Join us for the kickoff of the Wonderland Puppet Theater Symposium with the keynote address by Wonderland Puppet Theater: Visions of the Beloved Community curator Dr. Paulette Richards.
The keynote address will be followed by a screening of In Black, a documentary on African American puppeteers by Jacqueline Wade. There will then be a post-screening discussion with the director. In Black is a spiritual hybrid documentary film about various Black puppeteers/fabricators and Black puppets who took part in the historic Living Objects: African American Puppetry exhibit at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at UConn. Watch some of the puppets come to life in this fascinating magical film that explores puppetry through a Black lens.
The “Wonderland Puppet Theater Symposium” is inspired by and explores in more details the work of Alice Swann and Nancy Schmale, housewives from the interracial Concord Park subdivision near Philadelphia, who, inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of a more equitable “beloved community,” worked together to create a popular hand-puppet theater. Founded in 1961, their company, reflecting contemporary developments in the Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement, and innovations in children’s media, created entertaining and educational puppet productions performed throughout the Northeast. The symposium will bring together University of Connecticut faculty from the departments of Economics, History, English, American Studies, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, with scholars, puppeteers, and activists from the U.S. and abroad.
The symposium is free and open to the public, but registration for each panel is required.
Panels will also be live streamed via Zoom. If you prefer to attend virtually, please register at: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_rQdSZJe8TOmmETxtwng3Xw
The “Wonderland Puppet Theater Symposium” is supported by a UConn School of Fine Arts Anti-Racism grant and University of Connecticut Humanities Institute Speaker, Conference, and Workshop funding; and is co-sponsored by UConn’s African American Cultural Center.