The Ballard Institute Presents ADVENTURES IN JEWISH PUPPET AND SPECTACLE PERFORMANCE, March 24

For its second installment of the 2022 Spring Puppet Forum Series, the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will host "Adventures in Jewish Puppet and Spectacle Performance" with panelists Jenny Romaine, Matthew Cohen, and Steve Abrams on Thursday, March 24 at 7 p.m. ET.

This forum will take place on Zoom (registration required) and Facebook Live and will be available afterwards on the Ballard Institute's Facebook page and YouTube Channel.

Global forms of puppet and object performance have their roots in religion and ritual that reflect Jewish cultural and religious practices. "Adventures in Jewish Puppet and Spectacle Performance" will look at a variety of current and historical aspects of Jewish puppetry through a conversation with three prominent puppeteers engaged in this work: activist artist Jenny Romaine, Puppetry Journal editor Steve Abrams, and University of Connecticut Dramatic Arts professor Matthew Cohen.

All three panelists will speak of their own experiences with puppet and spectacle performance: Steve Abrams will offer an overview of historical 20th-century puppet purimsphiln, and his own experiments in that form; Jenny Romaine will elaborate upon her work as a director of spectacle and puppetry with the Sukkos Mob, the Aftselakhis Spectacle Committee, and Great Small Works; and Matthew Cohen will focus on his current production of Wayang Esther, a purimshpil with Javanese-style shadow figures at the Mandell Jewish Community Center in West Hartford, performed with Gamelan Son of Lion, and its accompanying Purim Puppetry exhibition. This event is co-sponsored by the UConn Center for Judaic Studies.

For more information about this forum and the speakers, visit bimp.uconn.edu/2022/03/09/jewish-puppetry-forum/ or email bimp@uconn.edu.

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