INTERNATIONAL PUPPET THEATRE FESTIVAL CLOSES WITH AWARD-GIVING

( Editorial: --> 8107 ) ZAGREB, Sept 4 (Hina) - The 31st International Puppet Theatre Festival PIF closed in Zagreb on Friday with an award-giving ceremony and a performance of "The Conceited Lady Mouse". The main Milan Cecuk Award went to the Habamah Theatre from Jerusalem for a performance of "I Killed Tommy". Nine awards were presented for individual performances. Croatia's Rene Medvesek was given an awarded for direction of "The Super-Shoemaker Martin", performed by the Rijeka Puppet Theatre; Dino Arra was given an award for puppet technology in "Water", performed by the Doktor Bostik Theatre from Torino, Italy; and Jonathan Cross for sound in "Mechanic" by the Space Bicycle Theater from New York. The award for animation went to Stephen Mottram for "The Seed Carriers" by the Oxford Stephen Mottram's Animate. Pero Juricic received an award for acting in "The Wolf and the Seven Kids" by the Zagreb Puppet Theatre. Acting awards were also presented to Janos Palyi for "Knight Laszlo" by the Maskaras Theatre from Budapest, Ranko Lipovscak for "The Super-Shoemaker Martin", and Shirley Pitlick and Yifat Maor for "Days of Shduna and Mashkof" by the Visual Theatre School from Jerusalem. An international expert jury, including Nina Malikova from the Czech Republic, Marek Waszkiel from Poland and Zvonko Festini from Croatia, presented the Jerusalem school with a special award for artistic quality. The jury did not present awards for set design, performance with the most humane message, and for puppet appearance. A children's jury proclaimed "The Wolf and the Seven Kids" by the Zagreb Puppet Theatre as best performance. All given awards consist of a diploma and a statue. Over the last eight days, PIF featured 19 theatres from 11 countries, and 23 different programmes. Performances were held at the Zagreb Puppet Theatre, Komedija Theatre and the Zagreb Youth Theatre. (hina) ha jn 041544 MET sep 98