Free Community Puppet-Building Workshops for Celebrate Mansfield Festival

The Ballard Institute will once again offer fall community puppet-building workshops led by acclaimed puppeteer Sara Peattie to design and build life-size and over-life-size puppets for a new pageant production—The Conference of the Birds—to be performed at the Celebrate Mansfield Festival in Downtown Storrs.  

The Conference of the Birds puppet pageant, directed by Sara Peattie, and loosely based on the 12th-century poem by Persian poet Farid ud-Din Attar, will employ masks and puppets of all sizes, created by workshop participants, to celebrate specific birds of Connecticut, as well as endangered bird species and imaginary birds. The pageant will be performed outdoors in Betsy Paterson Square with live music as part of the 21st-annual Celebrate Mansfield Festival on the afternoon of Saturday, Sept. 28. 

No experience is necessary to participate in these free community puppet-building workshops. Space is limited, so advance registration is strongly encouraged. Participants can come for one or both days but should register for the 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. or/and 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. time slot(s). Minors must be accompanied by an adult. To register for the workshop, visit bimp.ticketleap.com/2024-cmf. If you require accommodation to participate, contact the Ballard Institute at bimp@uconn.edu or 860-486-8580.