Liepāja Puppet Theatre announces two international competitions: one for playwrights and one for theatre makers. The aim of both competitions is to select original scripts or play scripts in-progress, as well as performance ideas to be staged at Liepāja Puppet Theatre in the coming seasons.
Artists are invited to submit their proposals to Liepāja Puppet Theatre by 29 February 2024. The competition rules can be found on the Liepāja Puppet Theatre website. The theatre will continue to negotiate and cooperate with the authors of the selected ideas in order to create exciting performances in the coming seasons.
"We are looking for brilliant ideas that excite audiences of different generations and are consciously designed for the genre and aesthetics of puppet theatre. By organising an international competition where we select ideas from playwrights and theatre makers, we want to bring not only a diversity of themes and ideas to the theatre, but also to position Liepāja Puppet Theatre as a place for international artistic exchange and innovation in puppetry," explains Edgars Niklasons, Artistic Director of Liepāja Puppet Theatre. Through this exchange of ideas, artistic techniques and experiences, the theatre hopes to create unique new productions that are richer in cultural perspective and build its membership in a global artistic community.
The competition will also be a study of trends, how playwrights and theatre-makers perceive puppet theatre today, how they assess the expectations of the contemporary puppet theatre audience, and what quality and exciting ideas and themes they are willing to offer.
"We ask entrants to justify why their play or performance idea would be suitable for puppet theatre, so both competitions will certainly encourage artists to explore the unique aspects of puppet theatre a little further and educate themselves. The guidelines for the competition deliberately do not specify a particular theme or scale of production, as we believe that great ideas can be developed together and adapted to any context," adds Niklason.
The theatre has launched two competitions to distinguish between original drama and ideas that may be proposed by different artists working in the theatre environment.
"The performance idea doesn't necessarily have to come from the director, that may be harder to accept at our latitudes, but performances can be initiated and created by any other theatre maker. We are looking for ideas from choreographers, playwrights, performance artists, set designers and other artists active in the industry. In any case, we want to broaden our perspectives and the audience's experience, to create new productions that resonate with a broader audience and increase interest in Liepāja Puppet Theatre," concludes Niklasons enthusiastically.
For more information reach out to
Ieva Hmieļevska
Liepāja Puppet Theatre Marketing and Public Relations Manager
+ 371 26596186, ieva.hmielevska@liepajaslelles.lv
www.liepajaslelles.lv