For the love of a doll › Culture › Granma

As an event that avoids the boundaries of any label, the Matanzas International Puppet Festival, which will reach its 15th edition, can be defined after 30 years of artistic resistance, which if the name has changed a little, the name has not changed welcoming everything related – even if it does not seem so – to puppets and theatrical performances To activate and expand vision.

Since 1994, almost all the country's groups and more than a hundred companies and personalities from the Caribbean, Latin America, Central America, North America, Europe, Africa and Asia have participated in the festival – which this time will take place from May. 14 to 19.

This time will not be the exception, as in addition to ten national companies, offers will be submitted from Canada, Spain, Peru, the United States, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

In addition to the 80th anniversary of the birth of Maestro René Fernández Santana, winner of the National Theater Award, and three decades of Las Estaciones, the 2024 edition features a dedication to women puppeteers.

In this sense, as the actor and playwright Rubén Darío Salazar, director of the aforementioned group, and also winner of the National Theater, explained in a press conference, it is time to restore the great work they have done in music, design and writing. And The trend, those puppeteers who never give up their efforts.

Hence, proposals submitted by women, and topics related to feminine realms, especially girls, feature in the Secretariat. For the only time, the Xiomara Palacio Prize will be awarded to the show that “promotes gender equality best in its history, and attempts to put an end to all forms of discrimination against women and girls, seeking a healthy and equal world, with “the same duties and rights, the same opportunities, consideration and respect.” “.

In addition to theatrical performances, the festival will include exhibitions, theoretical meetings, concerts and book presentations; In addition to the usual workshops for professionals, amateurs, children and the elderly, such as the workshop by Mylene Leboeuf from Canada on mechanisms and joints in puppet theatre, and the body puppet workshops, presented by the Mexican teacher Liz Castro.