The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut will present Double Selves: African American Puppets and Puppeteers, with performances by Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins, Pandora Gastelum, Isaac Bloodworth, Brad Brewer, and Dirk Joseph’s String Theory Theater on Saturday, Feb. 9, 2019 at 8:30 p.m. as part of the ground-breaking Living Objects: African American Puppetry Festival and Symposium, a four-day series of performances, presentations, discussions, film screenings, and workshops, from Feb. 7 to 10, 2019, celebrating the rich world of African American puppetry in the United States. This performance will take place at UConn’s von der Mehden Recital Hall located at 875 Coventry Rd, Storrs, CT 06269.
Double Selves will include the following performances:
A Conversation with Frederick Douglass by Tarish “Jeghetto” Pipkins
Experience the incredible life journey of Frederick Douglass through a multimedia performance of puppetry, music and projected images based on the famed abolitionist’s autobiography.
Tarish Pipkins, a.k.a. Jeghetto, was born in the small steel mill town of Clairton, PA, south of Pittsburgh. A self-taught artist, he began creating art at an early age. In the late 90’s he joined the BridgeSpotters Collective, becoming known for his live paintings and poetry. Tarish moved to North Carolina in 2005, and launched his career in puppetry with street performances. In 2008 he began working with Paperhand Puppet Intervention, building puppets and performing in several productions. Tarish also built and performed puppets for Missy Elliott’s 2015 music video, WTF (Where They From), and taught at Just Right Academy, a private alternative school for children with special needs. Pipkins is married and a proud father of five children, and his passion is promoting oneness through the magic of puppetry.
The City that Care Forgot by Pandora Gastelum
The City that Care Forgot, performed by Pandora Gastelum of The Mudlark Puppeteers, is one-woman shadow and rod-puppet show set to early jazz music which explores the lesser-known history of old New Orleans through the lives of some famous and infamous figures, including Lulu White, the Diamond Queen of Storyville.
Pandora Andrea Gastelum is a puppeteer, dollmaker, designer, and performer. She owns and operates The Mudlark Public Theatre in New Orleans' 9th Ward and is the Artistic Director of that space's resident theatre company, The Mudlark Puppeteers. The Mudlark Puppeteers specialize in innovative and unconventional puppet and object theater on a variety of scales, presenting original and little-told stories of heroic misfits and wayward love--fables waging a playful but determined battle for alternative modes of being. As devoted residents of the Gulf Coast, The Mudlark Puppeteers explore the creative capacity of dispossession through puppetcraft and performance, imagining hope in the form of new stories about the dispossessed as emerging heroes.
Curled by Isaac Bloodworth
Isaac Bloodworth’s crankie (moving scroll performance) tells the story of a girl named Essence who is mocked at school about her hair. Her grandma tells her the history of natural black hair through African mythology, thus revealing her granddaughter’s true beauty and excellence in being herself. Isaac is a 23-year-old New Haven-based puppeteer and UConn Puppet Arts alumnus whose work focuses on activism by telling the stories of the oppressed and marginalized.
I Sing My Heart Out by The O'Jays performed by The Crowtations
Created in 1975 by puppeteer Brad Brewer's Brewery Troupe, The Crowtations have worked with such performers as Melvin Van Peebles, Chaka Khan, Spike Lee, Harold Nicholas, David Brenner, the Four Tops, Mr. Rogers, Ron Carter, Oscar Brown, Jr., and Ron Howard. The Brewery Troupe is the only African American puppet company to appear on Broadway, in a major motion picture, and on network television. Several of the company’s puppets are in the collection of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C.
For the Love of Cats and Dogs by Dirk Joseph’s String Theory Theater
Dirk Joseph and his daughters Sequoia and Azaria present a satirical shadow puppet narrative about dethroning “the tyrannical leader of the free world."
String Theory Theater includes Baltimore puppeteer Dirk Joseph and his daughters Sequoia and Azaria. They have been performing with hand puppets, rod puppets, crankies, shadow puppets, marionettes, and toy theater since 2016, and got their start at the Black Cherry Puppet Theater’s Puppet Slamwich events. String Theory’s themes range from children’s puppetry to adult satire. For the Love of Cats and Dogs was nominated for the National Puppet Slam in 2018.
The approximate running time of Double Selves is 2 hours.
Ticket Prices: Adults: $12; Members/Seniors: $10; Students: $8.
Tickets can be purchased in advance at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, by calling 860-486-8580, or online at bimp.ticketleap.com. A surcharge will be added to any purchases made online. Tickets may also be purchased on the day of performance at UConn’s von der Mehden Recital Hall starting at 7:30 p.m. There will be open seating and no reservations. For address and parking information for von der Mehden Recital Hall, visit vdm.uconn.edu/plan-your-visit/directions-parking/. For more information or if you require an accommodation to attend this event, please contact Ballard Institute staff at 860.486.8580 or [email protected].
The Living Objects: African American Puppetry Festival and Symposium is taking place in conjunction with the Living Objects: African American Puppetry exhibit at UConn’s Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, on display through April 7, 2 019. For information about the exhibit and festival, visit bimp-exhibitions.org/livingobjects.
Living Objects: African American Puppetry Festival and Symposium sponsors include: Judith M. Zachs and the Zachs Family Foundation, UConn School of Fine Arts, University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, UConn Africana Studies Institute, the H. Fred Simons African American Cultural Center of the University of Connecticut, UConn Hartford, Hartford Public Library, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, the Amistad Center for Art and Culture, and Maryland Institute College of Art.