S.A.Puppets in numbers 2023
In 2023 we traveled by car and plane around 76,236 km in Portugal and around the world!
8 Countries - 52 locations - 116 presentations – 1 international award – 4 books – 2 exhibitions
The year 2023 was a year of great travel and adventures!
We performed in 52 locations with 116 presentations in 8 countries: Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Turkey, Serbia, China and Portugal.
We edited 4 books: 3 volumes of the collection Cadernos de Teatro de Marionetas S.A.Marionetas: Vol. I Inês de Castro, Vol. II D. Sancho I – O Azarado and Vol. III Teatro Dom Roberto by the hands of reed artist José Manuel Valbom Gil and, the company's large biographical book (360 pages), S.A.Marionetas 25 years working for the puppet. An edition of S.A.Marionetas, with the support of the Portuguese Republic/DGArtes, Municipality of Alcobaça, FEDIMA, Crédito Agrícola and UNIMA Portugal.
At the 30th International Festival of Children's Theatres, in Subotica/Serbia, we received the "Acting/Manipulation Skills" award.
Our puppeteers/builders led 2 puppet construction and manipulation trainings.
2023 Stands out for its big tours! We were in Spain, France, Italy, Hungary, Turkey, Serbia, Madeira and China. We present 2 exhibitions at Armazém das Artes in Alcobaça: The giant puppets from the show Lúmen and Avenida Q, all the puppets from the musical. Participation in the Cabaltada de Reyes in Burgos/Spain with 60,000 people watching gave us encouragement at the beginning of the year.
The invitation to participate in the Miguel Pino Tribute, 100 years since his birth (creator of the character Peneque in Spain) was a source of great honor!
The collaboration with the Picada Cultural association in the creation of the Iberian Lynx puppet “Urania” for Proactivetur and ICNF with awareness raising actions among the populations to encourage the welcoming of the Iberian Lynx back to its territory is a project to continue and very special for the company.
Presenting the show Lúmen a love story in Ovar at the FIMO festival was once again a unique experience! Thank you to everyone involved.
In May, we were invited by the band Coldplay to manipulate puppets from the Jim Henson Company band The Weirdos, in a stadium full of 50,000 people per day for 4 days! We have no words to describe this experience that left us with enormous pride and a sense of recognition for the work done to date!
We participated in the programming of Espaço Cultural Mãozorra, in the III Iberian Theater Fair in Fundão, Marionnet'Ic Festival - France, Immagina Festival - Italy, Cádiz Puppet Festival - Spain, 10th Theater Olympics / World Festival of Puppets - Hungary, POPular INATEL , Festival Hey! Puppets – Gondomar, Music and Tradition INATEL, 24th International Istanbul Buyukçekkmece Culture and Art Festival – Turkey, 2nd Meeting of the Dom Roberto Traditional Theater - É Só Palheta!! - Agualva, 2nd Art'INRUA – Tomar International Street Arts Festival, Jornadas de Cultura - Glória do Ribatejo, Festival Mariofa – Funchal, 7th Golden Magnolia Shanghai International Puppet Festival, 1st International Excellent Puppetry Presentation – China, Festival Foliazinho '23 – Lousada, MIA - Artistic Interactive Mediation | Imaginar do Gigante – Cortegaça and towards the end of the year, we will be at Stories with wire in the arts and creativity center of Torres Vedras, among other theaters and cultural spaces.
In October we organized the 26th edition of the Marionetas na Cidade festival in Alcobaça with an incredible audience that sold out practically all sessions of all festival events. Thank you to everyone who helped to make this edition happen: Alcobaça City Council, Union of Alcobaça and Vestiaria Parish Councils, Évora de Alcobaça Parish Council, Armazém das Artes, Production Force, Marioneta Museum, Pensão Corações Unidos, Hotel Santa Maria, Tasca o Zé da Loja.
We reactivated the store on the company's website with all our editions - https://www.samarionetas.com/loja
We would also like to thank Fundação Oriente for its support on the tour to China and the sponsors of the edition of the book S.A.Marionetas 25 years working for the puppet: República Portuguesa / DGArtes Direção Geral das Artes, Câmara Municipal de Alcobaça, FEDIMA Tyres, CA Crédito Agrícola, Unima Portugal. A special thanks to Manuel Leiria and Andreia Silvano for helping us create this book that took 25 years to fill with memories.
We can only thank the thousands of people who saw our presentations this year. It is impossible to get a certain number as many of our productions are carried out in open spaces. We still like to do this calculation every year... For this year, the number is approximately 13,230 spectators.
Next year we will continue with new projects and adventures, but always, always working for the doll!
S.A.Marionetas
José Gil
Natasha Pereira
Sofia Vinagre
