Mini teater participating in the festival KARANTENA in Dubrovnik, Croatia

International multimedia festival – takes a look at contemporary artistic endeavours in a variety of areas: theatre, contemporary dance, performances, music, new media, film and video; pays particular attentions to the affirmation of independent projects and new models of artistic initiatives. The festival was held for the first time in the year 1996

9TH INTERNATIONAL ALTERNATIVE PERFOMING ARTS FESTIVAL ‘KARANTENA’
The 9th International Alternative Performing Arts Festival “Karantena” organised by “Art Workshop Lazaret” and held in the old quarantine Lazareti.

During the  festival days, drama, dance, music and multimedia performances were staged with participating artists from several theatre premieres were also shown, including PUSHKIN – "Small Tragedies" produced by Ljubljana’s Mini Teatar and the  virtual puppet show Thumballina by Robert Waltl, produced by Forum Ljubljana and Cankarjev dom Ljubljana.

PUSHKIN – "Small Tragedies"

Puppet performance for youth and adults
Openig night: August 2005Author: Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin
Translation: Josip Vidmar
Director: Alexei LelyavskiActors: Gašper Jarni, Igor Štamulak, Marko Plantan

co-producer: UNIMA Slovenia

In the new season, MINI TEATER will present four short tragedies written by the Russian poet A. S. Pushkin. Our puppet colleagues from Belarus will join us in creating this special performance. The world famous Belarus director Alexei Lelyavski, who is also a professor at the Theatre Academy in Minsk, decided to use puppets in putting on stage four Pushkin's tragedies presented under a joint title PUSHKIN. So, for the first time ever in Slovenia we will see on stage: The Stingy Knight, Mozart and Salieri, The Stone Guest, and The Feast in the Plague Time.  The aim of this performance is to enlighten and to enlarge the characters from Pushkin's short tragedies. The animals (rats. worms, cockroaches) are conceived in an abstract and comical atmosphere.

Hans Christian Andersen

THUMBELINA

FIRST VIRTUAL PUPPET SHOW

Director and performer: Robert Waltl

Concept: Darij Kreuh, Tadej Fius

Visuals: Ana Košir
Music: Špela Avsenak
Music production: Miloš Radosavljevič, Špela Avsenak
Dramaturgy: Ivica Buljan
Production: Forum Ljubljana, director: Eva Rohrman
Co-production: Cankarjev dom
Technical support: Navidez
Virtual light: Aleksander Šenekar
Supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia and The City Municipality of Ljubljana
Donors: Elpros, MM Surgical, Balder, Sonce.net, Votan

Thumbelina is one of the subtlest and most beautiful fairy-tales by the Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen - a story about a little girl whose fragility takes her to different places and whose courage and love always help her find the right path.

All Anderson’s fairy tales are concerned with the initiation process, a journey the hero or heroine has to undergo in order to overcome troubles. And as always, Thumbelina’s distress is rewarded in the end.

Our first virtual puppet show is a mixture of film and puppet performance in a virtual computer environment. Characters from fairy-tales come to life on screen and, assisted by the one animator and the audience, try to save the heroine from troubles. The story is set in virtual space which is open and flexible – such creatively rich environment will undoubtedly fascinate the little ones, who will have a chance to participate in the performance.

Each situation consists of at least two different solutions. Assisted by the animator, the children will determine the characters and the course of events in a specific situation.
The fairy-tale is structured as a play which focuses on creative team work. The correct solution and decision in a certain situation upgrades the classical puppet show with an educational-didactic element. Wishing to make the operation of complex technology attractive to children, the authors will encourage them to play the role of animator after the performance and stir the protagonists to life.