Mirek Trejtnar and Leah Gaffen
For over 19 years, Mirek Trejtnar and Leah Gaffen have been organizing puppet workshops for students from around the world. Over 900 students have become a part of the unique atomsphere of the workshop, where their dreams and ideas have come to life. Mirek and his team have also taught puppetry workshops in the USA, Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong, Germany, Singapore, New Zealand...
Mirek heads the workshops - he is a puppet-maker himself and also an award-winning designer of toys, sculptures and much more with a special background in wood. His work is in the collection of the Victoria& Albert Museum and he creates puppets for companies around the world. You can see more examples of his work here: Mirek Trejtnar - KID Company
In 2014 Mirek co-directed an animated documentary film about the Velvet Revolution called What to tell the kids which has been aired at the 25th celebration of the Velvet Revolution and on Czech HBO.
Leah is an American who takes care of the organizational side of the workshops. She also runs Story Theatre, an award-winning children's theatre company. Leah and Mirek bring together a team of leading Czech artists - woodcarvers, puppet designers, puppeteers, film animators etc.- who bring the students into the world of puppetry and film animation in Prague.