Istanbul International Puppet Festival

Istanbul invited puppets from all over the world as part of the 12th Istanbul International Puppet Festival.

The annual International Istanbul Puppet Festival hosts many famous national and international puppeteers from as far as Taiwan and Brazil. The festival will be organised for 13th time this year with plays, exhibitions and work-shops on puppet and shadow theatre.

As part of the 13th International Istanbul Puppet Festival, World Puppet Day will be celebrated March 21 and the World Puppet Exhibition will open simultaneously. This year the International Istanbul Puppet Festival will be expanded to three months with the support of the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture agency.
the Puppet Festival, will take place at the French Culture Center, Kukla Istanbul, Taksim Square, Profilo Culture Center, Sultanahmet Square, Caddebostan Culture Center and Ümraniye Meydan Shopping Mall.

The festival program is very rich. Twenty well-known groups from 12 countries will present a total of 75 shows in 17 different venues. Among other events to be organized as part of the festival will be the Mediterranean Puppet Symposium, Egyptian Puppet Exhibition, documentary screenings, Hacıvat Karagöz workshops, Philippe Genty Group workshops and talks. This year’s festival is joined by selected groups from France, Russian Federation, Hungary, Spain, Brazil, Japan, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Iran, Italy and Turkey.

The March 21 World Puppet Day will be celebrated with a mini festival on the occasion of the Istanbul European Capital of Culture. During the opening of the festival, directed by Cengiz Özek, leading Dutch puppet group Duda Paiva Company will perform “Morningstar,” featuring video, dance and puppet show.

Also during the opening of the festival, Karagöz masters Tacettin Diker, Orhan Kurt and Metin Özlen, who have been regarded as “providers of cultural richness” since Karagöz is accepted as an oral heritage, will be presented a special plague. On the same day, the World Puppet Exhibition will open at Taksim’s metro station and Kukla (Puppet) Istanbul venue. The exhibition will display puppets from around the world.

Foreign puppet companies and plays that will be featured at the festival will be Unia Teatr Niemozliwy “Toporland” and Tadeuzs Wierzbicki “Malei” from Poland; Dresdner Figurentheater “Psycho” and “The Story of the Little Much” from Germany; Slon Theatre “The Bewitched Phaeton” from Bulgaria; Yumehina Grup “Unjo” from Japan; Velo Theatre “The Postman” and Arkitel “L’oeil du loup” from France. There will also be many shows from Turkish puppet theater companies.

The puppet shows will be performed at the French Culture Center, Kukla Istanbul, Garajistanbul and Notre Dame De Sion. Also, with contributions from the Beyaz Ay Association, there will be puppet-making workshops for the handicapped children.

World-famous theater company Philippe Genty, with its owner, Genty, acclaimed French master of theatrical fantasy and illusion, is the most prominent name of this year’s International Puppet Festival. Company Philippe Genty is presenting an inspired and original work that merges visual and physical theater with dance and puppetry.

The company will meet the Turkish audience for the first time and perform its play “Zigmund Follies.” Genty, who is working on the fantastic language of objects, is using dance, light, object, action and theater together in a fascinating way. As part of the festival, the Philippe Genty group will also organize a three-day workshop at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality City Theaters Harbiye Stage on May 12, 13 and 14.

This festival will make the art of puppetry a hot issue again.

Tickets for the festival can be purchased from Biletix and box offices one hour before the start of plays.

The 13th International Istanbul Puppet Festival will run from May 4 to 16.
Further information about the festival can be obtained at: