{"id":149166,"date":"2019-05-08T07:58:18","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T11:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=149166"},"modified":"2019-05-08T16:18:11","modified_gmt":"2019-05-08T20:18:11","slug":"building-puppets-building-puppeteers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/05\/building-puppets-building-puppeteers\/","title":{"rendered":"From Building Puppets to Building Puppeteers"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Bart Roccoberton Jr. \u201990 MFA discovered that he needed one more class to complete his degree in speech and theater at Montclair State College back in 1973, his advisor suggested that he do an independent study by creating a traditional hand puppet show in the style of Punch and Judy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did my research and realized I could make a hand puppet overnight,\u201d Roccoberton recalls. \u201cThat was not the challenge I wanted to take. I decided I would make string puppets and do a small play by Bertolt Brecht. Little did I know this thing I thought I was escaping school with just sort of reached out and said, Gotcha!\u201d<\/p>\n

Roccoberton soon found his way to Storrs to pursue an MFA in puppetry with Frank Ballard, who created UConn\u2019s world renowned Puppet Arts program, before starting his own puppet troupe, Pandemonium Puppet Company<\/a>, and then helping to found the Institute of Professional Puppetry Arts at the Eugene O\u2019Neill Theater Center<\/a>. He succeeded Ballard as director of the Puppet Arts program in 1990 \u2013 completing his degree after his many years touring as a performer, and shifting the focus of his work, as he says, \u201cfrom building puppets to building puppeteers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry<\/a> is celebrating Roccoberton\u2019s career as a puppeteer and educator with \u201cIt\u2019s Always Pandemonium,\u201d an exhibition of nearly 100 puppets created by Roccoberton, his Pandemonium collaborators, and dozens of UConn puppet arts students under his guidance.<\/p>\n

\"Bart<\/a>
Bart Roccoberton standing next to 'The Red Queen' for the Insurance Company. The Ballard Museum and Institute of Puppetry is celebrating Roccoberton\u2019s career as a puppeteer and educator with 'It\u2019s Always Pandemonium,' an exhibition of nearly 100 puppets created by Roccoberton, his Pandemonium collaborators, and dozens of UConn Puppet Arts students under his guidance. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Bart Roccoberton standing next to 'The Red Queen' for the Insurance Company. The Ballard Museum and Institute of Puppetry is celebrating Roccoberton\u2019s career as a puppeteer and educator with 'It\u2019s Always Pandemonium,' an exhibition of nearly 100 puppets created by Roccoberton, his Pandemonium collaborators, and dozens of UConn Puppet Arts students under his guidance. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"'The<\/a>
'The Red Queen,' created for the State Farm Insurance Corp. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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'The Red Queen,' created for the State Farm Insurance Corp. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"House<\/a>
House Goblin from the Elventide production. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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House Goblin from the Elventide production. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Bart<\/a>
Bart Roccoberton with Captain Kidd (back) and Dougie Hutchins from the 'Tales of the Leatherman' production. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Bart Roccoberton with Captain Kidd (back) and Dougie Hutchins from the 'Tales of the Leatherman' production. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Bart<\/a>
Bart Roccoberton puppet by Mary Nagler. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Bart Roccoberton puppet by Mary Nagler. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Nu<\/a>
Nu Wa, a rod puppet from 'The Bell.' (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Nu Wa, a rod puppet from 'The Bell.' (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Arthur<\/a>
Arthur Fiedler puppet created for the 2016 'Puppets Take the Pops' performance. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Arthur Fiedler puppet created for the 2016 'Puppets Take the Pops' performance. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Nop<\/a>
Nop Nam, a hand puppet from 'Rhymes with Evil.' (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Nop Nam, a hand puppet from 'Rhymes with Evil.' (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Connor<\/a>
Connor puppet created for the 'Silk City Barbershop Chorus' performance. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Connor puppet created for the 'Silk City Barbershop Chorus' performance. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div>\"Bart<\/a>
Bart Roccoberton being 'attacked' by a giant polar bear created for 'A Winter\u2019s Tale.' (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div>
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Bart Roccoberton being 'attacked' by a giant polar bear created for 'A Winter\u2019s Tale.' (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

\u201cBart Roccoberton is, behind the scenes, one of the most influential puppeteers in the United States, and has been so for many years,\u201d says John Bell, a puppeteer, director of the Ballard and author of American Puppet Modernism<\/em> (Palgrave Macmillan 2005). \u201cWe thought it was time to understand not only Bart’s influence as a teacher, but also his fascinating work as a puppet designer, builder, and performer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

The fact that Bart is pushing artists to develop their own voice and work is important. — Matt Sorensen<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The exhibition was curated by MFA candidate Matt Sorensen, who says there is a cohesiveness throughout the wide array of puppets on display owing to how Roccoberton has passed along the technique of designing puppets using paper sculpture as the starting point, utilizing the shapes of cones and cylinders as the foundation to make facial features and body parts. Roccoberton learned the technique when the German master puppeteer Albrecht Roser was a visiting professor in Storrs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe paper sculpture technique really carries Bart through his ongoing career, even with the puppets he\u2019s building now,\u201d Sorensen says. \u201cWhen he came back to UConn to take over for Frank Ballard, his first big production was \u2018A Christmas Carol\u2019 in 1992. There are examples of paper sculpture in that show as well as more refined sculpting techniques. Every show we\u2019re featuring has examples of that theoretical work in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sorensen notes that Roccoberton\u2019s collaborative work with students is an important part of the exhibition, as he guided their work in creating their original puppet shows and puppet designs or assisted them by serving as director of their performances. His students have performed or built puppets for Broadway shows, television, or films, including \u201cAvenue Q,\u201d \u201cCrash and Bernstein,\u201d \u201cSesame Street,\u201d \u201cBlue\u2019s Room, \u201cBetween the Lions, and \u201cIt\u2019s a Big Big World!\u201d<\/p>\n

Pam Arciero \u201982 MFA, artistic director of the National Puppetry Conference<\/a> at the Eugene O\u2019Neill Theater Center and best known as a principal puppeteer on \u201cSesame Street\u201d and \u201cBetween the Lions,\u201d says UConn’s puppetry alumni transition quickly into working professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hire puppeteers or I am asked for recommendations from time to time,\u201d she says. \u201cI can rely upon UConn graduates to be good at what they\u2019re doing. They know puppetry. At a minimum, they know the language you use, they know building, they know movement. There\u2019s a certain level of comfort with a UConn student. They\u2019re professionals when they walk in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the puppets included in the exhibition are those from \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d (1992); \u201cFabula,\u201d \u201cTales of the Leatherman,\u201d and \u201cEleventide\u201d from Pandemonium Puppets; Stravinsky\u2019s \u201cFirebird;\u201d the giant polar bear created for \u201cA Winter\u2019s Tale;\u201d and the Arthur Fiedler puppet created for the 2016 \u201cPuppets Take the Pops<\/a>\u201d performance developed by puppet arts students for the Boston Pops Orchestra<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that Bart is pushing artists to develop their own voice and work is important,\u201d Sorensen says. \u201cSome of this work has been featured internationally, some has toured for 20 years after its inception here. That work, for me, is the most significant part of his legacy, because he\u2019s creating people who can realize a vision and when he does it here at UConn, it\u2019s a safe and nurturing environment. You have resources and him and other faculty to guide you. Whereas it\u2019s really difficult to do that when you\u2019re on your own. Those skills that he imparts on us here carry us through a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roccoberton says when he took over the Puppet Arts program at UConn, his experience working with Institute of Professional Puppetry Arts led him to determine that \u201ccoming here was not about my work, it was about the students\u2019 work.\u201d He also points to a concept articulated by the philosopher and playwright Friedrich Schiller in an essay describing what is called Spieltrieb, meaning the play instinct.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Schiller] says der Spieltreib is the essence of creativity. It is the na\u00efve willingness to play and create whether useful or useless, whether good or bad; the willingness to be creative,\u201d Roccoberton says. \u201cThat has always been part of this program. I want the students to play and to create. I want them to be responsible human citizens. I want them to consider what they\u2019re doing, who their audience is. Is what they\u2019re creating appropriate for the audience? The bottom line is for them to have their Spieltrieb, their play instinct.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s Always Pandemonium\u201d continues through Sept. 29 at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, 1 Royce Circle, Storrs. For more information go to bimp.uconn.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry is celebrating Puppet Arts program director Bart Roccoberton\u2019s career as puppeteer and educator with an exhibition of nearly 100 puppets he and his collaborators and students created.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":149731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1711,69,1914,2225,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1918],"class_list":["post-149166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-gallery","category-sfa","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 23:09:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149166"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149166\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149786,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149166\/revisions\/149786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/149731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149166"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=149166"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=149166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}