Photograph: File
LAHORE: March 21 marks the World Puppetry Day across the globe. Amid the chaos attributable to a worldwide pandemic, the artists concerned on this distinctive craft hope to carry mild to the significance of it – not only for leisure, but additionally social consciousness.
In step with celebrations across the globe, World Puppetry Day is well known with a lot fanfare within the Pakistani puppetry trade as properly, nevertheless, this yr will not be fairly the identical. Very similar to different leisure industries, puppetry has additionally suffered as a result of coronavirus outbreak in Pakistan.
The place in previous years a pageant was routinely organised to maintain the artwork alive, this yr it couldn’t see the sunshine of day – the specter of coronavirus is just too actual to disregard, therefore the pageant, organised by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop has been cancelled.
“In every era and period of humanity, puppet art performances have been consistent. This form of art has played an important role for awareness, entertainment, education and guidance of society,” says famend author, Tasneem Pirzada. Her phrases echo actuality – puppetry has lengthy been a staple in Pakistan as properly. Many puppet artwork teams from all over the world have even carried out at varied festivals within the nation, together with on the World Performing Arts Pageant organised by Rafi Peer Theatre Group.
“It’s always been a big source of entertainment in every society – when people become sick and there is no other form of entertainment or expression, it aids the society,” provides Tasneem. Nonetheless, one unhappy actuality, as she notes, are the restrictions imposed on artwork varieties within the nation which severely have an effect on this specific artwork type.
“Puppet art faces major issues in our country – there are many problems at different levels in promoting it too. This is a beautiful art-form but we don’t do enough for it here for its promotion – we don’t even train people in this regard,” says Sadaan Pirzada, CEO of Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop. Sadaan’s organisation is probably the one one working to advertise this distinctive artwork within the nation, regardless of the challenges it faces.
“Rafi Pir did a lot for the promotion of puppet art and we have brought delegates and puppet art groups here in the past. We are still doing our best – we brought in almost 215 puppet performing groups from around 40 countries of the world here recently and have also established a puppet museum. Not just that, but we also perform in far flung areas of the country for the sake of entertainment. We are doing the best in our capacity,” explains Sadaan.
“The government is hesitant to fund the promotion of puppetry and we are moving forward on our own efforts. It is our passion, thus we are doing the effort to revive puppet culture here without any support. However, it is high time that we realise that puppet art can be a big source to create awareness in our society,” he provides.
Have one thing so as to add to the story? Share it within the feedback beneath
