Istanbul’s 15th annual Puppetry Festival starts on May 3, with performances from 13 puppetry groups from different countries. This year’s festival also hosts two exhibitions to change the perception of puppetry art in Turkey
The organizers of this year’s Istanbul Puppetry Festival hope to attract larger audiences to more events. The festival, which starts on May 3 and continues until May 13, will bring numerous conferences, exhibitions and workshops to the city.
This schedule for this year’s Puppetry Festival is full of art, video and modern puppet performances, and will host performers from 13 countries. Shows in the festival will be held at the French Culture Center, the Italian Culture Center, Kukla İstanbul, Kozzy Culture Center, AFL Culture Center, Caddebostan Culture Center, the Kenter Theater, the Pera Museum, Actors Stage, Maya Stage, Halkalı Culture Center, Sefaköy Culture Center, Forum İstanbul, Başakşehir Culture Center and Marmara Forum. The festival will also take place on the streets of Istanbul.
In the opening show of the festival, famous Italian puppeteer Walter Broggini will perform “Solo,” a play ironically about the attempted suicide of a puppet. In the remainder of the festival’s schedule, all kinds of puppet performances can be seen: American puppetry group Company Scoot Land will perform in its modern style, and Colombia’s El Bau de la Fantasia will perform with traditional wooden puppets. Peruvian Jose Navarro will also display traditional South American motifs in his show “A la carte.”
The famous troupe Karromato from the Czech Republic, the acknowledged world capital of puppetry, will perform at the festival with a traditional “circus” show. The poetic work of the Netherlands’ Lichtbende puppetry group will also feature in the festival. The group Tandarica from Romania will perform an adaptation of Voltaire’s “Candide.” Other groups performing in the festival will include Singapore’s Mascots and Puppets Specialists, Rue Barrée from France, Chili’s Teatrapo and Spain’s Titeres Cachirulo. This year, as part of Turkey’s “Year of Chinese Culture,” the Beijing Shadow Theater will perform at the Puppetry Festival.
For more info check www.kuklaistanbul.org/en/
