The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry will present a free online "Engineering in Puppetry" Puppet Forum on Thursday, Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. ET via Facebook Live (facebook.com/BallardInstitute). The forum will feature world-renowned puppeteer Basil Twist, Interim Department Chair of the UConn Department of Dramatic Arts Ed Weingart, and UConn Department of Mechanical Engineering Professor Jason Lee. This event is co-sponsored by the UConn School of Engineering and the UConn Krenicki Arts and Engineering Institute, a program of UConn’s Schools of Fine Arts and Engineering.
"Engineering in Puppetry" will examine the nature of engineering principles and practices as they appear in different forms of puppetry, including attention to Basil Twist's 2015 production of "Sisters' Follies," to which Ed Weingart contributed rigging and flying direction. Puppetry and engineering are both intimately connected with the performance dynamics of materials and objects. How and in what manner does puppetry reflect and perform the principles of engineering? How does engineering reflect the performance interests and possibilities of puppetry? Presentations by Twist and Weingart discuss and examine the nature of engineering in puppetry from the perspectives of a puppeteer and a technical director; Professor Lee will add to the discussion from his perspective as a mechanical engineer.
To learn more about the speakers, visit: bimp.uconn.edu/2020/11/21/fall-forum-engineering-puppetry/
For more information, contact: Emily Wicks at emily.wicks@uconn.edu