The poetry of puppets

[Lite Beer]

HARMONY WORLD PUPPET CARNIVAL
The poetry of puppets
Kitchana Lersakvanitchakul
THE NATION

Bangkok celebrates marionette magic with the Harmony World Puppet Carnival

BANGKOK: -- Thais first heard of the World Festival of Puppet Art back in 2006 when our very own troupe, the Joe Louis Puppet Theatre, returned home from Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, with the Best Traditional Performance Award.

Now Bangkok is about to play host to a marionette marathon that promises to be even bigger, as 166 troupes from 80 countries descend on the capital for the Harmony World Puppet Carnival, which gets underway on November 1.

"There will be harmony at this festival. Puppetry has no conflicts, only friendship," says Nimit Pipithkul, chairman and director of Sema Thai Marionette Arts for Social Foundation. "Harmony runs through every aspect of this festival. International puppeteers believe that the Thai people will give them a warm welcome, Thai puppets of all types will be contributing to this festival for the first time in our history.

"There's been fantastic cooperation between several organisations to make this event a success. I would particularly like to thank the Culture Ministry, the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, the Tourism Authority of Thailand and the Thai Health Promotion foundation for their contributions and Siam Paragon for agreeing to be part of this festival."

The Sema Thai troupe has also won big in Prague, bringing home prizes for Most Poetic Creation of Puppet Art with "Sang Thong" in 2009 and Best Traditional Performance for "The Battle of Prommas" in 2010. The troupe was also recognised for Best Artistic Creation and Best Young Puppeteer at last year's Wayang World Puppet Carnival in Jakarta.

Sema Thai is bringing new string puppets to the festival in addition to its traditional royal, hand, finger and shadow puppets.

"Communicating across cultures is always challenging. For Prague, I wanted to find a way to communicate Thai folklore to audiences from other cultures. That's why I selected 'Sang Thong' for our performance and gave it an international and philosophical interpretation. Why didn't Sang Thong go out of his conch shell? My interpretation explained that he was worried about the outside world being so full of danger. Different societies and different countries were able to empathise with that theme and also with the message 'don't be afraid, because love actually exists in this world'," Nimit says.

"For this festival, I would like to see all the Thai puppeteers keeping originality alive, because foreigners love to see anything that's original. I also hope many Thai people will come and see us.

"The international troupes will be bringing a range of hand and finger puppets in various animal and cartoon-character forms while ours will be characters from Thai literature.

"Puppets offer a good reflection on the way of life - looks, attire, music, feelings and thoughts - in the country," Nimit says.

"I know some people feel traditional puppets are not interesting and I would like to see them change their attitude. I create lots of puppets for youth troupes and have fashioned marionettes out of straw for youngsters in Chainat and out of silk for a troupe in Buri Ram. There is still a strong connection between puppets and the cultural identities of the provinces.

"This festival is a good opportunity for all Thai puppeteers to create new puppets. We already know that a royal puppeteer is producing a new set of puppets for a performance of 'Tossakan' from the Ramakien and a nang yai troupe says it is building the largest shadow puppet in the world."

In addition to performances, the festival will also feature exhibitions, including one of contemporary and Thai puppets in the reign of His Majesty the King at the Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Art Centre, documentary videos, puppet films, an academic conference, a roundtable, a workshop and a seminar. The event is expected to cost about Bt20 million.

"The workshop will cover a lot of interesting topics including 'Childcare and Puppets', which looks at puppet therapy for babies. After the festival is over, we'd like to see puppets used to bring happiness to hospital patients. We'll also be seeing how puppet shows in Singapore and Malaysia are used to solve community problems. And the puppet maker from the movie 'Strings' will be also here," says Nimit.

Indonesia, he notes, has a strong shadow puppet culture known as "wayang" and it will be bringing this national art to the fore when the Asean Economic Community gets underway next year.

"I attended the Asian Forum there and was delighted to watch 'wayang'. The shadow puppets include children characters manipulated by children, which is a good way of fostering interest among young people. It's essential that the knowledge and skills are passed on to the new generation - puppets, after all, can't walk or perform without the puppeteers."

Nimit is also hoping that Thais will benefit from the festival.

"Exchanges and sharing of ideas between international and local puppeteers can only be beneficial to the art. But what I would really like to see is Thais learning to distinguish between the marionettes. I would like them to gain respect for our art and cultures and most importantly, I would like them to come and see and appreciate our Thai puppets," says Nimit.

No strings attached

_ The Harmony World Puppet Carnival runs from November 1 to 10 at various venues around Rattanakosin and Siam Paragon.

_ On November 1, there will be a parade of puppeteers from the Ratchadamnoen Contemporary Art Centre to Sanam Luang.

_ Admission is free. For more information, visit www.HarmonyWorldPuppet.com.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/life/The-poetry-of-puppets-30245673.html

-- The Nation 2014-10-18

[StealthEnergiser]

[StealthEnergiser]

Seen these in Ho Chi Minh about 6 months ago they were excellent

[Pii Kate]

looks like a lot of fun plus a great chance to learn about other cultures. Now this is a World event.

[mrtoad]

Did Yingluck attend?

[Emster23]

"Puppetry has no conflicts, only friendship," says Nimit Pipithkul"

Hello???? Ever hear of Punch and Judy? Even colonial like myself knew about them from an early age!

[mrtoad]

Puppetry has bought nothing but conflict to Thailand