As part of its Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host two forum events on Wednesdays in April at 7 p.m. at the Ballard Institute Theater located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center.
On Wednesday, April 8, Puppeteer and teacher Fred Thompson will lead a discussion titled Masters of the Marionette: Rufus and Margo Rose, in conjunction with our exhibition of the Roses' celebrated work. Thompson, a mainstay of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Puppetry Conference, first saw Rufus and Margo Rose perform in 1947, and has had a long and illustrious career in Connecticut as a teacher and maker of dance, theater, and puppetry. On Wednesday, April 15, UConn Puppet Arts alumna Hua Hua Zhang leads a forum titled My Work in Chinese Puppetry. Zhang first studied classic Chinese puppetry techniques at the Beijing Art Academy. After receiving many awards for her performances as a member of the China Puppet Arts Troupe, she came to UConn's Puppet Arts Program, earning her MFA degree in 2000. Currently the director of the Philadelphia-based company Visual Expressions, she designs and performs her own work in the U.S. and China, collaborates with such artists as composer Tan Dun. This forum is co-sponsored by the Asian and Asian American Studies Institute.Videos