ABRACADABRA – ISTRIA PUPPET FESTIVAL
Trg M. Tita 12
52210
Rovinj
Croatia
+385 52 840 133
Presentation
The first Istrian puppet festival – Abrakadabra 2023 is a successfully realized festival, realizing a rich program from morning to evening on the streets of Rovinj and in the Gandusio Theater for three days.
Children from the Neven Kindergarten participated in the program (opening program and puppet parade through the streets of Rovinj), students of the Academy of Arts and Culture from Osijek (playing several puppet tests, leading workshops for the youngest on the street in 2 sessions each of the 3 days of the festival) and various professional actors and puppeteers (GK Zorin Dom, Naranča Theater, LOFT Zagreb, Glinjol Theater and others). It is worth noting that with the support of the Croatian branch of UNIMA (World Puppet Organization), we also achieved international cooperation with the Italian branch and brought a guest from Milan (Menegheti). In addition to a rich performance program, puppetry pedagogical workshops were held as part of the festival for the workers of the Neven kindergarten, the workshops were led by a professor and an assistant from the Academy of Arts and Culture from Osijek (Doctor of Art. Nenad Pavlović, Marijan Josipović assistant) on the topic: Puppet as pedagogical tool. The workshop was extremely well received according to the comments of the Neven kindergarten workers, and further work on education and spreading the spirit of puppetry among the citizens of Rovinj is in the future.
Since we started international cooperation with Italy, the goal is to expand the collaborators in the region and this year to include Slovenia (Puppet Theater Ljubljana, Lutkovno gledališće Maribor), and the perspective is to include another country in the program every next year.