Ballard Institute to Showcase TIGER TALES by Chinese Theatre Works

As part of its 2026 Spring Puppet Show Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will welcome back New York City-based Chinese Theatre Works to perform Tiger Tales on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. in the in the Ballard Institute Theater, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

Tiger Tales is an award-winning production that draws on China's two-thousand-year history of shadow puppetry. A wise old Rabbit recounts stories from her eventful life to her young granddaughter—including how she came to be the Prime Minister to Tiger, the ever-hungry jungle king. Four linked tales, using a live storyteller and images based on antique Chinese leather shadow figures, trace Tiger’s sudden rise and disastrous fall and impart humorous lessons on survival for the small and powerless in today’s modern jungle. The stories are based on various old Chinese idioms such as "little doesn’t mean weaker,” “A turtledove takes over the nest of a magpie,” “Creating disaster by raising a Tiger,” and “Escaping from the Tiger’s mouth.” Tiger Tales features an artful blend of Eastern, Western, ancient, and contemporary performance techniques. These performances are co-sponsored by the UConn Asian American Cultural Center.

Chinese Theatre Works is dedicated to preserving and promoting traditional Chinese performing arts and

creating new works bridging Eastern and Western theatrical aesthetics and forms. It was founded in 2001 by

Co-Artistic Directors Kuang-Yu Fong and UConn Puppet Arts alumnus Stephen Kaplin to present programming drawn from their combined repertoire of traditional Chinese opera, music, dance, and puppetry, and by creating and touring new original productions as well. Their programs spark interest in Chinese cultural traditions among the wider public and build understanding among educators and artists across the globe. chinesetheatreworks.org