Students in the University of Connecticut’s puppet arts program will be performing short-form acts of puppetry for adults as part of the quarterly UConn Puppet Slam on Friday, Sept. 20 at the Harriet Jorgensen Theater. As a promotion for the event, the Ballard Museum hosted a panel discussing the history of puppet slams and the evolution of the art form for the 21st century.
The featured panelists included professor John Bell, director of the Ballard Museum, Brenna Ross, theatrical producer of the Puppet Slam Network and Heather Henson, daughter of the late visionary Jim Henson and a contemporary puppeteer in her own right. Henson also co-founded the nonprofit Green Feather Foundation, co-sponsor of the evening’s forum in partnership with the Puppet Slam Network, which helps provide support to groups hosting these avant-garde performance events where performers and puppeteers bring five-to-10-minute short form puppet acts to life.
“We’re trying to showcase where puppetry was, where we are now, and what it could become in the future,” said Bell.
The puppet arts program at UConn has been hosting its puppet slam every semester for over 15 years. This fall’s slam will include performances from current UConn puppet arts students and alumni, including some who have worked in a variety of film, television and stage productions as puppeteers. Admission to the event will be free as part of a grant made possible by the Puppet Slam Network.
“I really want to see what you guys can do,” said Henson when speaking with UConn puppet arts students. “You’re the next generation.”
Puppet slams are the name for these evenings born out of elements from vaudeville theater, cabarets and the fringe performance scene. Many include live music, dance groups or other artistry — the name is a nod to poetry slams, originating from a similar movement. A timeline of prior puppet slams was presented at the forum, highlighting examples in Providence, Phoenix, New York and at Connecticut’s own Eugene O’Neill Theater, which hosts the National Puppetry Conference annually.
The discussion was hosted in the Ballard Museum’s black box theater, filled with UConn puppet arts students and enthusiasts. The audience posed questions about the types of short-form acts usually seen at puppet slams, best practices and differences between puppet slams in different regions and abroad. Performances also make use of different scales of puppetry, owing to the question: “what can or can’t be a puppet?” Past UConn puppet slams have included tables and chairs, eggs, string and guitars all manipulated as puppets.
“There are innately human elements in puppetry,” said Gail Bennett and Marie Sawyer, both third-semester puppet arts majors. “Visiting a puppet slam like ours can help expose people to it all.”
Students also took the opportunity to discuss their upcoming puppet showcase at the Celebrate Mansfield Festival on Saturday, Sept. 28, which tells the stories of different types of birds making use of large and small puppets, masks and walkaround costumes.
The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is an extensive museum located in Downtown Storrs-Mansfield, showcasing exhibitions, performances and forums related to puppetry and theater. UConn is one of few colleges to offer puppetry programs and is the only school in the country to offer a master’s degree in the field.
For more information about the Ballard Museum, visit bimp.uconn.edu. To learn more about the Puppet Slam Network, go to puppetslam.com and facebook.com/uconnpuppetslam.