Puppet Recipes 19: Puppets and Memory

About the Workshop

Award-winning Czech puppeteer Dora Bouzkova will talk about how she uses puppets to explore family history, bring together communities, and pass traditions on from one generation to the next. In 2001 she founded the company PUPPETS BEYOND BORDERS. Dora's innovative puppet theatre and socially engaged projects for children and communities have earned her the 2022 ASSITEJ Czech Award for Outstanding Contribution to Theatre for Young Audiences, a Thalia Award nomination, and multiple international festival awards for her performances and productions. Her productions are characterized by their original use of puppetry, object theatre, and personal storytelling, often addressing themes of memory, identity, family, and community while remaining accessible to audiences of all ages. "The Stories of Little Lupitina González" (Příběhy malé Lupitiny González) was inspired by Dora's Mexican heritage, celebrating Día de los Muertos. The production received numerous international awards, including Best Children's Performance at the Festival of Puppetry Art in Bielsko-Biała, the Audience Award at Puppet Is Human Too in Warsaw, and a Special Jury Prize at Skupova Plzeň. "The Half-Baked Bun" (Nedopečený koláček) is an intimate autobiographical performance based on her experience of giving birth to a premature son, combining puppetry and object theatre to examine vulnerability, parenthood, and resilience. The production won the Amplion Festival in 2021 and earned Dora the top Czech theatre award nomination for Best Puppetry Performance. And "Bees" is an interdisciplinary performance combining puppetry, movement, visual art, and live performance to explore the social world of bees and humanity's relationship with nature. Dora is currently developing a project about the tumultuous history of the area on the Czech-German border and how puppets can help bring back stories from the past so that they are relevant to people today.