Content

13^TH LUTKOKAZ (THE PUPPET SHOW), the International Puppetry Revue, 20–23 March 2023

EVENT PROGRAM: 

Monday, 20 March – The World Day of Theater for Children and Young People

 

10:30 a.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture
Academy of Arts and Culture Show: Searching for Lutkokaz
A special program of students of the Academy of Arts and Culture by stations:

• 10:45 a.m. – Promenade, below the Franjo Tuđman Bridge
• 11:10 a.m. – Tvrđa (Old Town), Water Gates
• 11:30 a.m. – Tvrđa (Old Town), Trg Svetog Trojstva 3, the entrance hall of the Rectorate
• 11:40 a.m. – Tvrđa (Old Town), the entrance hall of the library of the Academy of Arts and Culture

12:00 p.m. – Tvrđa (Old Town), puppet showroom of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek
Official opening of the 13^th Lutkokaz

 12:15 p.m.– Tvrđa (Old Town), puppet showroom of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek
Opening of the puppet exhibition of the students of the Department of Creative Technologies

 7:00 p.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, grand hall
Anja Pletikosa: “Od malih nog(u) (Ever since I was little) – Regional Platform in the EU Context ”– lecture
In cooperation with the Od malih nog(u) (Ever since I was little) regional platform

 8:00 p.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, room 13
LOFT (Puppet Organization That We Need Indeed): The Dream Hunters – play
In cooperation with the Od malih nog(u) (Ever since I was little) regional platform

 

Tuesday, 21 March – World Puppetry Day

 2:00 p.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, room 5
Benjamin Zajc: 8372 – performance

4:00 p.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, room 1
Academy of Arts and Culture: ASDFDFGGGG – play

5:00 p.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, room 8
Tamara Kučinović, Lorna Kalazić Jelić: “About the Puppetry Studies of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek” – lecture

 7:00 p.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, grand hall
Žilvinas Vingelis: “Pictorial Turn in Contemporary Visual Theater: Bio-Photography, Meta-Photography and Double Consciousness” – lecture
Part of the Creative Europe project “EU Contemporary Puppetry Critical Platform”

 8:00 p.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, room 13
Gllugl: Astronauts – play

 

Wednesday, 22 March

 

9:00 a.m.– Academy of Arts and Culture, room 1
Dada Drama Club: Snow White – play

 1:00 p.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, room 1
Closing meeting of the partners of the Creative Europe project “EU Contemporary Puppetry Critical Platform”

 4:00 p.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, room 2
Workshops presentation

 5:00 p.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, room 1
Academy of Arts and Culture: A Perfect Life – play

 6:00 p.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, room 13
Academy of Arts and Culture: Transforming Beetles – play

 7:00 p.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, puppet showroom
"Contemporary Puppetry and Criticism in Croatia, Slovenia, Scotland, Lithuania and Beyond” – roundtable discussion and the presentation of the “Puppet” magazine and the book “Contemporary Puppetry and Criticism”
As part of the Creative Europe project “EU Contemporary Puppetry Critical Platform” 

8:00 p.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, premises of the Department of Creative Technologies
Academy of Arts and Culture: Movie night – Lutkofilm (The Puppet Movie)

 

Thursday, 23 March

10:00 a.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, room 1
LOFT Art Organization (Puppet Organization That We Need Indeed) and CLOU Art Organization: Lila – play
In cooperation with the Od malih nog(u) (Ever since I was little) regional platform

 11:00 a.m. – Academy of Arts and Culture, grand hall
LOFT (Puppet Organization That We Need Indeed): Vision of Contemporary Puppetry in Croatia and Beyond – roundtable discussion
In cooperation with the Od malih nog(u) (Ever since I was little) regional platform

 

WORKSHOPS PROGRAM

Monday, 20 March

2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Basics of Animation for Puppet Technicians, Academy of Arts and Culture, building 18, rooms 1 and 2

2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Mi2, Academy of Arts and Culture, room 2

2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Body, Voice, Rhythm and Movement, Academy of Arts and Culture, ballet hall

2:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Puppet in the Frame, Academy of Arts and Culture, building 18, room 7

  

Tuesday, 21 March

10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m,
10:00 a.m.– 2:00 p.m Basics of Animation for Puppet Technicians, Academy of Arts and Culture, building 18, rooms 1 and 2

5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Mi2, Academy of Arts and Culture, room 2

11:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. Body, Voice, Rhythm and Movement, Academy of Arts and Culture, ballet hall

10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Puppet in the Frame, Academy of Arts and Culture, building 18, room 7

           

Wednesday, 22 March

10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m,
10:00 a.m.– 2:00 p.m Basics of Animation for Puppet Technicians, Academy of Arts and Culture, building 18, rooms 1 and 2

10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Mi2, Academy of Arts and Culture, room 2

10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., 3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. Body, Voice, Rhythm and Movement, Academy of Arts and Culture, ballet hall

10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m. Puppet in the Frame, Academy of Arts and Culture, building 18, room 7

1:10 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. Play and Make a Puppet, Jagoda Truhelka Elementary School

 

PLAYS:

 

LOFT (Puppet Organization That We Need Indeed): The Dream Hunters
The Dream Hunters: Neven Matoša and Bruno Kontrec
Dreams designer: Morana Dolenc
Spiritusmovens of the dream hunters: Petra Prša
Analyst of dream processes: Anja Pletikosa
Creator of the soundtrack of dreams and the world beyond them: Luka Vrbanec
Creator of real and imaginary lighting of dreams: Ivan Štrok
Awake dreamt of visual elements: Morana Dolenc and Bruno Kontrec
Work suits sewn by: Vesna Mihetec
Voiceover: Iva Lehunšek Panić, Katja and Vlatko Panić

About the play: Heroes of the play, the dream hunters, work at a company specializing in sleeping children. They walk through dreams at night in an attempt to collect, process and store them and make sure that sleep takes place without distractions. They take care of little sleeper Franka and make sure that she gets a good night’s sleep until, one night, a problem messes with Franka’s dreams and our Heroes have to puzzle out how to solve it.
Through captivating choreography of movements, objects and sound, the Dream Hunters show a carousel ride through children’s dreams, the aim of which is to teach the audience to remember, analyze and accept dreams whatever they might look like because dreamlike images are a depiction of one’s thoughts, wishes and fears. Dream Hunters responsibly claim that to accept and love your dreams means to accept and love yourself – just the way you are!

Duration: 35 minutes
Age: 7+
Language: Croatian
Time and place: Monday, 20 March at 8:00 p.m., room 13

 

Benjamin Zajc, 8372/iv – performance
Author and performer: Benjamin Zajc
Mentor: Zala Dobovšek
Producer: Mija Špiler
 UL AGRFT Production

About the performance: 8372 is a commemorative performance by Benjamin Zajc. He performed it at the AGRFT Ljubljana academy between 30 March and 1 April 2022 when, together with the audience for three days, 8 hours a day, he questioned his and collective limits of responsibility for the Srebrenica massacre. Creating a performance based on family traumas that took shape in front of him, the author developed a space of penance and memory that stems from more than a hundred stories of survivors in which he self-actualizes. Given that the performance at the symbolic level cannot be repeated, 8372/iv is its logical sequel, which is created on the border between the installation and the reconstruction of the original.

Duration: 2 hours
Capacity: a maximum of 20 people in the audience
Time and place: Tuesday, 21 March at 2:00 p.m., room 2

 

Academy of Arts and Culture: ASDFDFGGGG
Exam production of Ivana Vukićević, 2nd-year student of the Graduate University Study Program Puppetry Directing
Mentor: doc.art. Tamara Kučinović
Directed by: Ivana Vukićević
Actors: Grgur Grgić, Davor Tarbuk, Lorenco Tolić, Dominik Karaula
Scenography and puppets: Ivana Vukićević
Choice of music: Ivana Vukićević

About the play: The “Asdfdfggggggg” play questions the (im)possibility of forcefully finding inspiration within one’s own four walls and explores the limits of human patience in the search for it.

Duration: 40 minutes
Age: 14+
Language: Croatian
Time and place: Tuesday, 21 March at 4:00 p.m., room 1

Gllugl: Astronauts – play
Text, direction, creation of puppets and costumes: Katarina Arbanas
Dramaturgy: Nikša Eldan and Filip Eldan
Music: Marko Lucijan Hrašćanec
Camera: Sven Copony
Video and audio editing: Katarina Arbanas and Sven Copony
Stage movement: Sara Ipša
Lighting designer: Filip Eldan
Actors: Katarina Arbanas, Vesna Stilinović, Nikša Eldan, Zdenko Jelčić, The Gentleman

About the play: The play follows two people who live seemingly ordinary, everyday lives. However, their minds are elsewhere, in a meta space we show on stage. The protagonists persistently go back to the moment of parting that happened many years ago, holding each other in a limbo of inner worlds in which they float like astronauts between decisions they did not make but wanted to, between words they did not say but wanted to, between memories of the past and the fantasies of an idyllic reality that could have existed. Which truth is more true? Which reality is more real? Which life is real life and which is just a fantasy? Do we have the freedom to control our destiny or are we just mere victims of our subconscious mechanisms? Can love happen somewhere beyond space and time, somewhere on the border of worlds?

Duration: 45 minutes
Age: adults
Language: Croatian
Time and place: Tuesday, 21 March at 8:00 p.m., room 13

 

Dada Drama Club: Snow White
Director and presenter: Davor Dokleja
Music: Igor Baksa
Art design: Jelena Dokleja
Actors: Eni Vibović, Juraj Vičević, Magdalena Pinc, Franka Bene, Dora Srđenović, Martin Zadravec, Simon Varošanec, Mara Barbić, Vida Haček, Sara Hassan and Zara Nedeljko

About the play: The famous story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs will be told to children in a very captivating way. Using the puppet technique, all the characters, apart from Snow White, will come into existence with various puppets made from scarfs, hats, gloves and all sorts of winter clothes.

Duration: 35 minutes
Age: 4+
Language: Croatian
Time and place: Wednesday, 22 March at 9:00 a.m., room 1

 

Academy of Arts and Culture: A Perfect Life
Exam production of Sara Lustig, 2nd-year student of the Graduate University Study Program Puppetry Directing
Mentor: Izv. prof. art. Tamara Kučinović
Directed by: Sara Lustig
Actors: Matko Trnačić, Mateja Tustanovski, Laura Kolesarić, Luka Selman, Toni Leaković, Meri Andraković
Choice of music: Sara Lustig

About the play: The play takes us to a city made up of rules where we follow a family also made up of them – a dad who loves rules, a mom who loves rules and a little girl... named Ana.

Duration: 40 minutes
Age: 12+
Language: Croatian
Time and place: Wednesday, 22 March at 5:00 p.m., room 1

 

Academy of Arts and Culture: TransformingBeetles
Exam production of 2nd-year students of the Undergraduate University Study Program of Acting and Puppetry
Mentor: Izv. prof. dr. art. Hrvoje Seršić, ass. Andrija Krištof
Actors: Rafael Anočić, Stjepan Bešlić, Ivan Dragičević, Ana Ilakovac, Lora Kovač, Tea Mandarić, Iva Radić, Ivana Sinovčić, Filip Tomičić, Asja Vidović, Matej Žerjav
Music: 2nd-year students of the Undergraduate University Study Program of Acting and Puppetry

About the play: Using a well-known idea of the metamorphosis of javanka (the rod puppet), the students, through its peculiar animation, portray the life cycle of insects. Accompanied by live music and characteristics of visual theater, we have the chance to get to know many insects, their rituals, development and ultimately, their death.

Duration: 40 minutes
Age: 3+
Language: nonverbal play
Time and place: Wednesday, 22 March at 6:00 p.m., room 13

 

LOFT Art Organization (Puppet Organization That We Need Indeed) and CLOU Art Organization: Lila
Author’s project of Nina Sabo and Morana Dolenc
Directed by: Morana Dolenc
Scenography: Andreja Jandrečić
Music: Anita Valo and Meri Jaman
Lighting designer: Marinko Radočaj
Photos: Marko Delić
Video: Leo Drempetić

About the play: The play is based on Nina Sabo’s picture book of the same name which portrays the adventures of LiLa the clown who discovers that her nose can stripe up, rainbow out and cloud over on its own. The idea is to use a playful style to bring the figure of a clown closer to children and let them know that LiLa is actually similar to them – she sleeps, eats breakfast and brushes her teeth, and does all this in a peculiar way – using clown logic. However, LiLa does some out-of-the-way things in her free time – she wrestles with bees, tries to convert kilometers into lilometers by dancing and tickles the clouds until there is no more rain in them. Guided by the motto “Less is less and more is just right”, LiLa wants to encourage the little ones to observe themselves and the world around them with eyes wide open, to dare to dream and travel beyond the rainbow, just like she does.

Duration: 40 minutes
Age: 4+
Language: nonverbal play
Time and place: Thursday, 23 March at 10:00 a.m., room 1

 

MOVIE PROGRAM

Academy of Arts and Culture: Movie night – Lutkofilm (The Puppet Movie)

About the program: The Department of Creative Technologies organizes a movie night where they will show the animated movies of students of the Department and the pupils of the 3^rd General Education Secondary School with whom we cooperated at Lutkokaz. An animated movie created during the workshop PUPPET IN THE FRAME will be shown.

Time and place: Wednesday, 22 March at 8:00 p.m., premises of the Department of Creative Technologies

 

LECTURES AND ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS

“About the Puppetry Studies of the Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek”
Lecturers: Tamara Kučinović and Lorna Kalazić Jelić

About the lecture: The purpose of the lecture is to present the study programs of the Department of Theater Arts and the Department of Creative Technologies to the members of the Dada drama clubs from Čakovec and Branko Mihaljević Children’s Theater in Osijek.

Time and place: Monday, 20 March at 5:00 p.m., room 8

 

“Od malih nog(u) (Ever since I was little): Regional Platform in the EU Context ”
Lecturer: Anja Pletikosa

About the lecture: The Od malih nog(u) platform includes representatives of innovative, experimental, non-commercial and critically oriented performance forms for children and young people from Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Montenegro. The platform was established in 2019 with the aim of speaking up about the continuous disregard and aesthetic and ethical degradation of theater art intended for children and young people. Lutkokaz will give the Platform the chance to present its past and future work with a special emphasis on the activities in 2023 and to elaborate on the real situation in the region. The program of the platform in 2023 takes place under the name “Theater, Community, Multimedia”. Activities will be based on several crucial issues and needs of contemporary theater for children and young people: emphasizing its innovative and art potential; the issue of strengthening the community gathered around the theater for children and young people, which also includes audience development and strengthening the capacity of artists involved in theater for children and young people.
The work of the Platform is financed by Kultura Nova Foundation.

Time and place: Monday, 20 March at 7:00 p.m, Academy of Arts and Culture, grand hall

 

“Pictorial Turn in Contemporary Visual Theater: Bio-Photography, Meta-Photography and Double Consciousness”
Lecturer: Žilvinas Vingelis

About the lecture: Žilvinas Vingelis, Lithuanian director and a visual artist takes us to the world of visual theater, emphasizing the pictorial twist.
The lecture is held as part of the Creative Europe project “EU Contemporary Puppetry Critical Platform”

Time and place: Tuesday, 21 March at 7:00 p.m., Academy of Arts and Culture, grand hall

 

“Contemporary Puppetry and Criticism in Croatia, Slovenia, Scotland, Lithuania and Beyond”
Participants: Kristina Steiblyte, Gabrielė Pelakauskaitė, Dovilė Jadzevičiūtė, Inesa Vėlavičiūtė, Alistair Maxwell, Benjamin Zajc, Zoe Špehar, Ida Klarić, Igor Tretinjak and lecturer Anđela Vidović

About the roundtable discussion: Experts and young critics from Lithuania, Scotland, Slovenia and Croatia will discuss contemporary puppetry and theater criticism in these countries. As part of the roundtable discussion, the new issue of the “Puppet” magazine and the book “Contemporary Puppetry and Criticism” will be presented, created as part of the Creative Europe project “EU Contemporary Puppetry Critical Platform”.

Time and place: Wednesday, 22 March at 7:00 p.m., Tvrđa (Old Town), puppet showroom

 

“LOFT (Puppet Organization That We Need Indeed): Vision of Contemporary Puppetry in Croatia and Beyond”
Participants: Morana Dolenc and Anja Pletikosa

About the roundtable discussion: This roundtable discussion will give the participants the chance to talk about the beginnings of LOFT, art achievements of their projects and the overall way of work and surviving on an independent scene in Croatia. The roundtable discussion of Lutkokaz will give you the answers to questions of how they choose projects, how they collaborate as well as how and why they expand the network of partners. Puppet Organization That We Need Indeed (LOFT) has been active on the Croatian independent scene since 2012 and is an essential element in promoting contemporary puppetry and various interdisciplinary performance forms intended for children and adults. LOFT’s basic mission is to systematically promote contemporary puppetry art through projects for children and adults that are based on innovative directing and intermedial implementation of various modes of presentation. By drawing attention to the immanent multimediality of puppetry as the art which combines textual theater and narration with performance and visual art, music and movement, the organization aims to influence the creation of an image of puppetry as an art equal to other contemporary arts of the theater.
The roundtable discussion is realized in cooperation with the Od malih nog(u) (Ever since I was little) platform

Time and place: Thursday, 23 March at 11:00 a.m., Academy of Arts and Culture, grand hall

 

WORKSHOPS

Mi2
Moderator: Zoran Petrovič

About the workshop: Mi2 is an author’s theater workshop in which we will work on the relationship between the subject (actor/actress) and the object. The subjectivization of the object will be prioritized so that the focus is equally on both actors. Author’s theater workshop aims to encourage the continuous development of author’s material with a focus on a specific theme. The participants will become complete theater authors who direct the process of creating a theater play from the idea to the final result. In our example, the scenes will be created while encountering different objects that become the performer’s partners.

 

Body, Voice, Rhythm and Movement
Moderator: Alessandro La Rocca

About the workshop: Participants will, through physical exercises, get to know the body as a research instrument. In addition, they will be acquainted with and master musical tools combined with the body and performance.  BodyPercussion, group singing and dynamic articulation of movements are just a few of the concepts they will be familiarized with during this three-day long workshop.

 

Basis of Puppet Animation
Moderator: Katarina Arbanas

About the workshop: the aim is to familiarize future puppet technicians with the basic elements of puppet animation through the following thematic units: Basic principles of puppet animation (attention transfer, rhythm as the basis of character, impulse, movement – countermovement, character – event – situation), the basics of glove puppet animation on the screen, the basics of puppet animation on the base, material as the poetics of the puppet (fabric, stone / wood, plastic, found objects).

 

Puppet in the Frame
Moderators: Students of the Department of Creative Technologies

About the workshop: At the animated movie workshop, students of the Department of Creative Technologies will, together with the pupils who will attend the workshop, depict the entire process of making a short movie; from designing and making a puppet, stage decor, to photography and post-production.

The aim of this collaboration is to familiarize pupils with this form of puppetry and to bring tradition closer to modern technology and vice versa. The pupils of the School of Applied Arts and Design Osijek who engage in the field of art will have the opportunity to inform themselves about the possibilities that arise as a result of combining technology with art, while the pupils of the 3^rd General Education Secondary School Osijek will get to see how art and computer science are connected to each other.

This exercise will raise awareness of how art and science can function and strive towards the same goal, i.e. how these fields can benefit from collaboration.

 

Play and Make a Puppet
Moderators: Students of the Department of Creative Technologies

About the workshop: students of the Department of Creative Technologies will give a short presentation and introduction to the design and technology of puppets, introduce the pupils to what puppetry really is when it comes to art and then, together with the pupils, make flat puppets. The presentation, lecture and the creation of puppets are intended for pupils of the lower grades of Jagoda Truhelka Elementary School as part of their celebration of World Puppetry Day and the establishment of their school.

The topic that the pupils will deal with as part of the Day of the establishment of their school is the history of Osijek, and since Osijek can boast a long puppetry tradition in Croatia, it will certainly be of great importance for the pupils to learn about making puppets.

 

The Position of a Critic in the Theater for Children and Young People
Moderator: Igor Tretinjak

About the workshop: The workshop will give the participants the opportunity to learn about the basics of theater criticism and the specifics that a theater critic stumbles upon when writing about theater for children and young people. Is theater for children and young people a part of theater art or a separate form of expression (which is still somewhat ashamed of its distinctiveness)? How to critically approach that form of expression from the position of an adult “intruder”? Who do we turn to when it comes to critics of plays for children and young people? These are some of the issues we deal with during this workshop.
The workshop is held in cooperation with the Od malih nog(u) (Ever since I was little) regional platform.

Impressum

Organizer:
The Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek
Kralja P. Svačića 1/F
31000 Osijek
http://www.uaos.unios.hr/

 Partners, donors, sponsors:
Republic of Croatia Ministry of Culture and Media
Part of the program is held with the support of the EU’s Creative Europe program, project: “EU Contemporary Puppetry Critical Platform”
Part of the program is held in cooperation with the Od malih nog(u) (Ever since I was little) regional platform, the work of which is financed by Kultura Nova Foundation.

 For the organizers:
prof. dr. sc. Helena Sablić Tomić, Dean, The Academy of Arts and Culture in Osijek

Organizing committee:
Matea Bublić, ass.
Ivana Živković, ass.
dr. sc. Igor Tretinjak, professor
Iris Tomić, ass.
Lorna Kalazić Jelić, ass.
izv. prof. art. Jasmin Novljaković, Head of the Department of Theater Arts
prof. art. Davor Šarić, Head of the Department of Creative Technologies
izv. prof. art.Tamara Kučinović
izv. prof. ArtD. Hrvoje Seršić
izv. prof. art. dr. sc. Saša Došen
doc. art. Nenad Pavlović
doc. art. Sheron Pimpi-Steiner
dr. sc. Snježana Barić-Šelmić
Luka Cvenić, dipl. ing. graph. teh.
dr. sc. Antonija Matić, mag. oec.
Antonio Šabić, mag. oec.
Kristina Vinković, mag. cult.
Larisa Miškić
Nikola Žužić, Head of Office for Technical, Auxiliary and Maintenance Tasks 

Technical support: Slavko Jagodić, Goran Čižmić, Dino Žužić, Nikola Žužić, Renato Sabo

Graphic design: izv. prof. art. dr. sc. Saša Došen, Luka Cvenić, dipl. ing. graph. teh.