The 34th edition of the International Festival of puppet and alternative theater Skupa’s Pilsen will take place from 4 to 12 June 2022 in the city of Pilsen.
The festival will start with a special program for Jiraskovo Square all day on June 4: puppet shows, workshops and open-air cinema.
Then from June 8, you will be able to see about 50 shows presented in Alfa Theatre Pilsen, New Theatre Pilsen, Moving Station, DEPO 2015 and outdoors.
They will showcase contemporary puppet creations from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, including new shows from DRAK Theatre, Alfa Theatre Pilsen, Naivní divadlo Theatre Liberec, Spejbl and Hurvinek Theatre, Continuo Theatre, Puppet Theatre Bratislava in Slovakia.
The festival will also honor companies from Spain, with Xavier Bobes, Belgium, with the company Gare Centrale, Poland, with the Bialystok Puppet Theatre or the Ivory Coast, with Ivoire Marionnettes.
A focus will be proposed on Japanese puppetry with the shows of Miyako Kurotani, Koiichi IImuro, Koryu Nishikawa and Kusunoki Tsubame. In collaboration with the Osaka National Bunraku Theater, the festival is also preparing a live stream and a masterclass directly from the stage of the Osaka Bunraku Theater.
The Czech Republic is celebrating several important anniversaries in the field of puppetry this year: 110 years of the puppet magazine Loutkář (Pupetteer), 70 years of the Puppet Department of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, 130 years of the most important modern Czech puppeteer Josef Skupa, 110 years of the famous Jiři Trnka, and 55 years of Skupa’s Pilsen Festival. An academic symposium on the theme of the puppetry tradition will thus take place during the festival.
Finally the festival will host the Executive Committee of UNIMA.
More info: www.skupovaplzen.cz
