Saturday, September 14th; 18.00 h; Cultural Centre Travno venue; 3+; 40 minutes; in Croatian
The fundamental idea of this play for the youngest audiences is that identity is not built only at home. Instead, each of us needs to fly away from the hive to learn how to live our lives, by connecting with others, with the other and with those who are different from us. The best way to accept and respect ourselves is to go out into the world and practice values such as cooperation, empathy, and respect for others through adventures.
We wish all the little bees who watch our play many chapters in life full of adventures like Maya’s, in which they never stop admiring the beauty of nature and the power of life in all its forms. But we also wish everyone a happy and safe return because, if we know we will come back home, the journey we are on is never hard.
RIJEKA CITY PUPPET THEATRE, REPUBLIC OF CROATIA
Rijeka City Puppet Theatre was founded in 1960, it operates as a cultural institution of the City of Rijeka, staging puppet performances from national and world literary heritage, as well as contemporary dramatic texts for preschool and school children, as well as adults. It also introduced a repertoire for babies (interactive theatre) and storytelling theatre and holds educational and artistic puppet workshops. It aims to open puppetry to other media; it launched a competition for young authors, and it supports young puppeteers through various forms of cooperation. The theatre, its employees and associates received more than 170 professional awards and audience awards for their art. They held visiting performances all over Europe, in Mexico, Japan, Iran, China, Turkey, etc. Thanks to the theatre’s employees, the city of Rijeka very successfully organised the UNIMA Congress and World Puppetry Festival in 2004.
Since 1996, the theatre has been organising an international festival called the Puppet Theatre Review, a yearly puppetry festival in Rijeka that brings together the best national and foreign puppet shows and boasts a rich artistic and educational programme. It is one of the organisers and programmers of the Tobogan festival launched as part of the European Capital of Culture programme.
The Rijeka City Puppet Theatre is one of the main project hosts of the Children’s House flagship implemented as part of the Rijeka 2020 European Capital of Culture project. It has remained active at the Children’s House to this day as one of the programme partners.
The Rijeka City Puppet Theatre is a member of the world associations ASSITEJ and UNIMA, the European Network for the Diffusion of Performing Arts for Early Childhood – Small Size and the regional network Od malih nogu.
