Topical

On May 31, the Latvian Puppet Theatre invites residents of Riga and visitors to the city to meet the theatre’s actors at the “Courtyard Festival”, organised in honour of International Children’s Day. From 10:00 to 16:00, a free festive programme with exciting activities for children of all ages will take place in the theatre courtyard.

This year’s theme is cardboard! Festival visitors are invited to bring their own cardboard boxes to help create the largest box maze in Riga, build a cardboard town, and take part in active relay games. During the event, visitors will also have access to an open microphone in a large cardboard television — an opportunity to perform a song, poem, essay, or perhaps even be invited to take part in an important interview on an improvised TV show.

At 12:00, a special guest will join the programme — Daina Strelēvica, the author of song lyrics for numerous Latvian Puppet Theatre productions, will present her new book, which brings together lyrics from many beloved Puppet Theatre performances, including “Cinderella”, “The Secret of the Duck House”, “The Tale of Diegabiksis”, “The Clever Little Tooth”, and others.

Throughout the day, a cardboard town will be created and built in the theatre courtyard — using boxes and pieces of cardboard to make buildings, roads, parks, vehicles, and anything else that can be found in a city. The Cardboard Town will also welcome a guest of honour — eleven-year-old Kristofers Kirspū from Jaunjelgava, whose passion is creating cardboard models of ships, airplanes, and other vehicles. At the “Courtyard Festival”, visitors will be able to see his works and learn more about the stories behind them, as well as the technical methods used to make them.

The festive atmosphere of the “Courtyard Festival” and the start of summer will be enhanced by musical surprises from the production “Lotte from Gadgetville”. The actors from the performance will also try out the largest cardboard box maze in Riga, created by the children. At the close of the Courtyard Festival, BikiGRUPA will visit with a musical surprise at 16:00.

A café will be open on the theatre’s first floor throughout the day, while from 12:00 to 14:00 there will be a Brain Games board game afternoon.

“The Courtyard Festival has become a tradition at our theatre. The school year has ended for children, the theatre season is almost over for the actors, and this is an opportunity for everyone to meet, express themselves creatively, and truly see one another. In everyday life, audiences see the actors on stage, but at the Courtyard Festival — just like in a real courtyard — everyone comes together and gives free rein to fun and imagination. This is an opportunity to get to know the actors as personalities, rather than as characters from performances. The theatre courtyard will become a real construction site with hundreds of boxes, from which both a giant maze and the Cardboard Town will be built — we invite builders of all sizes to join us,” says Rūta Petrauska, organiser of the Courtyard Festival.

All event activities are free of charge. Children are invited to bring their own cardboard boxes so that there will be more building materials for the creative activities.