Tossed on the seas of Visual Theatre: challenges to Puppetry’s survival as an independent discipline

Leino Rei

doi:10.5965/2595034702252021240

Abstract

The goal was to understand the current situation and give an overview of Baltic and Nordic countries' puppet theater and puppet theater training traditions and whether and how the puppeteer's profile has changed recently. To get an idea of the trends in this area, the common ground of the different countries, I interviewed theatre makers from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. The title of this research is "Tossed on the seas of visual theatre: challenges to puppetry’s survival as an independent discipline."To have a wider look at the puppetry, I also did two additional interviews. One of them with Marek Waszkiel - "Puppetry's challenges in the new visual theatre paradigm" and another one with Russian director Yana Tumina - "The puppeteer in the 21st century".

Highlights

Lançado nos mares do Teatro Visual: desafios para a sobrevivência do Teatro de Formas Animadas como uma disciplina independente
At a seminar held at the International Puppet Theatre Festival in Finland a few years ago, attended by puppeteers, directors and festival organizers from various European countries, it suddenly emerged during conversation that puppetry was no longer taught at the university level in the Nordic or Baltic countries
Current state of puppet theatres If we look at the current situation in the Scandinavian countries, the number of independent puppet theatre groups in Norway was about 30 in the 1980s, and this number remained stable until the 2000s, but it has an even more substantial footprint

Summary

Introduction

Lançado nos mares do Teatro Visual: desafios para a sobrevivência do Teatro de Formas Animadas como uma disciplina independente. At a seminar held at the International Puppet Theatre Festival in Finland a few years ago, attended by puppeteers, directors and festival organizers from various European countries, it suddenly emerged during conversation that puppetry was no longer taught at the university level in the Nordic or Baltic countries. In most of these countries, schools specializing in the discipline had once operated, and some were still operating not that long ago. The following overview focuses on analysis of puppet theatre in the context of visual theatre and examines visual theatre from the perspective of puppet theatre

Objectives

Conclusion