30th Seville International Puppets Show

Breathing Life into Wooden and Clothes

"It starts in a drawer of shoes; in a drawer and in a woman's mind. It starts as a game; as a child's imaginative exercise. This is the beginning" - this way Rosa Díaz became completely conquered by theatre and art. She doesn't remember the moment when she decided to devote her time and effort to make people laugh, cry or simply reflect. But she thinks of her infancy and her past, and when she first gave life to objects apparently lacking of soul


By ISABEL BENITEZ (isabel.benitez@wavemagazine.net)
from Seville, SPAIN


Rosa Díaz is a puppeteer. One of those people able to make a teapot speak and a spoon walk. As a great magician, she endows clothes and wooden with life. Now, her last show, Grandfather's house, opens the 30th Seville International Puppets Show.

- We were 14 children at home. There were hardly toys. There was a big drawer where my mother kept our shoes and... I played with these shoes. It was our drawer of toys - Rosa says. She made her first contact with theatre when she was 15. First, she accompanied her brothers and sisters; then, she got involved in theatre. It stimulated her curiosity.

- Before becoming puppeteer, I passed through different kinds of theatre. They have some similarities with puppets shows. For instance, street theatre lets you use objects (as stilts) and play with them. And avant-garde theatre needs also various elements. I never thought about working with marionettes but, after my play 'The Big Dress', I felt I had to research on puppetry. I found lots of people encouraging me. This world attracts me, and I'm learning and looking for new results.

In her forties, she is an actress, a writer and a director. Rosa has worked for loads of companies and founded theater groups on her own. The last one, La Rous, was born in 2008 and plays Grandfather's house. She has been awarded for her shows and performances, for touching spectators. She has travelled all over Spain (and abroad) from North to South, from East to West. Now, she is a mother, too. But she never leaves her luggage and her hope. She just takes her family and her team, and offers people a nice trip to a fantastic story. No age, no gender; it doesn't matter; it is just feeling like dreaming and avoiding shallow thoughts. An invitation we are not used to in a world dominated by images and audiovisual media, in a context that often forgets and makes feel lethargic the biggest quality of human beings: their capacity to invent.

Puppetry: job or life?

Devoting oneself to theatre and puppetry is more than simulate a person's movement with a papier-mâché head, anyway. It is not easy. It demands great efforts and hard work. It is a job; an employment that needs creativity, passion and love, everyday.

Art has always been considered a profession difficult to live with. However, theatre enjoys good health, these days. Seville International Puppets Show is a proof, where 20 companies join in the South of Iberian Peninsula looking for new experiences and possibilities: comedies of manners, dramas, short tales, concerts, exhibitions and workshops, attempt to spread and take care of culture. Authors feel fortunate. Culture has not usually been valued enough to invest time on it, even to obtain profit and money.

But it is nothing compared to other countries, according to Rosa. She insists: "Culture is not a worry for our Governments. For instance, France is an enviable country. They care for actors, theatre, and all related to culture. And it is essential to live and grow up. Culture is part of our way of making ourselves... if there is no culture, there is nothing".

History of puppets stories

Maybe, it explains that puppets have been present in the whole History of Humanity. The origins of puppetry lie with ritual magic; but it has served to different aims: amusement, power and ideology. Egyptians made figures from terra-cota, and Aristóteles and Platon's writings talked about dolls theatre. First statuettes found in India, in Mohenjo Daro and Harappa (dated 4.000 years ago), were articulated.

Shadow puppets, marionettes, hand puppets, ventriloquist dummies, and others, became almost national symbols. Polichinelle in France (although it was born in Italy), Kasperl in Germany, Petroushka in Russia, Karaguez in Greece... Meanwhile, in the 21st century, innovation and experimentation give public surprising productions. There are no limits and borders get blurred.

Where are they from

Every time, everywhere, puppets talk about the feelings of a society, the changes of a community, people's worries and achievements. It is a way to shake consciences. They can make audiences reflect on selfishness, wealth, power, friendship or love.

Grandfather's house gazed at death and immortality. Thanks to a desk, it remembers a day in grandfather's life, till he dies. People survive death in their families' and friends' memory, in the events where they played a leading role. So it is not a sad story; it is moving. "It comes from my father's death", Rosa explains. "He died in 2005. I was with him. On the one hand, it took me to standstill. On the other hand, it let me understand death as I had never done before. I think it was a present he gave to me. He died quiet, calm, in his bed, at home, with his children. It was even sweet. And it made me think. I had never seen death so close. And, the day after that, I started to write. I really wanted to do it, like a tribute, a gift".

And it is. A present for him and for those who enjoy the show and the exhibitions Seville welcomes every May. Like Rosa, 20 artists pass on their feelings and worries to expectant audiences. A Japanese proverb says puppetry is the art of breathing life into wooden, until people forget wooden; an advisable exercise of imagination some of them have already tried.

"It's like a child growing up"

Thirty years after the first Seville International Puppets Show, Guadalupe Tempestini, project manager, is an optimist. She expects a successful international meeting. She considers marionettes an essential ingredient of national cultures. An art not just for kids.

- When a play or a show is well built, it lets you find different meanings. A child can gaze at one aspect; and adult can choose a different one. But they both need responsibility and a high level work.

Guadalupe Tempestini feels that puppets for adults and for kids are the same, but infancy demands great consciousness: "We have a double responsibility: we are the bridge between children and parents, between children and theatre. Hard task. We are creating and helping boys and girls to grow up. And we must be careful if we want to give them what they need".



(Published: 10.05.2010.)