A decade of the Puppet Slam Network

Jen Lynn, photo: Doug Wong

On September 2nd, 2016, I finished my tenure at the Puppet Slam Network (PSN), which I co-founded in 2005 with Heather Henson through support from her production company, Ibex Puppetry.  

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Portland Press Herald, (Puppet Slam Network)

On January 28th, 2013, The Portland Press Herald briefly covered my work with the Puppet Slam Network as part of a larger story on Blainor McGough, curator of King Friday’s Dungeon in Portland, ME.

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The Puppetry Journal (Press)

In the Spring of 2012, The Puppetry Journal ran a substantive cover story on the world of puppet slams, featuring my work as co-founder of The Puppet Slam Network and my interviews with puppet slam artists. The Puppet Slam Network fostered connections for independently produced puppet cabarets, so that puppet artists knew where they could perform, venues could find puppet artists, and audiences could enjoy an intimate, tactile, and compelling form of entertainment.   Continue reading “The Puppetry Journal (Press)”

Puppet Slam Network: Informational Posts

In the fall of 2011, I started a series of informational posts on the Puppet Slam Network website about organizing evenings of short-form puppetry and object theatre for adults.

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Puppet Cabaret, Storrs (host)

Vanessa Gilbert, Great Small Works, Marsian, 2011, Photos: Mark Dannenhauer
Vanessa Gilbert, Great Small Works, Marsian De Lellis, 2011, Photos: Mark Dannenhauer

On April 2nd, 2011, I hosted a puppet cabaret at the Nafe Katter Theatre with long-time Blood from a Turnip collaborator, Vanessa Gilbert. The line up included short-form puppet acts from Great Small Works, Big Nazo, Michael Sommers, and Kate Brehm. The cabaret was part of Puppetry and Post Dramatic Performance: An International Conference on Performing Objects in the 21st Century at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT.

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The New American Vaudeville, Storrs, CT (artist talk)

On April 2nd, 2011, I presented The New American Vaudeville: The Puppet Slam Network, at Puppetry and Postdramatic Performance – an International Conference on Performing Objects in the 21st Century hosted by the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT.  In The New American Vaudeville I contextualized growing field of puppet slams – evenings of short-form puppet and object theater for adult audiences.  The presentation was informed by my position as co-founder of the Puppet Slam Network which ran from 2005 to 2016.

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Object/Fetish, Storrs (Talk)

Marsian De Lellis, 2011, Photo: Uconn Puppetry Department
Marsian De Lellis, 2011, Photo: Uconn Puppetry Department

In Friday, April 1st, 2011, I presented my artist-talk, Object/Fetish: Staging the Suspension of Disbelief in Every Day Life at the University of Connecticut in Storrs for the Puppetry and Postdramatic Performance Conference.

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Object/Fetish, Valencia (guest teacher)

2010-16x7-Object-Fetish-300dpi Object/Fetish Calarts

On November 18th, 2010, I was a guest teacher for Susan Simpson’s History of American Puppet Theater course at CalArts through the Cotsen Center for Puppetry and the Arts. For this class which included a mixture of graduate and undergraduate students, I presented my multi-media artist-talk, Object/Fetish: Staging the Suspension of Disbelief in Every Day Life.

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CJOB, Winnipeg

On July 7th, 2010, Dan Walechuck appeared on CJOB (Winnipeg) to talk about The Puppet Slam Network and the Winnipeg Puppet Slam, in which I performed Fudgie’s Death, a segment from Growing Up Linda

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