Free Puppet Slam at UConn Saturday

At the Nov. 10 UConn Puppet Slam, from L.A., Caitlin Lainoff and Dan Rae Wilson perform “Little Zoo”, an excerpt from “Zoophilic Follies,” a “puppet-opera adaptation of the Daedalus myth that celebrates the sad and strange hopes of the human heart.” Courtesy photo.

You may have heard of a “poetry slam” – a kind of performance/competition among poets. Now there’s a “puppet slam” – more about performance than competition, though – at the University of Connecticut in Storrs-Mansfield.

Anyone familiar with the programs and performances created by the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry (BIMP) knows that puppetry is a varied and often highly sophisticated art form with a history reaching back to the dawn of civilization.

BIMP, itself and its founder Frank Ballard, are known and respected internationally.

The free UConn Puppet Slams present an array of new works for short-form puppetry by vibrant puppet artists from New York City, Boston and around the country, as well as students studying in the University of Connecticut’s Puppet Arts Program.

Please note that many of the shows in the Puppet Slam are geared toward mature audiences and are not appropriate for children.

The Fall UConn Puppet Slam at 8 p.m. this Saturday (Nov. 10) will spotlight works by performance artist, sculptor, and videographer J.R. Uretsky   (a UConn graduate in Visual Arts and member of the feminist collective Dirt Palace); S.B. Parks (UConn Puppet Arts graduate and currently Costume Crafter at Hartford Stage); Paul Spirito (Technical Supervisor at the Puppet Arts Program); current Puppet Arts graduate students Penny Benson, Sarah Nolen, Seth Shaffer, Carianne Hoff  and Anna Fitzgerald; and, from Los Angeles, special guests Caitlin Lainoff and DanRae Wilson.

The event is free and will be held at UConn’s Studio Theater in the Drama and Music building.

For more information about BIMP, send email to bimp@uconn.edu or call 860-486-0339. The mailing address for BIMP is: Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry, University of Connecticut, 6 Bourne Pl, Storrs, CT 06269

Posted November 9, 2012

Related links:

Puppet Slam URL on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/UConnPuppetSlam

BIMP on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ballard-Institute-and-Museum-of-Puppetry/119039334775261

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