INCANTI International Figure Theatre Festival

www.festivalincanti.it

INCANTI is a festival dedicated to Puppet Theatre for adults, with particular emphasis on Shadow Theatre. The festival offers both traditional shows and productions which provide an international spectrum of innovative experimental work in which music, poetry and the visual arts intersect with fantasy and creative freedom. Incanti started in 1994 from an initiative of Controluce Teatro d’Ombre with the support of Regione Piemonte and with the collaboration of Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea; over the years, they were joined by Compagnia di San Paolo, Fondazione CRT, Città di Torino, Sistema Teatro Torino, Comune di Grugliasco and the Teatro Stabile Foundation of Turin.

INCANTI's goal is the dissemination and promotion of Puppet Theatre in Piedmont and in Italy, primarily for an adult audience, but apart from the main programme there is a section devoted to schools, in collaboration with the Municipality of Grugliasco, and two educational projects have been also developed: the Shadow Theatre Workshop at the Castello di Rivoli and the Production Incanti Project (PIP), with the dual aim of teaching and production.

PIP Production INCANTI Project: a group of students and young puppet theatre professionals under the guidance of a major international director creates a new show and presents it at the Festival. The project aims to promote young people's access to the cultural resources of theatre. It is supported by the Region of Piedmont and the City of Grugliasco as a special initiative, with the collaboration of the Istituto per i Beni Marionettistici e il Teatro Popolare and it has obtained great success from the beginning. It has been directed by Eva Kaufmann (2008), Neville Tranter (2009), Frank Soehnle (2010), Gyula Molnar (2011), Andrew&Kathy Kim (2012), Duda Paiva (2013), Max Vandervorst (2014).

Shadow Theater Workshop: Incanti pays special attention to research and experimentation in the field of Shadow Theatre. In collaboration with the Education Department of the Castello di Rivoli, since 2000 it organises workshops given by some of the most interesting artists in shadow theatre on the international scene, as Wajang Wiya (Indonesia), Cengiz Ozek (Turkey), Laconica La Conica (Spain), Richard Bradshaw (Australia), L'asina sull'isola (Italy), Tadeusz Wierbicki (Poland), Valeria Guglietti (Argentine), Norbert Goetz (Germany), Athos Danellis (Greece), Alba Zapater (Spain), Kim Eun Young (South Corea), Massimo Arbarello (Italia), Nori Sawa (Japan).

The continued growth of audiences, not only from Turin and the region of Piedmont but also from other Italian cities and from abroad, justifies the initial gamble of INCANTI to open a window on International Figure Theatre aimed at adult audiences. Over its 21 years of festivals, INCANTI has programmed narrative and dramatic work, presented a wide range of older traditions, and explored innovation and experiment crossing into other genres. It has explored topics ranging from war to religion, from myth to politics, in ways that touch the heartstrings of man and history from unusual and sometimes poignant angles.

In past editions Incanti welcomed artists and companies from China, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Japan, Corea, Australia and Europa, among others Yeung Fai, I Wayan Wija, Prasanna Rao, Kathakali Center of Kerala, Dondoro Theatre, Cengiz Ozek Karagoz, Richard Bradshaw, Stephen Mottram's Animata, Stuffed Puppet Theatre, Figuren Theater Tuebingen, Norbert Goetz, Tadeus Wierbicki, Amoros et Augustin, Mossoux-Bonté, Max Vandervorst, Jordi Bertran, La Cónica/lacónica, Gyula Molnar, Gare Central, Meinhardt Krauss Feigl, Duda Paiva, Nori Sawa, ...; among the Italian companies Marionette Colla, Teatro dei Sensibili of Guido Ceronetti, Controluce Teatro d'Ombre, Teatro Gioco Vita, Claudio Cinelli, Teatro Del Carretto, Is Mascareddas, L'Asina sull'isola, ...

Since the 2005 edition the space dedicated to children takes place at Grugliasco Parco Culturale Le Serre’s “Chalet Allemande”.

Incanti has collaborated regularly with Museo Nazionale del Cinema and Istituto per I Beni Marionettistici e Teatro Popolare.

In past editions Incanti has been made in collaboration with FigurenTheaterFestival di Wels (Austria), Adria Puppet Festival (Gorizia), AIACE Torino, Asifa, Goethe Institut of Torino, “Istituto di Cultura Austriaco” of Milan, “Istituto Giapponese di Cultura” of Rome.