Estonian Puppet Theatre helps Faroe Islands establish its own puppet theatre

Friday, 27 January 2012

Meelis Pai, the Director of the Estonian Puppet Theatre and Helena Fríðheim from the Faroese Islands. Photo: Estonian Puppet Theatre

Cooperation between the Estonian Puppet Theatre and the Faroe Islands will see the creation early this year of the Danish dependency's own puppet theatre, whose first production, 'The Kingdom of Babylon', will premiere in March. The founding of the Faroese theatre forms part of the Estonian theatre's initiative to establish NEENPAC – the Northern and Eastern European Network of Puppet Arts. Support for the activity was granted from the long-term cooperation module of the Nordic and Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture.

'The Kingdom of Babylon', which is based on Faroese folk tales, was written and is being produced by islander Helena Fríðheim. Its puppets and models are being created by Anni Jõeaas from the Estonian Puppet Theatre.

In addition to establishing the Faroe Islands' puppet theatre, the following is planned for the first half of 2012 as part of the project:

students of puppet art from the University of Oslo in Norway will be in Tallinn from 18-22 March to find out more about the Estonian Puppet Museum, watch performances and take part in puppet-making workshops;
a project entitled 'Dancing on the Ringmur' will be completed in spring in cooperation with the Gotland Länsteatern theatre, with rehearsals taking place in Sweden and Estonia and performances being given in Visby on Gotland and as part of the TREFF Festival in Tallinn;
the extremely powerful Slovenian Puppet Theatre production 'Love Dolls' will be staged as part of the TREFF Festival in Tallinn from 24-27 May; and
a general meeting of members of the network will be held during the TREFF Festival in Tallinn at which reviews will be presented and future plans made.

As a result of the international action of the Estonian Puppet Theatre and its museum and centre, the theatre is becoming one of the focal points of the European puppet art network. One of the key tasks of the Northern and Eastern European Network of Puppet Arts will be popularising education in puppet art and organising training and masterclasses. Professional puppeteers and the theatre-going public will be able to obtain information from the centre about puppet theatre activities in their region. The centre will also promote publishing and support the preservation of traditional puppet art as well as new takes on and developments in the art form.

The network is expanding all the time, with its current partners including member centres of UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionette) and a number of other organisations:

UNIMA Centre Finland
UNIMA Centre Norway
UNIMA Centre Iceland
LEIKTRAD (Denmark/Faroe Islands)
Länsteatern På Gotland (Sweden)
Estonian Puppet & Youth Theatre
Latvian National Puppet Theatre
Kaunas State Puppet Theatre (Lithuania)
UNIMA Centre Russia
Ljubljana Puppet Theatre (Slovenia)

Estonian Puppet Theatre helps Faroe Islands establish its own puppet theatre

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