Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry to Present Two Spring Puppet Forums in April

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.

Admission to these events is free (donations greatly appreciated!), and refreshments will be served. Forums will also be live-streamed on our page: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/forum-live-stream. For more information, call 860.486.8580 or visit http://bimp.uconn.edu.

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