Join the Ballard Institute for Free Community Puppet-Building Workshops

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will once again offer fall community puppet-building workshops to design and build life-size and over-life-size puppets for a new pageant production—The Conference of the Birds—to be performed at the Celebrate Mansfield Festival in Downtown Storrs. These free workshops will be led by internationally acclaimed puppeteer and pageant director Sara Peattie of Boston’s Puppeteers Cooperative, and will take place Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 14 and 15, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day at the Ballard Institute, located at 1 Royce Circle in Downtown Storrs.

The Conference of the Birds puppet pageant, directed by Sara Peattie, and loosely based on the 12th-century poem by Persian poet Farid ud-Din Attar, will employ masks and puppets of all sizes, created by workshop participants, to celebrate specific birds of Connecticut, as well as endangered bird species and imaginary birds. The pageant will be performed outdoors in Betsy Paterson Square with live music as part of the 21st-annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 28.

No experience is necessary to participate in these free community puppet-building workshops. Space is limited, so advance registration is strongly encouraged. Participants can come for one or both days but should register for the 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. or/and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. time slot(s). Minors must be accompanied by an adult. To register for the workshop, visit bimp.ticketleap.com/2024-cmf. If you require accommodation to participate, contact the Ballard Institute at bimp@uconn.edu or 860-486-8580.

This community puppet project is sponsored by the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the Mansfield Downtown Partnership, Inc. For more information about the 21st-annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival, visit downtownstorrsfestival.org.