Kabóca Puppet Theatre

 

 

The forerunner of Kabóca Puppet Theatre was established as Kabóca Puppet Studio in the autumn of 1992 in Veszprém.“Kabóca”, as an offical puppet theatre, has been staging puppet theatre performances and organising children’s programmes since 1st January 2001.

 

Most performances of the theatre are offered for pass holders. At the moment there are three ongoing series of performances, and one of them is designed for smaller audiences, meant to be easily transportable and performed in kindergarden or school settings.

 

Besides its performances for pass holders, Kabóca Puppet Theatre often performs at national, as well as international festivals. One of its main priorities is to bring mobile performances to children living in communities that, due to financial reasons, cannot provide quality entertainment for their young. Under this initiative the Puppet Theatre has visited several disadvantaged settlements in County Veszprém, in Hungarian-speaking villages of Slovakia and County Kovászna, in Transylvania, over the past few years.

 

One of the most recent endeavours of the Puppet Theatre is to address age-groups beyond the usual puppet theatre-going one (4 to 10 year-olds). On the one hand the theatre tries to reach out to children under 3 years with infant-theatre productions, and on the other hand, to provide exciting performances for secondary school pupils.

 

 

 

The performances of the Puppet Theatre are put together by well-known Hungarian directors, designers and writers. The idea to enable for the youngest generation of directors to work together with the “Kabóca”-company has become increasingly important over the past years. The Puppet Theatre has good working relations to many of the country’s puppet theatres and is open to joint productions. Three actors and one permanent composer of “Kabóca” have participated in the most recent one of such productions, when staging an open-air performance of great dimensions, “Hódítások könyve” (The Book of Invasions), for an adult audience at the Zsámbék Theatre Base, in the summer of 2007.

 

 

The whole company counts 20 members altogether– most of them young artists who also play music beyond the theatre, in several music groups. The theatre has its own puppet, costume and scenic workshop. Kabóca generally produces three new puppet performances per season.

 

The current leader of the theatre is Andrea Székely (from July 2008 for 5 years), puppet director and art professor of the Vilmos Apor Catholic College in Vác. She intends to widen the theatre’s activity with new artisctic ways and tries gently to reset the artistic tone of Kabóca. She emphasises and puts forward the playfulness, the musical interest and the existing animation knowledge and thinking of the company:

 

- music, fine art and movement is the center aspect of communication with children in theatre

 

- strong focus on the special musical, symbolic and playful character of Hungarian language

 

- opening new spaces in the theatre: exhibition space and Kabóca Cottage

 

- setting up special programs for small children in Kabóca Cottage: this is a little house situated in the theatre’s yard, open all week for parents and small children who are welcome to use the cottage’s playing facilities, participate in danse and music courses or to see performances

 

- creation of the Napra nap (Day by Day) perfomance for children under 3 years of age: this is an animation show based on music, visuality and movement with two actors and a violinist

 

- launch of a dramapedagogy program

 

- organisation of professional activities such as a pupppet dramaturgy conference with workshops (led by Géza M. Tóth animation filmdirector, Gábor Atlasz painter and mime, Erzsi Kiss singer-composer-performer) and a special hand puppet workshop for the company led by Ágnes Török and Károly Szívós puppet actors

 

- festival participation in Hungary and abroad: Budapest, Kecskemét, Békéscsaba, Győr, Cluj Napoca (Roumania, Puck Festival), and Slupsk (Poland) where Kabóca has been the winner of the prices for the best performance and for the best artistic conception.

 

 

If you have any questions about the work and performances of Kabóca Puppet Theatre, please contact:

 

titkarsag@kabocababszinhaz.hu

 

melindasoregi@gmail.com