Nairobi, Kenya

The Kenya International Puppetry Festival (KIPF) is a biennial puppet theatre event in East and Central Africa, showcasing a diversity of genres in puppet theatre as well as featuring performances and artistic workshops accessible to the public. According to the organisers, the overall goal of the festival is to promote puppetry as a performing art form, as well as a means of communication/education and social change.

It aims to explore the following questions:

• What is the theatrical world of puppets?
• How can puppets play between and betwixt bodies, figures, and images?
• Can puppetry be multi-disciplinary, inter-cultural, cross-border, and experimental?
• How do puppets play, dance, construct and deconstruct without losing their essence?

Proposals for presentations will cover a wide range of theatre genres. The festival coordinating committee will be keen to receive proposal for:

• Puppets, masks, marionettes, object and visual theatre performances
• Workshops on script writing for puppets, puppet construction and manipulation
• Exhibition of masks, puppets, publications or reading materials on puppetry
• Plenary discussions and exchanges on the use of puppetry in community education

Click here for more information.

KIPF 2008 is intended for participants from Africa as well as invited troupes from America and Asia. People interested in attending or offering presentations should fill in the registration form, and submit in April 2008.

Click here to download more information and the registration form in PDF format.