Sumarsam Panelist at Puppetry, Playwriting Symposium

Sumarsam, the University Professor of Music, discussed Indonesian puppetry during the Playwriting, Puppets and Dramaturgy Symposium March 9 at the University of Connecticut Puppet Arts Complex.

The symposium brought together playwrights, puppeteers, dramaturgs, students and puppetry enthusiasts to share ideas and experiences about the practice, theory, and history of puppetry’s uses of text in performance.

Experts discussed ways the visual dramaturgy of puppetry’s sculpture in motion works in tandem with dramatic and narrative texts.

Sumarsam and symposium organizer John Bell, director of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry at the University of Connecticut, spoke on “Puppets and Texts: Global Perspectives.” This was Sumarsam’s third time speaking about puppetry at UConn. Wesleyan’s Theater Department has invited Bell and his colleagues to perform and speak at Wesleyan.

“We at Wesleyan Theater and Music Departments have a good connection with the puppetry program at UConn,” Sumarsam said.

View more photos of the event in this Facebook gallery.

Sumarsam also will take part in the “Indonesian Performing Arts and Public Life” event,  April 25-27 at Wesleyan.