Volunteers

Without the tireless dedication of our volunteers, the festival simply couldn’t take place. With around 80 members, we now have a wonderful group of enthusiastic people who help us with various tasks, such as catering, ticket collection, venue supervision, technical support, the information desk, and so on. Do you feel the drive to help us too? Then send an email to: info@puppetinternational.nl.

As a thank you for their efforts, volunteers receive free tickets to performances, depending on the number of hours they have volunteered.

The history of Puppet International

In the late 1980s, Meppel was declared the ‘puppetry capital of the north’. The reason for this was that the world-famous puppeteer Henk Boerwinkel and his wife Ans (who performed together under the name ‘Triangel’) and the renowned puppeteer Jan de Noord were all based in Meppel. The Boerwinkels put this form of theatre on the international map and continued for a long time to play a leading role as ‘pioneers’ and innovators on local, regional and national stages.

To mark this designation as a ‘puppetry city’, a stage was set up at the time, offering other puppet and figure theatre groups the opportunity to present their shows to the public. This festival proved so rewarding for both the organisers and the performers that it generated more than enough enthusiasm to ensure that this (originally one-off) festival would continue in the future, for the time being every two years.

After so many years and editions, the festival has undergone a clearly discernible evolution. In recent years, the focus has been primarily on enhancing artistic quality, promoting diversity, reaching a wider audience and increasing attendance figures. Today, Puppet International ranks among the country’s leading performing arts festivals.

In keeping with the principle that ‘standing still is going backwards’, new elements have been added over the years. In addition to the ever-popular Popp-en-Route, these have been expanded to include a variety of new options (such as a children’s route, a cycling route, a Hapas route, an audio route or a themed route). To contribute to the development of the genre, opportunities have been created for young, emerging artists, many of whom have recently graduated. They are given the chance to showcase their work through short performances, thereby gaining experience in the sector. As more and more international festival organisers come to Puppet International, the number of Dutch companies on the cusp of gaining greater international recognition is also growing. Puppet International serves as a gateway to the European market. Nevertheless, the core of the programme will always consist of the most pressing international puppet and object theatre productions of the moment.