The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry Presents TREEPLES This Weekend

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present three screenings ofTreeples, (or Tree Peoples!) a new children's television project by Sarah Nolen. Treeples follows the adventures of Lana and her new forest creature friends, the "Treeples," as they confront the "Blaring Boomagus," a three-headed monster who takes the forest sounds away. This twenty-minute show, directed by Puppet Arts MFA candidate Sarah Nolen, features humans and live puppets in a forest world. The screenings will take place today, December 12 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. and tomorrow, December 13 at 2:00 p.m. at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry located at 1 Royce Circle in Storrs Center. Admission to the screenings is free.

Treeples is Sarah Nolen's Master of Fine Arts project for the University of Connecticut's Puppet Arts Program. Sarah was awarded the 2015 Fred Rogers Memorial Scholarship in support of the project, and spent the past year developing the show, building puppets, and writing and directing this first episode. Treeples was also made possible by a Digital Bolex Grant for Women Cinematographers, a University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts Dean's Grant, and support from the Puffin Foundation.

Sarah Nolen is a puppeteer and filmmaker from Austin, Texas. In 2009, she earned her bachelor's degree in Cinema-Television with a second, interdisciplinary major in Children's Educational Television from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She went on to work as a production coordinator for nationally syndicated television shows on networks such as CMT & HGTV. Her short films have been featured in the SXSW Film Festival in Austin as well as the AFI Film Festival in Dallas. As a puppeteer, Sarah has trained with Sandglass Theater and at the National Puppetry Conference at the O'Neill Theater Center. In 2011, Sarah completed a year-long improvisational training program at the Dallas Comedy House, and continued there as an improviser for two years. Her solo puppet works have been selected for the National Puppet Slams of 2013, 2014 and 2015. She has performed as a puppeteer at UConn Puppet Slams, the Puppets in the Green Mountains Festival, for the Boston Pops Orchestra, EnvisionFEST Hartford, and the Out of Bounds Festival in Austin.

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