UConn Presents Fall Puppet Slam Today

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and the UConn Puppet Arts Program will present the 2014 UConn Fall Puppet Slam, tonight, September 13 at 8:00 p.m. in the Dramatic Arts Department's Studio Theatre. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam will feature short works by professional puppeteers from the Northeast, including Little Did Productions from New York City; Great Small Works from Cambridge; and Connecticut's Xing Xin Liu; as well as new works by talented students from UConn's Puppet Arts Program. The UConn Fall Puppet Slam is supported by a generous grant from the Puppet Slam Network.

Little Did Productions' The Lost Children, directed by Jessica Lorence and designed by Lorence and Katarra Peterson, is a shadow puppet show retelling the French folk tale which inspired Hansel and Gretel, with original music by Luke Santy.

Trudi Cohen and John Bell, Cambridge-based members of the Great Small Works theater company, will perform Sidewalk Ballet, which considers the world history of public space, and the 1960s battle between developer Robert Moses and urban activist Jane Jacobs over the future of Washington Square Park; and includes a new song by Woody Guthrie and Frank London of the Klezmatics.

UConn Puppet Arts alumna Xing Xin Liu will perform a traditional Chinese shadow show, Monkey's Kung-Fu Lesson, based on the popular trickster figure Monkey King, whose exploits feature in the great Chinese epic Journey to the West.

The Puppet Slam movement is a nation-wide flowering of short puppet productions for adult audiences, encouraged by the Puppet Slam Network created by Heather Henson and Marsian De Lellis. UConn Puppet Slams have been taking place since 2008, thanks to the generous support of the Puppet Slam Network.

The UConn Fall Puppet Slam is free and open to the public; donations are greatly appreciated. For directions to the Studio Theatre, visit crt.uconn.edu/directions/.

The Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry is located at: 1 Royce Circle, Suite 101B Storrs, CT 06268. For more information: (860) 486-8580, or bimp.uconn.edu.