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Maribor Theatre Festival — Archive 2010 - 2016

The Puppet: A connector between Slovenians and Czechs

Uroš Trefalt

After World War II, partly under the influence of the tradition of Czech puppetry – spread across the Slovenian territory by Czechoslovakian factory owners, engineers, teachers and the Sokol movement – Slovenian puppet art reached a visibly international artistic level. In the European context, such a strong and long-standing interaction between two cultures is rarely encountered. As a "piece of wood” – a dead mediator of an idea – the puppet has survived two world wars, political divisions and the aesthetic diversity of theatres and till today has continuously influenced the professional development of puppet theatre in Slovenia. The paper shows one of the more astonishing collaborations between the two Slavic nations and examines the period before and after World War II all the way until the present.

 

Uroš Trefalt (b. in Kranj), studied directing and dramaturgy at the Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (DAMU), also earning his master’s degree there. In 1993, he received a Fulbright Scholarship for his PhD studies at New York University (NYU) and the City University of New York (CUNY). He has directed puppet and drama productions, operas and short films. In 1993 he wrote the book Osnove lutkovne režije [The Basics of Direction in Puppet Theatre], which was translated into Spanish. He was also the editor-in-chief of the journal Lutka. In the 1990s he lectured at Columbia University in New York and was one of the founders of the Theatre and Puppetry School (GILŠ) in Ljubljana. Since 1997 he has been lecturing at the Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) and is active as a director and creative director in the field of motion design, for which he has also received the highest international recognition.