Welcome to the universe of puppets

It is once again my pleasure to welcome you to Silkeborg's international puppet festival. Yet again it has been possible to arrange a festival of such high artistic standards. There are performances for both children and adults - or rather: for children of all ages.

The theme this year is 'Myth, Marionette and Man', which is exactly what this fantastic and quite special theatre form is all about. When is it a marionette? When is it a human being? Is it this double meaning which creates the myth? It is easy to find oneself right in the middle of the puppet's universe, which for me has always been the unique quality of puppet theatre, and especially our own festival. I am looking forward to it, and I know that many others feel the same way.

During the festival there will be a large number of performances at many venues in Silkeborg, as you can see in the program. For one, there will be puppet theatre at Silkeborg's new international folk high school, Performers' House, at Papirfabrikken. There will be shows at many schools and children's institutions throughout the new greater community. Although the festival is international, it is also local, which gives it its strength, made possible by the many volunteers who handle all of the practical duties.

I want to take this opportunity to send my warmest thanks to all of the volunteers, without whose amazing contributions this festival could not take place. A special thank you to the organizing committee led by Ulla Dengsøe. Thank you for making it possible one more time to present this puppet festival in Silkeborg.

Have a wonderful time - in front of the scenes and behind.

Jørn Rye Rasmussen
Chairman of the Culture and recreation committee

Welcome to

Puppetfestival!

Welcome to the Festival of Wonder 2007, where 25 Danish and international theatres will perform 100 shows, all within the genre of puppet, object and visual theatre. There will be performances for adults only and of course many for the whole family.

Myth, Marionette and Man

The theme of the festival this year is Myth, Marionette and Man, and many of the shows have been chosen because of this theme. Many of our performers have chosen to use this year's festival theme of Myth, Marionette and Man. For example the Peruvian Teatro Gaias' beautiful family performance Fingerman ingeniously uses the human body as an object, while visualising with no dialogue the myth of Fingerman.

Shows for adults

Top quality puppetry for adults in Denmark has become known through our Festival of Wonder in Silkeborg and performances for adults in 2007 come from Norway, Holland, The Czech Republic, France, Spain and Denmark. They are all very different from each other, from the Czech Theatre Tow's Night Mosquito, combining dance, laser effects and electronic music to Vampyr, the latest production by international puppet master Neville Tranter from Stuffed Puppet Theatre. Both of these productions will be performed in Jysk Music and Theatre House.

Shows for children

We attach importance in presenting the newest Danish productions for children. Our youngest audiences can look forward to Teater Refleksion's and Teater My's lovely performance of Songs from Above, while Romeo and Juliette from Det lille Turnéteater, is a Shakespeare adaptation for young and old with wonderful projections and puppets.

Puppet films

We will also be showing puppet films for the adult audience. You will be able to meet Jytte Abildstrøm, who will tell about and show her puppet film from India, and we have a premiere of a new Czech puppet film.

Exhibitions, workshops, schools and kindergardens

Using the theme Myth, Marionette and Man, KunstCentret Silkeborg Bad will present an exhibition of the work of 4 Nordic puppet artists.

Our popular puppet workshop welcomes you all. Our master class with Neville Tranter is back by demand.

This festival will be the first in our new larger community and we are happy to be able to extend the offer of puppetry performances to all of the schools and institutions in the community.

Velkommen

We are looking forward to meeting our large local audience, the many international guests and all of the performing theatres.
We hope and believe that you will all be fascinated and feel the wonder in this Festival of Wonder 2007.

A huge thank you to the sponsors and to the many volunteers. Without your help and support, there would be no puppet festival.

On behalf of the organizers

Ulla Dengsøe
Artistic director

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