The Puppet Theatre Has Not Had Summer Holidays since 2012

STYLE The Puppet Theatre Has Not Had Summer Holidays since 2012! The world of theatre typically goes on holiday in July and August. The Puppet Theatre in Ostrava, however, has not taken a summer holiday for nine seasons. The summer programme came with the new extension to the theatre built in 2011, because these gave the puppeteers two new areas to play in: an alternative stage in the basement opening into an outdoor amphitheatre. The amphitheatre provides a very comfortable room for seventy visitors but when the programme is very attractive, an audience of 160 willingly squeezes in. The first year of Léto s pimprlaty (Summer with Puppets) was held in 2012. The alternative stage housed an interactive exhibition of puppets from previously performed plays. Children could try out the puppets and produce a puppet of their own from paper. On Sundays, amateur companies played fairy tales in the amphitheatre. Ever since the first year, the theatre has offered a programme for groups: in the past few years, there have been regular morning programmes for urban day-camps which allow children to make their own puppets, prepare their own play with the assistance of instructors, then act it out. in the halls of the Museum of Ostrava. Visitors were presented summaries on individual types of puppets, on the history of the Puppet Theatre and Czech puppeteering, and enjoyed an exhibition of photographs by Jindřich Štreit, who documented the development of the play “Oberon,” which took the puppet company on successful trips abroad. Another part of the exhibition was interactive, introducing children to various types of puppets, letting them touch them and try out puppeteering. Each group of visitors was guided by two lecturers who assisted the children when making a simple puppet at the end of their excursion. Pimprlárium opened every summer from 2013 to 2017. The exhibition travelled to Galerie umění pro děti (the Gallery of Arts for Children) in Prague, Muzeum Třineckých železáren (the Museum of Ironworks in Třinec), Dům dětí a mládeže Čtyřlístek (the House of Children and Youth, FourLeaf Clover) in Ostrava – Poruba, and several elementary schools in Ostrava. Pimprlárium also went abroad: the exhibition was installed in the Cultural Centre in Oroszlány (Hungary), and at the international festival Teatralia in Madrid (Spain). Change of Title and Outdoor Attractions In 2018 the name and concept of the summer festival changed from the original Léto s pimprlaty (Summer with Puppets) to Pimprléto (Puppet Summer). The exhibition of Pimprlárium was replaced with arts-and-crafts/drama workshops for the public. The summer programme has gone professional: over the past few years, the Sunday Fairy Tales have been performed by professional companies and actors from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The programme often includes concerts and plays for adults. Outside the Puppet Theatre are interactive attractions and games made of wood and metal, such as giant Tic-TacToe, designed by Tomáš Volkmer, whose previous artwork defined the formation of the Puppet Theatre, namely via the most remarkable statues decorating the front side of the building. Origins and Success of PIMPRLÁRIUM In 2013, on the sixtieth anniversary of founding of the theatre, a vast interactive exposition named “Pimprlárium” (Puppet Collection, or Puppet World) was created by Petr Dvorský, Tomáš Volkmer and Hana Volkmerová. It was first installed POSITIV 2/2020 ǀ 93