Additional UConn Information

  • Spring 2016 Puppet Arts Courses

    SPRING 2016 Puppet Arts Courses 

    860-486-4568; puppetarts@uconn.edu

     Check out these exciting class offerings!

     

    DRAM 3603: Hand Puppetry/DRAM 5610: Advanced Puppet Theatre

    TU/TH 2:00 – 3:20; Thomson Hall/Depot Campus

    Instructors: Margarita Blush & Bart. P. Roccoberton, Jr. 

    The exploration of various styles of Hand Puppet performance, including Hand Pantomime, Glove Puppets and Moving Mouth Puppets. To support the performance aspects of this class, several puppets will be designed and fabricated.

     

    DRAM 3998: Approaches to Theatre Devising

    M/W 10:00 – 11:50; Thomson Hall/Depot Campus; Instructor: Margarita Blush

    Devised theatre is a form of theatre where the performance and/or script originates not from a writer or writers, but from collaborative work by the creative team. This method has been employed by puppet and physical theatre creators for a long time and has been drawing more and more attention in recent years.

    In this practical class, we will explore different approaches and methods to devising and create an environment that is safe, engaging, challenging, collaborative and invigorating.

    Everyone can contribute! Everyone has a voice! Everyone can create!

     

    DRAM 4194: Movement-based Performance for the Puppet Theatre

    M/W 2:00 – 4:45; Thomson Hall/Depot Campus; Instructor: Margarita Blush

     Movement-based performance for the Puppet Theatre is designed to awaken and develop imaginative and skilled theatrical performers through the exploration of movement-based theatre techniques and devising work.

     

     This course will develop performance skills, rooted in the ideas of the playful performer, the physical performer and the performer-creator. Students will explore and cultivate awareness, complicity, imagination, creativity, and ability to devise original and inspired theatre work.  They will search for and discover theatrical expression and go beyond realism, finding meanings in metaphors and symbols that are essential to art and theatre.

     

    DRAM 5607: Materials and Techniques for Puppetry

    (ONLINE ONLY); Instructor: Paul Spirito 

    In this class students will learn the basics of designing and building puppets.  Traditional puppet making techniques as well as new technologies will be discussed in detail, providing the student with a solid foundation in character design, technical drawings, process planning, materials, sculpting, carving, mold making, and more.  This will be a fully hands on, practical class where the students will be creating puppets and participating in online critiques.

     

    DRAM 5617: World Puppet Theatre*

    TU/TH 9:30 – 10:50; Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry

    Instructor: Dr. John Bell

    This class examines the history and theory of puppet and object performance in Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas as a network of global, intercultural traditions. In it, we develop our means of understanding and articulating our sense of the arts of puppet and object performance as we examine how different forms of puppetry have existed in different communities at different times. We understand this vast and exciting subject with a network of varied perspectives including theater history, performance studies, anthropology, semiotics, phenomenology, script writing, theater criticism, art history, and practitioners’ perspectives.   

     

     DRAM 5697: Special Topics – Boston Pops Production*

    TH 3:30 – 6:00; Thomson Hall/Depot Campus; Instructor: Bart. P. Roccoberton, Jr.

    Working as a Creative Production Team, class members will participate in choosing music from the compositions of Leroy Anderson; determine the story, storyboard and choreography; and design and fabricate puppets and sets for the May 21, 2015 performances of the UConn Puppet Arts Program with the Boston Pops in Symphony Hall, Boston.

     

    * Open to Juniors and Seniors with Instructor approval.

     

     

    860-486-4568; puppetarts@uconn.edu

     

    http://drama.uconn.edu/programs/puppet-arts/

     

    For more information, contact: Elizabeth Acosta at 860 486 4568