{"id":225394,"date":"2025-02-18T07:15:36","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T12:15:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=225394"},"modified":"2025-02-17T08:37:02","modified_gmt":"2025-02-17T13:37:02","slug":"puppetry-exhibition-showcases-photographic-work-of-uconn-alum-60-years-of-puppet-arts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/02\/puppetry-exhibition-showcases-photographic-work-of-uconn-alum-60-years-of-puppet-arts\/","title":{"rendered":"Puppetry Exhibition Showcases Photographic Work of UConn Alum, 60 Years of Puppet Arts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lens of Richard Termine\u2019s<\/a> camera frames the performers before him like the decorative proscenium around a stage, in a view the award-winning photographer says is both wonderful and challenging to capture.<\/p>\n

Termine says he considers himself a partner to the performers, moving in a dance around them, anticipating their next move, as he clicks his way to capturing the moments of life and emotion they convey.<\/p>\n

A Middletown native and double UConn alum, he started studying the dramatic arts as an elementary student who went to the library to learn more after seeing a marionette performance of \u201cRigoletto,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just blew me away. It was transformative,\u201d Termine \u201975 (SFA), \u201978 MFA says of that school assembly. \u201cWhen I go to the theater \u2026 I want to go to worlds and places I haven\u2019t been, and puppetry is No. 1 on the list that does that for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jim
Jim Henson, left, and Brian Henson taught a three-week International Workshop in Puppetry for Film and Television during the summer of 1987 at the Institut International de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mezi\u00e8res, France. Termine went along as Jim Henson’s teaching assistant and also photo documented the event. (Photo courtesy of Richard Termine)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A one-time puppet designer, puppet builder, and puppet director, Termine lists name-brand shows on his resume including \u201cSesame Street\u201d and readily talks about knowing the famed duo Jim Henson and Frank Oz. He discovered photography in the late 1970s at the suggestion of a friend.<\/p>\n

Today, he lists the New York Times and Village Voice, along with Time, Newsweek, and People among his credits. Yet, even after decades in the business, Termine says he still marvels at the power of puppets and their performers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m standing on their shoulders in terms of my art form, and I\u2019m the interpreter of what\u2019s in front of me,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat I love about this is I\u2019m transformed when I\u2019m working. \u2026 When I\u2019m in the moment, it\u2019s exhilarating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visitors to the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry<\/a> will have a chance to see just what Termine sees when he puts his eye to the camera. Its latest exhibition, \u201cAmerican Puppet Theater Today: The Photography of Richard Termine,\u201d<\/a> includes 151 of his images.<\/p>\n

The show, courtesy of The Jim Henson Foundation<\/a>, was created in 2019 for display in France and since has seen five iterations including at exhibitions in Chicago, New York City, Montreal, and College Park, Maryland. Its Connecticut show in Storrs is on display until May 11.<\/p>\n

From Marionette and Shadow to Rod and Hand<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Foundation President Cheryl Henson, curator of the exhibition and daughter of renowned puppeteer Jim Henson, uses words like \u201cplay, magic, imagination, and creativity\u201d when talking about the importance of puppetry and its value in the world today.<\/p>\n

\u201cPuppetry brings out all of these really essential parts of being human,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

While the Muppet style her father made famous on shows like \u201cSesame Street\u201d might have the broadest reach of any style \u2013 the show featuring Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and Elmo has aired in 124 countries – she says the accessibility of the myriad puppet styles is what gives puppetry \u201cinfinite potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of that variety can be seen in \u201cAmerican Puppet Theater,\u201d with Henson describing the show as \u201ca celebration of what puppetry can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a recent tour of the exhibition, Termine points out a 2011 photograph of Jim Rose, a marionette fabrication teaching artist, and says it\u2019s among his favorites. The image is simple: a puppeteer fiddling with the cross brace of a marionette, tugging at a string that lifts the puppet\u2019s head in a loving gaze toward its handler.<\/p>\n

Henson notes that thanks to UConn\u2019s John Bell, director of the Ballard, and Emily Wicks, the museum\u2019s operations and collections manager, the exhibition has 15 puppets on display alongside Termine\u2019s photographs.<\/p>\n

She walks toward the first, which greets those entering the exhibition, a direct-manipulation puppet named Disfarmer – a small bald man with glasses – adjusting the back of a Depression-era camera draped in a dark cloth. It\u2019s one of six versions made for a 2009 production about photographer Mike Disfarmer.<\/p>\n

Another puppet, this one with a political message, is poised in the back corner of the Ballard. It\u2019s a toy theater with a black proscenium adorned with four ornate butterflies from the performing company Great Small Works. Next to it, Termine notes, is a 2010 photograph depicting a performing John Bell; his wife, Trudi Cohen; and Jenny Romaine.<\/p>\n

The Blue Fairy from the opera \u201cLa Bella Dormente Nel Bosco\u201d swoops through the air in the opposite corner, while a couple of Punch and Judy-style hand puppets get some laughs long after their 2009 adult-only performance of \u201cThe Punch and Jimmy Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the exhibition features mostly puppets outside the Muppet style, Termine says the show reflects the impact Jim Henson, who died in 1990, and his Foundation have had on the puppetry world.<\/p>\n

Puppet Arts Program: A Diamond Year<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The Jim Henson Foundation, founded by its namesake in 1982, is devoted to cultivating the work of American puppeteers and has provided support for more than 1,300 projects from more than 350 artists in that time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we look at [this exhibition], these are artists that have been supported by the Foundation, creating their own work, finding their own voices in this rich art form,\u201d Termine, Foundation vice president, says. \u201cIt\u2019s right here, and that\u2019s what makes this special.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Puppeteer
Puppeteer Basil Twist performs with Stickman at a reception in June 2021 at Upper Penthouse, Central Park South, New York City. (Photo courtesy of Richard Termine)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOne of the things my dad really loved about puppetry is how much the different puppeteers loved watching each other\u2019s work and how they\u2019d get so excited about somebody else\u2019s brilliance,\u201d Henson adds.<\/p>\n

Say a name related to the puppet community and Termine and Henson can explain the loop of how that person is connected to this person and the next. It\u2019s a community, they say, and many in it have UConn ties.<\/p>\n

Termine\u2019s mother once met Carol Thompson ’68 (SFA), ’78 MA, a student of renowned UConn professor Frank Ballard, who introduced Termine to the famed puppeteer in 1970 when he was doing a production of \u201cThe Love for Three Oranges\u201d at UConn.<\/p>\n

The friend who nudged Termine in the late 1970s to take up photography was the late Manchester-native-turned-Emmy-nominated puppet designer Jan (Rosenthal) Stefura \u201977 (SFA), who built Mokey Fraggle on \u201cFraggle Rock,\u201d among others.<\/p>\n

Termine\u2019s MFA class included Bart Roccoberton Jr. \u201990 MFA, who heads UConn\u2019s Puppet Arts Program<\/a>, and his teachers included the late Jerry Rojo, the former dramatic arts professor who designed the black box Mobius Theater in the Drama\/Music building.<\/p>\n

With deep connections in the puppet world, UConn\u2019s Puppet Arts Program celebrates its 60th anniversary this year with a special section of the exhibition dedicated to that achievement.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s \u201ca leader\u201d in the industry, Termine says, so much so that several years ago, when a couple of UConn women\u2019s basketball players visited the set of \u201cSesame Street,\u201d most of crew sported their UConn garb to share their school pride.<\/p>\n

The same sense of delight swelled in Termine when he visited the Ballard Museum in Downtown Storrs recently for the exhibition\u2019s opening: \u201cTo come back here and to share what I started,\u201d he said, trailing off in thought. \u201cThanks to the Henson family and to my training here at UConn.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘Puppetry brings out all of these really essential parts of being human,’ says Cheryl Henson, curator of the exhibition and daughter of renowned puppeteer Jim Henson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":225605,"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":[147,1711,1914,2461,2235,2225,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2368],"class_list":["post-225394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-arts-culture","category-sfa","category-staff","category-today-homepage","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":"2026-05-30 15:10:09","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\/225394","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\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225394"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225770,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225394\/revisions\/225770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/225605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225394"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=225394"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=225394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}