2024 is the actual celebration year for Teatteri Mukamas. In addition to the theatre’s 45th anniversary, Mukamas’ special International Puppet Theatre Festival is also celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Over the years, we have been able to enjoy great shows around the world. A total of 185 different shows from 20 countries have been seen. Puppet theatre flourishes especially in Central Europe, where long-term training in the field is organized. In addition, festival performances have been seen, e.g. From Japan, Spain, Israel, USA and Canada.
Now it’s time to remember with Mansi Stycz, the founder of the theatre and the artistic director of the festival, where the events started.
The festival is born from the desire of the heart
The festival started very organically, when the founders of Teatteri Mukamas, Mansi Stycz and Anna-Liisa Tarvainen, together, while watching performances abroad, realized that such great works should also be brought to Finland, for others to see. One of the duo’s initial ideas when founding the theatre was “open windows to Europe!” – We wanted to share the knowledge of what puppet theatre is all about. Since it was the 20th anniversary of Teatteri Mukamas, it seemed like the right moment to finally organize a festival where the amazing diversity of the puppet theatre opens up. The festival was not founded just for the sake of the festival. The background was a sincere desire to enrich our own culture. We wanted to share the experiences we had on our performance tours, e.g. In France, the Czech and the Baltic Sea countries.
Even before the festival, Teatteri Mukamas organized Children’s Theatre Weeks in 1995–1998, where they wanted to present the theatre’s own repertoire and offer a longer children’s event. From there, the activity expanded into a festival in 1999, which was supposed to be held only once. However, the experience was so wonderful that it didn’t stop there. The next festival was held already the following year. The annual puppet theatre festival, on the other hand, was found to be so tiring, in addition to the own year-round theatre activities, that the festival ended up being held every other year.
Freedom to experience as you feel
Mansi Stycz is still driven by the desire to learn new things about this incredibly old theatre form. That’s why the programme is always so diverse and unlimited. People’s skills have no bounds. Mansi does not want to start analyzing or evaluating performances, but always goes through her own experience.
– Still the best thing about the festival is its versatility. Each show has its own value and cannot be ranked. They are experiences that open up to everyone’s own world of experience. Each performance is meaningful in its own way and contains passages that remain alive in me. Every spectator is free to experience the show on their own.
Welcome aboard to experience!
Artistic director of the festival
Mansi Stycz
Photo: Festival artistic director Mansi Stycz
At the Omsk festival in Western Siberia in 2017
MUKAMAS 2024 – International Puppet Theatre Festival September 11–15
Performances for children and adults
www.mukamasfestival.com