site.btaAnkara's Theatre Tempo Manager: Nature of Puppet Theatre, Lack of Boundaries Inspires Me

Theatre Tempo Manager Marina Yuce visited the BTA Press Club in Ankara on Monday, after the end of the International Ankara Puppet Festival which took place in the Turkish capital on October 18-22. The festival was opened with Varna State Puppet Theatre’s Mowers in Theatre Tempo.

Representatives from eight countries took part in the International Ankara Puppet Festival, which was held for the ninth time this year. The artists presented 16 plays, of which 12 for children and young people and 4 for adults.

Yuce gave BTA an exclusive interview. A full transcript follows:

What can you tell us about Tempo Theatre? When was the theatre established?

The theatre was established in 1984, next year we will celebrate its 40th anniversary. It is a private theatre, which is not very big. It employs seven people, five of whom are actors and one of whom is a director.

Is there much interest in puppet theatre in Turkiye?

There is not much interest, unfortunately, we are trying to revive it. In Turkiye, people are conservative in many ways, including theatre. However, when they see wonderful performances, Turkish citizens are very impressed.

We always work a lot, even more than in terms of organizing the festival itself. We try to work with the audience in such a way that can encourage them to watch puppetry and see what a wonderful art it is.

Kids must like puppet theatre a lot?

Certainly, it is the closest kind of art for children, since children start playing with puppets very soon after birth. It is easiest to reach the hearts of children through puppet theatre.

What inspires you most in your work?

Perhaps the nature of this art, the puppets themselves and the lack of boundaries. We can turn anything into a puppet and if we work well with it, we can create any kind story and the audience will believe us. The pleasure of working actually inspires and motivates. The complexity of the work probably also motivates me as a person. We see a lot, we travel a lot, we get invited to the best theatres and we see wonderful actors. When we see this kind of work, we want to work more and more and move forward and do something new and find something new.

Does the Turkish state support puppet theatre in Turkiye?

The [state] support is not enough. At the same time, we are in contact with the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The ministry does support our festival, they know we work well and they trust us. Since 2021 the Ministry of Culture and Tourism has been organizing festivals all over Turkiye and they offered us to work together. We invited wonderful puppet theatres as part of our collaboration, but the work was very complicated. We collaborated with them twice this year to organize festivals. However, we refused to be included in a common structure of festivals of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, as we wanted to have our own festival. The support is not enough, but sometimes good things happen.