10th Montemor-o-Novo International Puppet Festival (2017)

Dear Friends of the 10th International Puppet Festival of Montemor-o-Novo

Now that we have reached the 10th edition, let us begin with the most important thing: congratulating and thanking everyone who has accompanied us during this decade – the audience, artists, partners and team. In fact, we can be satisfied with the progress made, since ten editions of a festival in Portugal, and on top of that focused on puppet theatre, is quite an achievement!
I still remember the first festival. It started timidly, as part of the Ananil event, but already with a view to growing gradually, as if it were a baby. And so it was, sometimes with more difficulties than others. But this partnership was indeed the spark that was missing, fundamental for the Encontro to be today a festival of reference not only nationally but also internationally, as proven by the hundreds of proposals we receive every year from the four corners of the world.
An important point has always been the focus on the quality of the shows and their innovation and transversality with other art forms. At this level, we present shows at our meetings that are representative of secular tradition, crossed with others that break down boundaries, thus creating new traditions, since ‘tradition’ is the result of constant change.

In this context, over the years, many forms of creative expression in the arts of animated forms and puppetry have come from all over the world, always in the belief that it is in the differences in language that new paths of artistic enjoyment and new forms of creation and artistic debate are found. That is why we have adopted the words of a master as a source of inspiration: The tradition is a continuous creation in the now (Michael Meschke).

I am also very pleased to highlight that our work with the community and schools, specifically through the Montemor-o-Novo Old Workers’ Shelter and the Montemor-o-Novo School Group, will be reinforced at this Meeting, making it an intergenerational event. In this regard, we will have two shows and a workshop for school audiences. For the general public – families but also adults – this edition is full of surprises, with companies from France, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay, Spain, England and Portugal, and the presentation of the results of the workshop held during the month of May at the Abrigo dos Velhos Trabalhadores. For the closing, I would like to highlight the presence of Olivier Sagazan, one of the world’s leading names in the performing arts, with one of his most memorable shows. For the final moment, before the curtain finally falls on this 10th edition, we invite everyone to come down to downtown Montemor to join us for a blues concert by the Lisbon band Lone Lisbonaires at the iconic Regalenga Bar.

Cheers!!!!
Long live puppets!!!

Amândio Anastácio