24. International Festival of Contemporary Puppet Theatre Bábkarská Bystrica 2024

Bábkarská Bystrica is a platform for contemporary (non-)puppetry, uniting professional artists from all around the world. It is the only international festival of puppetry in Slovakia and one of the most renowned. It creates space where professional art meets the audience, from toddlers to seniors.

The 24th edition of the international festival of contemporary puppet theatre for children and adults builds on our long-term theatrical research. We have approached each festival as a research opportunity into the current state of puppet theatre in professional practice and its relationship to the audience. The last festival in 2022 bore the theme Everyday Theatre. This theme invited analysis of the state of informal education through theatre in Slovakia. Building on this, we picked the theme for our 24th year: EXPANSION = PUPPET.

Why? BDNR has been organising the festival independently since 1994. In 30 years, puppet theatre has undergone incredible transformations in form and content. Puppetry has gone through and is still going through extensive, one might say even unimaginable postmodern developments. Examples of current forms of puppet theatre, in addition to traditional puppets, include: finger puppets, shadow theatre, theatre of objects, masks, mannequins, theatre of props and materials, intersections of puppet theatre and dance, movement, immersive theater, performance, opera, drama, use of totems, games with sound, various reforms of matter on stage, synergistic movement of man, puppet, space, media and styles coexisting in contemporar puppet theatre.

Social interaction (within the profession, i.e., between theater actors, but also outwardly oriented towards the general audience) is a very important element of the theatrical communication of the festival. We are aware of its importance and continue to work within the concept of informal education through theatre, in the form of creative workshops (following the chosen program – daily thematic workshops with expert guidance, for the general and expert public, depending on the program also for children), lecturer introductions and discussions after the performance. The programme will also include an international colloquium on the topic of EXPANSION = PUPPET.