PUPPET THEATRE OSTRAVA ENTERTAINED WORLD CHAMPIONS!

It seemed like spam when Jarmila Hájková, the director of the Puppet Theatre Ostrava, received an email from John Bruce based in Canada. He was interested in visiting the theatre with a group of teenagers from the Canadian hockey team, who planned to participate in the World Junior Championship in Ostrava. John Bruce explained that every time they play in some city, he tries to arrange an interesting program that does not include only sport, but also specific features of the place and culture. “Puppetry does not have as long a tradition in Canada as in the Czech Republic, thus I really wanted to show this art to them.”

The group of about 60 people arrived in the theatre on Sunday, January 5. They had a special backstage tour of the theatre and the alternative stage, technical facilities, and stage, actors showed them various types of puppets the hockey players could try to operate as well. “All the people in the theatre were excited about the energy young hockey players brought to the theatre, they were truly interested in the topic and asked interesting questions. The team of our actors coped with the non-traditional task perfectly. The nice climax was the fact that the Canadian team became world champions several hours later!” said the production manager Gabriela Barilla. “We would like to thank the team of the Puppet Theatre Ostrava for an inspiring encounter. When I wrote an email to the theatre, I could not imagine they would prepare a tailor-made program for us. We will be more than happy to spread the good name of Czech puppetry and the Puppet Theatre Ostrava in the world,” said John Bruce after the tour.

https://www.dlo-ostrava.cz/

Lucie Mičková