Puppets: The magic of the little dolls
By Jorge Rueda and Monica Hoth
(Translated by Mario Oliveto) March 7, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Festival de Titerés (Festival of Puppets)
Mon–Sun, Mar 24–30, 6:30pm
Jardín esplanade, free
Contact Monica Hoth, 152-1453
www.festivaldetiteres.com 

Last year the Festival de Titerés (Festival of Puppets) broke with tradition and came outdoors, presenting plays in the Jardín. More than eight groups of puppeteers from five cities in Mexico delighted sanmiguelenses of all ages with their original and fun performances.

They played to an audience of more than 3,000 children and adults of all ages in front of the makeshift theater on the Jardín esplanade. 

The grand success of the festival was its ability to make us see that not only children are captivated by the adventures and fantasies of those dolls made of strings and rags. Adults, though used to the “reality” of television and cinema, could still remember the imaginative power of the little dolls. Puppetry can spark the imagination like no other art, invoking a laugh or a tear.

In fact, some experts today believe that the radical change in childhood play from dolls to electronic games has caused a break in children’s mental development. Toys and games that have helped nurture and form the growth of the mind of the child are today in danger of extinction. It is now important to support the existence of a scenic art so lucid and suggestive as the theater of puppetry; one that keeps alive the invitation to play and imagine.

Festival founder and award-winning puppeteer Monica Hoth welcomes collaborators, volunteers and donors to continue an event which enriches the community. She seeks people to donate their work, sponsor meals and accommodation for the artists and underwrite the festival. Anyone who shares a vision of an event for children and adults to imagine a better world is invited to contact her. 

If the fourth festival could bring so many into San Miguel streets, how many will come this year? Long live the little theater that brings smiles and laughter to our streets!

The fifth annual Festival of Puppets presents seven free plays to the public. The program at Bellas Artes includes a plays for youths and adults and the exhibition “Puppets, Theater and Marionettes.” Artifacts from the groups Athanor, La Salmandra, Cornisa 20, John and Linda Keogh and the artist Mario Cabrera will be on display from March 14 through April 27. For more information go to www.festivaldetiteres.com.

Monica Hoth has been teaching a puppet theater workshop since 1999 at Bellas Artes and since 2003 has been the principal promoter of the new puppet festivals in San Miguel.


San Miguel’s history of puppets

The early art of puppetry grew worldwide in the shadow of religion. San Miguel de Allende has long respected the use of life-size, sculpted moving figures representing scenes of traditional religion. In the neighborhood of Loreto, on Good Friday, representations of the Passion that include moving figures are still seen in a few altars. 
More recently, performing artists such as Linda and John Keogh, Canadian pioneers in the production and animation of puppets for television, came to San Miguel in 1968 and started a theatrical workshop in Bellas Artes. Then in 1974 came a group from France—Athanor, formed by Maria de Cespedes, Claudio Kermaria and Frederic Martin. In addition to their own presentations of shadow theater pieces, they organized the first National Festivals of Puppets in San Miguel in 1983 and 1985. These festivals were a grand turning point of the modern national movement of puppetry in our country. Today, two groups, La Salamandra and Cornisa 20, continue this tradition, giving life to the dolls that so inspire the imagination of both young and old.