State level Puppetry festival from May 23 at Angul

Kandhei Ghar, an umbrella organisation of the puppeteers of the State led by scholar-researcher-puppeteer Gouranga Charan Dash, will host its first ever State-level puppetry festival at the newly set up Puppet World (museum) at Kutarimunda village in Angul district from May 23 to 25.

Mr. Dash, a college teacher by profession and a puppetry exponent by passion, has undertaken pioneering research and promotional activities on puppetry. “Orissa is the only Indian State where we come across all the four traditions of puppetry – rod, string, glove and shadow – but lack of patronage has marginalised it into an endangered arts practice,” Mr. Dash pointed out.

The festival that will also include a workshop is an attempt to trace out the factors leading to the marginalisation of puppetry and means to rejuvenate the scene, he added. Twenty exponents and six troupes representing all the four styles besides 10 research, scholars and critics on Orissan puppetry are slated to participate in this three-day event , informed Mr. Dash.

During the festival, the troupes will go round the nearby villages to stage shows to feel the pulse of the people towards their productions while familiarising the audience with the beauty of puppetry, the ancient form of theatre, he informed.

Rural folks have been the best connoisseurs of puppetry and hence we decided to build up the museum in a village, pointed out Dash. The Dhenkanal and Angul districts, both sharing common boarder, are quite rich in puppetry having closer proximity to Keonjhar and the coastal districts of Cuttack and Jajpur having a number of puppetry practitioners, he observed and hoped that the museum and resource-cum-training centre for Orissan puppetry at Kutarimunda village would serve as a catalyst to the revival of puppetry in the State.