Cuba celebrates International Puppetry Day

As part of the celebrations for the International Puppetry Day to be held today, the Cuban Center of Unima (International Union of Puppetry) designed a program coupled with the International Day of Theater for Children and Youth.

The latter was established on a day like yesterday’s, but the celebrations continue within a broad program until the end of March, extended throughout the country.

Several weeks ago, the theater groups of the Retablos, prepared for this March festival a puppetry tour throughout Cuba, coordinated by UNIMA and with the participation of groups from almost all Cuban localities, both municipal and provincial.

Here in the capital, theater companies invade streets, avenues, and even work centers, including hospitals, to bring puppet theater to the whole community, mainly to its two most direct audiences: children and young people.

The International Puppetry Day was created to increase awareness of puppetry in other cultural fields and the driving force behind the initiative was the Iranian puppeteer Dzhivada Zolfagariho in 2000.

Two years later (2002) Unima made the date official. The first celebration was held on March 21, 2003.