Amongst children’s jury of the International puppet festival Summer puppet pier 2012 the excitement of Mini teater’s Snow White directed by Marek Bečka, renowned Czech director was the greatest!
Amongst 7 puppet performances for children of the International festival Summer puppet pier children chose Mini teater’s Snow White as a winner and awarded it Grand Prix “Cat in the bag” award!
Reinterpretation of Snow White in May 2012 also received a Grand Prix of the 19th International festival of Children’s theater in Subotica Serbia for best performance in whole. The Snow White was in Festival’s 19 year old history first Slovenian performance to receive this award. The director of the performance Marek Bečka at the International Festival in Subotica also received an award for best direction. For incredible animation of puppets Jose and Elena Volpi were responsible in Subotica, Serbia and in Maribor, Slovenia.
Marek Bečka’s adaptions are always full of black humor, improvisation and dribbling between different puppet techniques and their stage methodology. In his adaptations he stays loyal to the basic elements but on the other hand with bald approaches shapes his own sharpness of humor, through which real and actual reflection of the world is shown. Therefore the characters of Mini teater’s Snow white are no longer set in the world of magical forest and trees, ideal nature, poisoned apples and magical kisses. But on the other hand there cannot be a Snow white without the evil stepmother, magical mirror, dwarfs and of course the savior. Responsible for incredible animation of the puppets are Jose and Elena Volpi, Czech director, puppeteer, co-founder and member of famous Prague Puppet Theater Buchty a loutky, Marek Bečka in Mini teater also inspires with performances Puss in Boots and The wishing table.
In times of the festival the children’s jury graded performances and gave to 7 puppet performances the highest number of golden stars – 25. Amongst these 7 besides Mini teater’s Snow White there were also Hungarian Ciroka Theater with the performance Gabi and the Flying Grandfather, Estonian puppet and youth theater with the performance Hands&Gloves, Australian-Swiss artist Tom Greder with the performance Oscar on a train, Puppet theater Pupilla from Lendava with the performance Zootravelers, Puppet theater Maribor with When Šlemil went to Warsaw and Ljubljana’s Theater Labirint with the performance Mr. and Mrs. Butterfly. For the winner of the festival the children chose Mini teater’s Snow White and awarded it special award of the festival – “Cat in the bag”.
Summer, the old Minorite monastery, the summer stage, a gentle breeze blowing softly along the banks of the Drava River, and puppets, puppets, especially puppets … All of this made up the image of the 23rd International Puppet Pier, which was comfortably spread throughout "the Twelve" - a year with a prominent European flair during which they adorned the program with colors from all across Europe, while also adding a hint of Israel and Japan to the mix. Thus, the summer was a great time for an in-depth review of what took place on the Slovenian puppet scene during the artistic season of 2011/2012. However, since puppets adore travelling, a few shows from abroad have also set their sails for Maribor shores and docked at their pier.
They have also put the Whale up for the third time around and dressed it according to a new theme, perform and create at puppetry workshops, and came up with a plethora of additional puppet-themed quips, thanks to an exhilarating, inciting, and inspiring year.
SNOW WHITE
Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
Adaptation: Marek Bečka, Zala Dobovšek
Directed by Marek Bečka
Starring: Elena Volpi/alt. Vesna Vončina, Ajda Toman in Jose/alt. Aljaž Jovanović
Music and Songs: Jose
Production: Mini teater
Puppet performance for children up from 5 years of age.
Duration: 50 minutes
Photos: Miha Fras
Premiere night: September 21st 2010 in terms of Festival Ex Ponto
AWARDS AND PRIZES:
- Award to Marek Bečka for best director at the Biennale of puppet creators 20122 for Snow White
- Award to Elena Volpi for best actress at the Biennale of puppet creators 20122 for Snow White
- Award to Aljaž Jovanović for best actor at the Biennale of puppet creators 20122 for Snow White
- Grand Prix of the festival for best performance in whole at the 19th International festival of children’s theater in Subotica, Serbia – May 2012
- Award for best direction of the 19th International festival of children’s theater in Subotica, Serbia – May 2012 to director Marek Bečka
- “Cat in the bag” award by children’s jury at the 23rd International puppet festival Summer puppet pier 2012 (Maribor, Slovenia) – September 2012
Performance Snow White was created in terms of the European project »Puppet Nomad Academy 1« that is co-financed by the European commission program Culture (2007-2013).
The program and realization of Mini teater is being co-financed by the Ministry for education, science, culture and sport of the Republic of Slovenia and Municipality of Ljubljana, Department of Culture.
