INTERNATIONAL PUPPET THEATRE FESTIVAL STARTS IN ZAGREB

ZAGREB, Aug 30 (Hina) - The thirtieth international puppet theatre festival (PIF) started in Zagreb on 29 August. Until 6 September, 26 theatre groups from 16 countries will give 30 performances. Alongside the Chinese, who take part in this year's festival after many years of absence, theatre groups from Brazil, Mexico and Turkey will appear for the first time. Of special interest this year will be performances based on musical plays. Hungarians will perform their versions of Mozart's works and a reworking of the Bolero, while a theatre from Ljubljana will present a reworking of Don Juan. Groups from Bulgaria and Sweden will give performances wittily dealing with themes from the Bible. Every year, the festival hosts a puppet theatre school. This year it will be the State High Puppet Theatre School and International Puppet Theatre Institute from Charleville-Mezieres in France, where the world association of puppeteers has headquarters. The accompanying programme of this year's festival will include an exhibition of a shadow puppet theatre from Istanbul, an exhibition of puppets from the Wroclaw (Poland) puppet theatre, the Creative Animation Laboratory workshop, and discussions with puppet theatre school experts. On the last day of this year's festival, 6 September, an international jury will award the overall best performance. A children jury will award their favourite play. (hina) ha jn 302035 MET aug 97