In 2018, the year of the 100th anniversary of the Restoration of Independence of Lithuania, Klaipeda Puppet Theatre has introduced Lithuanian Puppet Theatre Showcase organized for the first time ever in the history of Lithuanian puppetry. Materia Magica LT will take place in 20-23 September, 2018. Dedicated to festival programmers, producers and cultural managers, as well as everyone interested in Lithuanian puppet theatre, it will mostly aim at promoting Lithuanian puppet theatre abroad, paving paths for future creative collaborations and coproductions with foreign artists and institutions.
Lithuanian Puppet Theatre Showcase Materia Magica LT 2018 will present the majority of Lithuanian professional state, municipal and independent theatres creating in the field of puppet, object, and visual theatre. A four-day extensive programme will draw an in-depth panorama of Lithuanian puppet theatre which was always characteristic of its distinctive approach to visuality, design, and the poetics of image. Apart from presenting performances, the festival will invite its audience and foreign guests to stay after the shows and debate over puppetry as well as its role in the changing context of grand theatre, converse about possible future collaborations, as well as get to know Lithuanian puppet theatres and independent groups better during the artists-producers meeting. Lithuanian puppeteers will have an opportunity to attend masterclasses led by foreign puppet theatre masters. Co-organized together with Unima Lithuania, two 3-day-long workshops will concentrate on object theatre (run by Gérard Schiphorst and Marije van der Sande from TAMTAM objektentheater from the Netherlands) and puppetry and film (run by Zvi Sahar from Puppet Cinema).
