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<\/a>The work of some of UConn’s most prominent alumni puppeteers is featured in an exhibition \u201cThe Work That Follows: 50 Years of UConn Puppeteers\u201d at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry in Storrs Center. The exhibition, one of six exhibitions of puppets currently on display, showcases the work of alumni such as Jamie Keithline \u201980 (SFA) and Bonny Hall \u201981 (SFA) of Crabgrass Puppet Theatre, Jason Rosen \u201985 MFA of Skinwalker Studios, Jim Napolitano \u201993 (SFA) of Nappy\u2019s Puppets, and Jean Marie Keevins \u201999 (SFA), a puppet builder for \u201cAvenue Q\u201d and \u201cThe Muppets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the guidance of Ballard for the first 25 years and the leadership of Bart Roccoberton \u201990 MFA over the past quarter century, the UConn program has emphasized training puppeteers who are well-rounded in the skills needed to develop an idea and turn it into reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost of all it\u2019s the positive feeling of anything is possible,\u201d says Rosen, a 1985 graduate of the master\u2019s program. \u201cThat\u2019s certainly something Bart has brought to the program \u2013 don\u2019t let the idea of how you\u2019re going to fabricate something or realize it limit your idea or the story you want to do. Tell the story you want to tell. Your job as a puppeteer-designer-builder is to figure out how it\u2019s going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n Leslie Weinberg \u201988 MFA says her studies under Ballard launched her on a performance and academic career at Wesleyan University that demonstrated the range of puppet arts, including collaboration with other art forms.<\/p>\n \u201cFrank showed me a way to work in opera and in musical theater, that I could bring a seriousness to the work that was not always easy in America, because America saw puppets as children\u2019s entertainment,\u201d says Weinberg, whose work in the alumni exhibit includes a Don Quixote figure from a puppet opera. \u201cThe way I got to start doing puppet shows at Wesleyan was by doing operas and by collaborating with the music department, because the music department was so excited to be doing these things.\u201d<\/p>\n When Hua Hua Zhang \u201900 MFA arrived in Storrs as a graduate student in puppet arts, she was the first student from China to join the program. Trained in the ancient art of Chinese puppetry, she had previously toured the world as part of the China Puppet Arts Troupe of Beijing.<\/p>\n She was attracted by UConn\u2019s close-knit community in puppet arts. \u201cThe students were so wonderful and close to each other at UConn. It was a big family,\u201d says Zhang, who is now based in Philadelphia. \u201cI learned so much from my classmates.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, Zhang had an opportunity to teach UConn students and introduce them to Chinese rod puppets. \u201cThe quality of the students and their passion for puppet arts was exciting,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n She notes that the University is becoming increasingly attractive to potential students. As a teacher in Philadelphia, she adds, \u201cIf I see somebody motivated, I suggest they go to UConn.\u201d<\/p>\n Pam Arciero \u201982 MFA is a voice-over artist and principal puppeteer with \u201cSesame Street\u201d (Grundgetta Grouch) and \u201cBetween the Lions\u201d (Leona Lion), and also the artistic director of the Eugene O\u2019Neill Center National Puppetry Conference in Waterford, Conn. She travels to puppetry festivals around the world to see new productions and how other puppeteers perform, but often looks to UConn puppeteers for her own projects.<\/p>\n \u201cThe program has accelerated under Bart, who has taken it to another level,\u201d she says. \u201cThe kids are talented, skilled, and incredibly varied. I work on a lot of different projects as well as \u2018Sesame Street,\u2019 and when something comes up, I call those kids just coming out of school or others who have been out and have become partners with me. You can rely on them to do a level of work that\u2019s fantastic. I\u2019m very confident if it\u2019s a UConn graduate walking through the door.\u201d<\/p>\n Recent graduates such as Lauren Horoszewski \u201905 (SFA), \u201910 MFA continue to extend the program into new areas.<\/p>\n Horoszewski, who earned her undergraduate degree in sculpture and now specializes as a fabricator building puppets, spent several years working on characters for the stop-motion animation studio Stoopid Buddy Stoodios in Los Angeles, where she worked on productions such as “MAD,” a children’s cartoon show, and \u201cThe Simpsons.\u201d Recently she moved to Michael Curry Design in Portland, Ore., and is now building large-scale puppets for Disney characters, including a touring production of \u201cThe Lion King.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt UConn we learned about [Lion King director] Julie Taymor; now I get to build some of these puppets that are going to New York, Australia, and Shanghai,\u201d she says. \u201cEverything I Iearned at UConn prepared me to branch out into all areas of puppetry.\u201d<\/p>\n The exhibition \u201cThe Work That Follows: 50 Years of UConn Puppeteers,\u201d which is open to the public, continues through Nov. 15.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>