UConn Mourns the Loss of Internationally-Renowned Puppeteer Frank Ballard

“A puppet is the artist’s soul set free.” –  Frank Ballard (1929-2010) Internationally-renowned puppeteer, Frank Willard Ballard of Storrs, for whom the University of Connecticut’s Ballard Institute and Connecticut Museum of Puppetry is named, died June 4, after a decades-long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. He was 80. Ballard is credited with introducing the art of […]

“A puppet is the artist’s soul set free.”
–  Frank Ballard (1929-2010)

Internationally-renowned puppeteer, Frank Willard Ballard of Storrs, for whom the University of Connecticut’s Ballard Institute and Connecticut Museum of Puppetry is named, died June 4, after a decades-long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. He was 80.

Ballard is credited with introducing the art of puppetry in the UConn School of Fine Arts in the early 1960’s, making UConn’s program the only one in the United States offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in puppetry training and education. Ballard’s students and others in the University’s puppetry program have gone on to artistically and commercially successful careers on stage, in television, and in the movies. They include designers, directors, builders, and performers who have worked on productions of The Muppet Show, The Lion King, Sesame Street, Avenue Q, Between the Lions, and many other shows in the U.S. and around the world.

“I think the immensity of Frank Ballard’s contributions to puppetry not only in the U.S. but around the world is only beginning to be recognized,’’ says John Bell, director of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at UConn’s Depot Campus in Mansfield. “His energy, inspiration, and dedication to puppetry in his many years at UConn inspired generations of puppeteers in the United States to pursue puppetry and make innovations in the form to make it a viable and exciting 21st century art form.”

Born in Alton, Ill. on Dec. 27, 1929, Ballard discovered a fascination for his craft at age five when his Aunt Margaret took him to a puppet show. That experience started Ballard’s life-long passion with the theatre and the art of puppetry that led him to international acclaim during his three decades at the University of Connecticut from 1956 to 1989. A graduate of Alton High School, where he was active in the dramatic arts, Ballard received his bachelor of arts degree from Alton’s Shurtleff College in 1952 and his master of arts degree from the University of Illinois in 1953. Ballard married Adah Ruth Smalley on Aug. 22, 1953, and they spent the next three years at the University of Iowa, where he served as a designer of educational television shows.

In 1956, Ballard was hired as the set designer and technical director of the new Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre at the University of Connecticut. He was appointed to the faculty of the Department of Speech and Drama. Six years later, the drama, art and music departments merged to form the School of Fine Arts.

“Frank has had an everlasting impact on the School of Fine Arts,” says David G. Woods, UConn’s current dean of the School of Fine Arts. “It is because of his determination that we have made puppetry a major part of the curriculum and artistic program in the School of Fine Arts.”

Ballard directed and designed countless puppetry productions at UConn, beginning with a 1961 performance of Macbeth for television. The first classes in puppetry were held in 1964. In 1966, Ballard created the puppets and also designed the sets for UConn’s stage production of Carnival. Two years later he produced his first major puppet production at UConn with The Mikado. Over a dozen of Ballard’s full-scale UConn puppet productions followed on the Jorgensen stage, incorporating a wide variety of art forms from marionettes to rod puppets, shadow puppets, hand puppets, and masks. His final UConn production was H.M.S. Pinafore in 1989, which was one of three Ballard productions awarded a Citation of Excellence in the Art of Puppetry from the American chapter of UNIMA (L’Union International de la Marionette), the world puppetry organization. He also received that honor for The Golden Cockerel (1977) and The Magic Flute (1986).

“He created an internationally recognized puppetry arts program basically all by himself,” says Bell. “Unlike puppet institutes in Europe and Asia, which often have large faculties and staffs, the puppetry program in the UConn School of Fine Arts primarily depended on Frank’s individual inspiration and energy and yet he achieved all these wonderful results, and inspired so many others to appreciate puppetry.”

One of Ballard’s productions, Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung, was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in 1980. During his UConn tenure, Ballard produced, designed, and directed 100 operas and musicals for puppet theater and created more than 1,500 individual puppets.

Ballard was the American representative to the 40th anniversary celebration of UNIMA in Prague, Czechoslovakia in 1963, beginning two decades of serving his profession in countless roles nationally and internationally. He was the chairman of the National Puppet Festival for the Puppeteers of America, which was held at UConn in 1970. From 1971 to 1974, he served as the organization’s president. Ballard served as vice president of UNIMA-U.S.A. from 1973 to 1980, and was elected president of UNIMA-U.S.A. for 1980-81. He was re-elected to that post the following year. In 1984, UNIMA awarded Ballard its highest recognition, naming him a Member of Honor, granting him the honorary title “Doctor,” and distinguishing him for life achievement in puppetry.

Ballard addressed the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 on the cultural aspects of puppetry in the United States. In 1976, he was named as a Notable American of the Bicentennial Era by the American Bicentennial Institute, and also received the President’s Award from the Puppeteers of America, that organization’s highest award. He was named to Who’s Who in the East, Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the Theatre.

Over the years, Ballard served as a puppetry consultant for numerous organizations, among them the Connecticut Opera Guild (1963), Prentice-Hall Publishers (1978), the Morrow Press (1978), The Smithsonian Institution (1978-79), and many towns, including the Canadian city of Edmonton (1978-79).

Ballard was named Connecticut Professor of the Year in 1988. The author of numerous articles, he also co-wrote the book Directing the Puppet Theatre (1989) with friend and colleague Carol Fijan. He wrote the puppetry entry for the Encyclopedia Britannica in 2000.

Ballard’s puppetry creations have been exhibited all over the United States and abroad, including Czechoslovakia, Argentina, Canada, France, and the USSR. Ballard was honored by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, received the Life Achievement Citation from the New England Theatre Conference and, upon his retirement in 1989, a letter from President George H.W. Bush saluting him for his contribution to the arts. In 1997, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the School of Fine Arts.

In addition to the stage, Ballard had a passion for classical music and opera. His late English bulldog Winston was dear to his heart, and one of the great joys in his life was his four grandchildren, Aylee and Catriona of Berlin, Mass., and Ian and Jay of Glassboro, N.J. His calm, generous, and caring personality earned him the moniker of “second father” to numerous students he nurtured and befriended through the years, guiding them into a wide variety of the arts, including their own puppetry companies and work for stage and screen.

Some of Ballard’s puppets currently are on display in the University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts Music and Drama Library and the Mansfield Community Center in Storrs. Bell says a larger retrospective of Ballard’s work in puppetry will be featured by the Institute and Museum as part of its 2011 season.

Ballard was predeceased by his wife of 56 years, Adah Ruth, who died in March, and his parents Glen and Alice Ballard of Alton, Ill. He is survived by his brother Irwin of Alton, and his sister Alice Casner of Killeen, Texas; and his sons, David and his wife Robin of Berlin, Mass., and Michael and his wife Beverly of Glassboro, N.J.

Memorial contributions should be made out and mailed to the University of Connecticut Foundation, 2390 Alumni Drive, U-3206, Storrs, CT 06269. Please indicate the Frank and Adah Ruth Ballard Memorial Fund (#22736) on the memo line of the check.

There will be no formal calling hours. A private graveside service will be held June 10. The Potter Funeral Home of Willimantic is handling the arrangements. For an online memorial guestbook, please visit the Potter Funeral Home website.

There will be a memorial service on Saturday, July 10, at 10 a.m. in the Storrs Congregational Church.

EDITOR’S NOTE:  A high-resolution photo of Frank Ballard is available here: http://bit.ly/9rJPMt

For more information:

Colin Poitras, 860-486-4656