Panevėžys Puppet Wagon Theatre

Panevėžys Puppet Wagon Theatre was initiated by managing and stage director Antanas Markuckas in 1986. This is the only puppet wagon theatre in Europe. Each midsummer the actors take a wagon pulled by two horses and set on a voyage through towns and villages of Lithuania. Lithuanian film director Janina Lapinskaitė has made a documentary called “Kelionių magija“ (The Magic of Journeys) where she portrayed the charm and hardship of these summer time theatre tours.

Antanas Markuckis, the stage director, received the Borisas Dauguvietis award for the promotion of Lithuanian dramaturgy; the same year he was elected the President of the Lithuanian Association of Puppeteers. In April 2003, in Denmark Antanas Markuckis was awarded the first prize of H. Ch. Andersen for fostering and promoting the work of this writer.

The theatre performs 300 shows and stages 3-4 new performances every year. Apart from A. Markuckis, performances are directed by R. Driežis (Vilnius), J. Stepankienė (Panevėžys), D. Armanavičius (Kaunas), and S. Zhelezkin, a prominent actor of Russia and Golden Mask laureate. Characters in the majority of plays come from the Lithuanian fairy tales. The names of K. Kubilinskas, S. Geda, U. Lėjus, A. Gudelis, J. Radzevičius, V. Rabadan, and A. Popescu can be often seen in the posters of the performances. Authors of some plays and performances, namely E. Mezginaitė, E. Matulaitė and R. Žilevičius are citizens of Panevežys and loyal friends of the puppet theatre. Puppets for the shows are created by V. Mazūras, R. Driežis, and artists from Russia N. Zabrodina, E. Beresneva.

Every two year an international puppet theatre festival “Lagaminas” is organized. It brings together puppeteers from many countries. The theatre had tours in the Netherlands, Denmark, Russia, and Estonia. Every yea the theatre hosts “Molinuko teatras”, a festival of children puppet theatres.

The theatre participated in the international festivals held in Lithuania, Russia, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Ukraine, Belarus and France, where it became a laureate.

More information:

https://leliuvezimoteatras.lt/

Tel. +370 45 511236

Email: vezimoteatras@gmail.com