Puppet Slam will offer two performances of the same program: at 8 p.m. and at 10 p.m. Guests at a Ballard Institute fund-raising event will attend the 8 p.m. showing, so the general public is urged to attend to 10 p.m. showing.
Zachery Dorn and Murphi Cook
The Fall Puppet Slam will feature works by Puppet Arts alumni Zachery Dorn, Carole D’Agostino, Dave Regan, and Joseph Therrien.
Pittsburgh-based Zachery Dorn has recently focused on live-streamed internet performances of toy theater productions using hand-held cameras, some of which he will perform at UConn: What Time is it in Berlin? and A Story About the Saddest Story.
Carole D’Agostino has been performing in New England-area Puppet Slams since 1997. She will present scenes from The Hoarding Show, a miniature spectacle combining tabletop puppetry, shadow theater, and object theater “about the clutter we keep, mentally and physically in our lives,” including the story of the famous Collyer brothers of New York City.
Zachery Dorn and Jason Hicks
Joseph Therrien, working with puppeteer Jason Hicks, will present scenes from their handpuppet spectacle Weasel, Citizen Hero, an irreverent series of shows featuring found-object puppets and political satire, which the duo have created at Bread & Puppet Theater, where Therrien is now a company member.
And Dave Regan of Fluke Theater will perform a handpuppet piece entitled Fight or Flyght.
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 Slam Network.
The UConn Fall Puppet Slam is free and open to the public–donations are greatly appreciated. Both the 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. showings are open to the general public, but more than half of the seats for the 8 p.m. showing will be reserved for fund-raiser attendees. For directions to the Studio Theater see this site. For more information call the Ballard Institute at 860 486 0339.
A Ballard Institute project to support new works for puppetry will culminate in a production of Erik Ehn’s The Architecture of Great Cathedrals on Friday, September 20 at 6:30 at the University of Connecticut Human Rights Institute‘s international “Contexts of Human Rights” conference. The performance will take place at the Wilber Cross Reading Room at UConn.
Sarah Nolen, Dana Samborski, and Anna Fitzgerald rehearsing
Puppet Arts Program graduate students Anna Fitzgerald, Sarah Nolen, and Dana Samborski, working with Puppet Arts Director Bart Roccoberton and BIMP Director John Bell, conceived, designed, built, and will perform Ehn’s play–part of the playwright’s celebrated Soulographie cycle of dramas about genocide–as a tabletop puppet production which they began to work on last spring.
“I’m extremely excited to see this work,” Dr. Bell said; “the combination of these talented Puppet Arts students and Erik Ehn’s stunning text is going to make for a compelling puppet production. I’m glad the Human Rights conference participants can see it.”
The first performance of the show will be exclusively for Human Rights conference participants (see their website for registration information); however the Ballard Institute hopes to produce public performances of the production in the future.
An amazing array of puppets from the Ballard Institute collections and UConn’s Puppet Arts Program will be on display September 9 through October 5 in “The World of Puppetry”, an exhibition at the Vernon Community Art Center in Vernon, Connecticut! The Opening Reception for the event is Sunday, September 8 from 1 to 4 p.m.
The exhibition includes the following amazing workshops, performances, and talks:
– Three puppet shows created and performed by graduate students of the Puppet Arts Program on Saturday, September 14th at 2:00; Sunday, September 22nd at 2:00; and Saturday, October 5th at 7:30.
– Shadow Theatre Workshop on Saturday, September 21st
– Toy Theatre Workshop on Saturday, September 28th. These intergenerational workshops, led by UConn Puppetry faculty and students, are intended for children, parents and/or grandparents.
Rod puppets by Frank Ballard
– “Behind the Puppet Stage”: a lecture by Puppet Arts Program Director Bart Roccoberton on Sunday, September 29th.
Gallery hours for the exhibition, from September 12th through October 5th, are Thursday through Sunday 1 – 5.
For details about the performances and to register for the workshops, please visit the Vernon Community Arts Center website or contact the VCAC by phone at: (860) 871-VCAC (8222).
This project is made possible by a grant from The Greater Hartford Arts Council and funding from The Vernon Arts Commission.
Puppets from around the world representing several centuries worth of global traditions, as well as as cutting-edge hybrids of puppetry and digital technology, make up the rich array of performing objects on display in the Ballard Institute’s new exhibition Strings, Rods, Robots: Recent Acquisitions.
Jim Henson’s “Wizard of Id”
The exhibition, curated by UConn Art and Art History graduate student Lindsay Simon, showcases an exhilarating diversity of puppets from around the world recently donated to the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. Strings, Rods, Robots exhibition brings together ancient puppet traditions and Modernist innovations, with objects ranging from Vietnamese water puppets, Persian ritual marionettes, and Javanese shadow puppets to 1930s Alabama marionettes, department store automata by Ellen Rixford, a lifesize robotic marionette by French media artist Zaven Paré, traditional Egyptian shadow puppets, a Dada-inspired marionette by Australian artist Sally Smart, a spectacular Danish toy theater, and a stunning array of global puppet forms collected by John E. and Marilyn O’Connor Miller.
Electronic Marionette by Zaven Paré
These visually striking–and sometimes startling–juxtapositions reveal the contemporary world of puppetry as a fecund and florid network of hybrid culture, where centuries-old traditions of epic, religious, comic, and political puppetry performed with wooden, cloth, and leather figures rub shoulders with mechanical or electronic puppets made of plastic, metal, and glass. And yet, despite these fascinating contradictions, the old and new puppets continue to reveal to us what is happening in our societies, with insight, humor, and wisdom.
March 26: “Rod Puppets and the Human Theater: Frank Ballard Productions at UConn”
April 9: Robert Herr, “Puppets and Proselytizing: Politics and Nation-Building in Post-Revolutionary Mexico’s Didactic Theater”
April 30: Roman Paska, “The Quintessence of Puppetry”
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