Puppet Festival comes to San Miguel de Allende
March 21, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Festival de Títeres, March 2008
Jardin Principal Esplanade

Monday 24, 6pm
“Viajeros,” Baúl Teatro A.C.

Tuesday 25, 6pm
“Carpa de dos Colores,” Grupo Guiñoleros UAS

Wednesday 26, 6pm
“Coyolim,” Delta Teatro

Thursday 27, 6pm
“Cúcara Títere Fue,” Títiri-Tátara

Friday 28, 6pm
“El Conejo y la Zorra”, Compañía de Teatro La Rana

Saturday 29, 6pm
“La Tierra de Arena,”La Cucaracha Teatro de Títeres

Sunday 30, 6pm
“El Robo de las 4 Toneladas,” A Escena Teatro

The 5th Annual Puppet Festival, Festival de Títeres de San Miguel, comes to San Miguel de Allende with a program created to enchant children and adults alike. The Festival can be seen in the Jardín Principal Esplanade from March 24 through 30, 2008.

Since 1999 Monica Hoth has given puppet workshops in the Centro Cultural “El Nigromante" in Bellas Artes. Since 2003 she has coordinated and managed the Festival de Títeres de San Miguel.

The whole family will enjoy the teatrino that will perform on the esplanade. Colorful puppets and their humans, dressed in ribbons and streamers will share fantastic stories filling the Jardín with laughter. Once again the streets of San Miguel filled with theatre, children and their games.

This year San Miguel will be visited by puppeteers from Monterrey, Cuernavaca, Puebla, Guadalajara, Leon and Guanajuato. The Festival includes seven shows for children and an eighth written specifically for youth and adults. In addition, there will be an original production," Títeres, Teatro y Marionetas "to be presented in Bellas Artes.

San Miguel’s Long History of Puppets

For many years, San Miguel de Allende has been a visited by famous puppet companies. In the early twentieth century the National Company of Automatons Brothers Rosete Aranda performed here. Later, Don Donato Almanza, a prestigious puppeteer, accompanied by his apprentice Jose Rodriguez, made their puppets here and then during many sunny Sunday afternoons delighted neighbors and friends with their shows. 

In 1968, Linda and John Keogh, Canadian puppeteers and pioneers in the production of puppets and animation for television, settled in San Miguel de Allende, providing puppet workshops at the Centro Cultural "El Nigromante".

The Keoghs also sponsored productions of the author, Federico Garcia Lorca, at the Teatro Angela Peralta.

The shadow theatre group, Athanor formed by María de Céspedes, Claudio Kermaría and Frédéric Martin, performed in our city in 1974. The company was founded in France and, after a long tour of Oceania and the Middle East, they settled in San Miguel. In 1983 and later in 1985, Athanor successfully organized the National Puppet Festival of San Miguel de Allende .

Puppet Workshop

Included in the Festival is an exhibition, Teatro Títeres y Marionetas en San Miguel de Allende, including puppets, costumes and masks made by the companies Athanor, Cornisa 20 and The Salamandra. The exhibition, a collaboration of the Keoghs and artist Mario Cabrera, seeks to raise awareness of puppet art produced in San Miguel de Allende over the past 40 years.

Wild ride through a carnival of “isms”
By Danielle Dresden

Theater
Source Code: Candide
Wed, Mar 26–Sat, Mar 29, 8pm
Sun, Mar 30, 5pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
150 pesos

Source Code: Candide, a satirical play for today, offers a new take on the book you don’t remember reading in school.

Where a foolish optimism, proclaiming this was “the best of all possible worlds,” was the focus of Voltaire’s comic novel Candide, this award-winning play from TAPIT/new works Ensemble Theater tackles fundamentalists of all stripes.

Source Code: Candide, a two-act play written by Danielle Dresden, takes audiences on a wild ride through the carnival of contemporary “isms” as they follow Candide from his innocent beginnings through hilarious and hair-raising adventures in Afghanistan, Florida, Iraq, Las Vegas and a vegetarian coffeehouse in Minnesota.

Source Code: Candide is inspired by Voltaire’s classic satire of the faiths and foibles of his time, with an equally fierce and funny approach to our era. Like Voltaire’s original character, this Candide is motivated by love. He’s enamored of Betty, a co-worker at Barron’s T 3, a fundamentalist conglomerate. Vertically integrated and producing everything from Bibles to bombs, Barron’s T 3 has just developed a source code so advanced it can force any system into compliance.

When Betty and Candide tentatively kiss, they drop the source code, alarms go off and Candide’s adventures kick into high gear. The pursuit and loss of the source code, along with the vagaries of the human heart, propel the madcap action of the plot.

The production, directed by Jeanne Leep, features an original score by Diane Monroe, sets and visuals by Michael Duffy, costumes by Donna Breslin and sound design by Stephanie Wild. The cast includes Donna Peckett, who acts and tap dances, Nelson Zane Eisman, Sam White and Dresden. Talk-backs will follow selected performances.

TAPIT/new works is a performing arts organization established by artistic directors Donna Peckett and Danielle Dresden in 1985 to create and produce original theater. This ensemble theater has developed and mounted 25 productions, touring and conducting residencies across the US and abroad.

Source Code: Candide is made possible, in part, by generous support from Marilyn and Richard B. Mazess and the Neil Allen Peckett Memorial Fund of TAPIT/new works.