Press releases

BREST, 29 March (BelTA) – The Brest Puppet Theater has been invited to take part in the international children’s and youth theater festival Yalla Yalla which is due to take place in Bethlehem, Palestine on 1-10 April, art director of the theater Mikhail Shavel told BelTA.

The Brest Puppet Theater will bring one of its oldest plays, Rygorka – Yasnaya Zorka, (Rygorka – A Bright Star) to the festival that will feature more than ten theater companies. The Brest theater will perform it twice at Al Harah theater on 5 April. The play, based on a fairy tale by well-known Belarusian poet and playwright Anatoly Vertinsky, was staged by Oleg Zhyugzhda. The plot is close to that from the Bible. It is a story of an angel who sends boy Rygorka to a senior couple. The boy grows up into a good son and a courageous man who defeats the Viper Evil-Doer and saves his people.

Rygorka – Yasnaya Zorka has been performed by the Brest Puppet Theater for almost 30 years already. As a rule, the play is shown during the Christmas holidays. Performing are four actors, including Honored Artists of Belarus Ivan Gerasevich and Tamara Tevosyan. The play is performed at different international festivals. The Belarusian batleika has been shown in Moscow, Lutsk, Berlin, Slovenia’s Ljubljana and Maribor, Poland’s Lublin and Austria’s Mistelbach. “We are happy to bring this play to Bethlehem. The word “balteika” comes from the name of this sacred city where, according to the gospels, Jesus Christ was born,” Mikhail Shavel said.

As for the future plans, in July the Brest Puppet Theater will take part in the Platonov Arts Festival in Russia’s Voronezh. The Brest theater will show the play Fro, based on the namesake story of the outstanding prose writer of the 20^th century. The play won two awards at the 4^th edition of the theater art contest National Theater Award. The Brest Puppet Theater will open a new theater season with a play after Yakub Kolas’s poem A New Land. Working on the project is theater director, the National Theater Award and Gold Mask Award holder, well-known Belarusian producer Alexander Yanushkevich.