It’s Always Pandemonium:
The Puppets of Bart Roccoberton
April 27 - September 29, 2019
It’s Always Pandemonium celebrated the ongoing puppetry career of Bart. P. Roccoberton, Jr., from his touring days performing with his troupe the Pandemonium Puppet Company; to his founding of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s Institute of Professional Puppetry Arts; and most recently, to his work building puppets and puppeteers as Director of the UConn Puppet Arts Program. It’s Always Pandemonium featured over 60 puppets, masterfully designed and crafted by Bart Roccoberton, his Pandemonium collaborators, and countless UConn Puppet Arts students under his guidance.
Curated by Matt Sorensen, Installation by Matt Sorensen, Emily Wicks, Tracy Becker, Noel Williams, and UConn Puppet Arts students.
Army Ants & their Guests:
Works Inspired by the Carl and Marian Rettenmeyer Collection
October 17, 2019-February 9, 2020
In collaboration with the AntU project of UConn’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the Connecticut State Museum of Natural History, the Ballard Institute presented Army Ants and their Guests: Works Inspired by the Carl and Marian Rettenmeyer Collection. This exhibition featured new works by puppeteers from around the world--Jae Sirikarn Bunjongtad, Sarah Frechette, Honey Goodenough, Dirk Joseph, Stephen Kaplin, Monica Leo, Tarish Pipkins, Poncili Creación, and Miss Pussycat--depicting the fascinating worlds of army ants and the creatures who live with them; marionettes from Rufus and Margo Rose’s 1949 production The Ant and the Grasshopper; and AntU toy theaters created in Ballard Institute workshops. This project was made possible through an award from the National Science Foundation.
Curated by John Bell and Emily Wicks. Installation by Matt Sorensen, Emily Wicks, and John Bell.
Spiffy Pictures:
Adventures in Television Animation
July 14-October 7, 2018
Spiffy Pictures: Adventures in Television Animation celebrated the work of David Rudman, Adam Rudman and Todd Hannert whose Spiffy Pictures company has created award-winning productions for PBS Kids, Sesame Street, Nickelodeon, Disney, Comedy Central, and other media channels. The exhibition featured Nick Jr.’s Jack’s Big Music Show, and Disney’s Emmy-nominated Bunnytown. Including over 50 exquisitely crafted Spiffy puppets and fascinating backstage footage, Spiffy Pictures offered exciting insights into the magic of contemporary puppet production.
Curated by Matt Sorensen, Emily Wicks, and John Bell. Installation by Matt Sorensen, Tracy Becker, Zachary Broome.
Frank Ballard into the 80s:
Babes in Toyland, The Blue Bird, and The Fantasticks
July 14-October 7, 2018
Frank Ballard (1929-2010) worked tirelessly for 34 years at the University of Connecticut as a puppeteer, designer, director, teacher, and mentor. Ballard joined UConn in 1956 as a set designer and technical director, but in 1965 he began what has became the Puppet Arts Program. Professor Ballard and his students designed, built, and performed over twenty puppet productions at UConn, beginning in 1968 with The Mikado and ending with H.M.S. Pinafore in 1989, just before his retirement, which was brought on by the onset of Parkinson’s disease. Ballard’s work and the legacy of his program has made it possible for UConn students--such as David Rudman and Todd Hannert, whose work is featured in our accompanying Spiffy Pictures exhibition--to play essential roles in the development of puppetry around the world. This exhibit featured three productions by UConn Puppet Arts Director Frank Ballard: the 1903 Victor Herbert operetta Babes in Toyland; Maurice Maeterlinck’s 1908 symbolist classic The Blue Bird; and the 1960s Off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks. Marking a departure from Ballard’s early focus on string marionettes, these late-career shows combined actors with puppets of all sizes and forms, constructed from such novel materials as polyurethane foam.
Curated by Matt Sorensen, Emily Wicks, and John Bell. Installation by Matt Sorensen, Tracy Becker, Zachary Broome.
American Puppet Modernism:
The Early 20th Century
February 22-June 17, 2018
This exhibit celebrated the puppet revival that developed across the United States in 1920s and 30s. Inspired by the European avant-garde; Asian, African, and Latin American performance; the vibrant culture of American cities; and the possibilities of such new technologies as film; puppeteers, artists, and writers decided that puppetry was an ideal medium for representing modern life. From cross-country touring shows to giant inflatable street puppets, avant-garde operas, and other ground-breaking innovations, Americans rediscovered and redefined puppetry in ways that still guide the form today. American Puppet Modernism: The Early 20th Century included works by Tony Sarg, Margo and Rufus Rose, Ralph Chessé, Marjorie Batchelder, Martin and Olga Stevens, Bil Baird, Frank and Elizabeth Haines, Alexander Calder, the Yale Puppeteers, the Federal Theater Project, and Hazelle Rollins.
Curated by John Bell. Installation by Matt Sorensen, Emily Wicks, John Bell, Trudi Cohen, Paul Spirito, and UConn Puppet Arts students.
Mascots!
Mask Performance in the 21st Century
October 19, 2017 - February 11, 2018
The world of mascots is one of the most vibrant and active areas of contemporary mask performance in the United States. With their combination of costumes and over-life-size head masks, mascots are stunning symbolic representations of professional, college, and high-school sports teams, companies, and other organizations. Through their performances at sporting events, parades, theme parks, street corners, and other venues, mascots represent powerful ideas of community, team spirit, and organizational identity. The Ballard Institute's Mascots! exhibition examined the creators, history and social context of mascots in North America, and brought together exciting examples of contemporary and historic mascots ranging from UConn's Jonathan the Husky to famous major-league figures.
Curated by Emily Wicks, Matt Sorensen, and John Bell. Installation by Matt Sorensen, Emily Wicks, Noel Williams, Abby Bosley, and Maggie Flanagan.
Sailors, Sea Creatures and Strings:
Maritime Puppets from the Collections of the Ballard Institute
October 12 - December 17, 2017
In this special guest exhibition at UConn's Avery Point campus, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry presented Sailors, Sea Creatures, and Strings, an installation of puppets performed in popular maritime tales. This exhibition featured marionettes, rod puppets, and set pieces from late UConn Puppet Arts Program founder Frank Ballard’s productions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore (1989) and Richard Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung (1980). The exhibit also highlighted marionettes created by famed Waterford, Connecticut puppeteers Rufus and Margo Rose from their celebrated 1937 production of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.
Curated by Matt Sorensen. Installation by Matt Sorensen, Leslie Dame, Noel Williams, and Zachary Broome.
Frank Ballard’s Marionette Modernism:
‘Peer Gynt’ and ‘The Love for Three Oranges'
October 22, 2016-February 12, 2017
Frank Ballard’s Marionette Modernism: Peer Gynt and The Love for Three Oranges was a striking exposition of Frank Ballard’s life-long passion for the artistic possibilities of string marionettes as it emerged in his spectacular versions of two modernist classics: Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, with music by Edvard Grieg; and Gozzi’s The Love for Three Oranges, set to music by Sergei Prokofiev.
Curated by John Bell, Matt Sorensen, and Emily Wicks. Installation by Matt Sorensen, Emily Wicks, John Bell, Noel Williams, and UConn Puppet Arts Students.
