“Puppets are so
poetic, very therapeutic and a great means of communication.”
Tamara Keldany’s first
introduction to the world of puppetry was through the popular German “Kasperle Theater”:
“We always played
puppets at home with friends, and friends of my parent’s, both in Berlin and in
Beirut, the two cities where I grew up and that shaped me. So my induction into
the world of puppetry was quite German. At the time, I was not aware of anyone
doing it here [in Lebanon].”
Keldany (52), is the
director of Beirut-based puppet company Asdikaa al-Duma/Les Amis des Marionnettes that she founded in
1984. “Having played so much with hand puppets I challenged myself to build a [string]
marionette and walked it from home to university. It was great walking the
streets with the marionette and interacting with people,” Keldany recalled. “My
friends at university loved it and so we soon started building more marionettes,
writing scripts and rehearsing a lot to make sure we’d manipulate correctly.
Our plays featured five friends coming from the five mohafazat (regions) of Lebanon and solving the problems by being united.”
The self-taught
puppeteer is a degreed translator and this is how Asdikaa al Duma started at
the University Saint Joseph’s (USJ) Ecole de Traducteurs et d’Interprètes de
Beyrouth, (School for Translation and Interpretation).
After nine years of the
civil war raging in Lebanon, by 1984 the country was divided and people would
be afraid of crossing to other regions. “Nonetheless, we toured in all regions
we could reach with our message of “Unity makes strength", performing in Arabic of course, in theatres and other venues
and as much as we could also, for underprivileged audiences.”
But the happiness of
making people happy was stopped by yet another round of civil strife, which tore
the team apart, and Keldany (who had also studied marketing) found herself
working in Travel Industry Marketing at Eurodisneyland Paris. “It was a great
experience, not only the opening of the park and
resort, but every single event was a show, a very detailed ‘mise en scene’, and I loved it”.
Back in Lebanon in 1997,
by then mother of two kids, who gave her a lot of inspiration, she slowly
started reconstructing a Les Amis des Marionnettes team, surfing on the encounters
life provided. This time they performed in French because the team members
where not fluent in Arabic. “Every change is enriching and we slowly built a
new audience”.
“When Tatiana Botcharova
joined the team, she modelled these wonderful puppets and we had a lot of fun
writing plays,” Keldany remembered. “Between Russian, German, Lebanese and
French culture the mix was one of a kind. We felt it was time to switch to
Arabic again and we looked for somebody able to perform in Arabic. This is how
Fadia Tannir came on board.”
Together with her
troupe, Keldany has performed all over Lebanon, in theatres as well as in
schools, in closed formal settings as well as open air or during festivals and
in refugee camps. She easily switches between languages, able to perform in
French, Arabic, German as well as Russian, which also gave the troupe the
opportunity to perform in Germany and Austria during
festivals in 2010.
Regarding Lebanon’s
multilinguism, Keldany pointed out that: “when you perform the play in another
language you effectively rewrite the play. You have to adapt, not just
translate, especially the rhythm and references and many other things change.
It was great performing in German during the festivals in Germany and Austria
and our play about “The Colours of Lebanon” really reached its’ purpose”. This,
of course, requires linguistic aptitude but also great insight and knowledge of
cultural issues and references.
“Puppets can address
all the diversity we have in Lebanon and often say things that actors cannot
say and it is accepted because it’s just a puppet talking... For example, in
our play about the importance of women (Tales from our Villages), there are a
lot of things that are said that would be very difficult to say as a person
even an actor.”
Besides a repertoire
that features original plays, Asdikaa al Duma often collaborates with
organisations in awareness raising campaigns. “This play about the importance
of women in rural settings was commissioned by the National Observatory of
Women in Rural Areas (Nowara) and CTM-Onlus, an Italian NGO that
we had already worked with.”
Other subjects the
troupe has touched on are respect (L’Elixir du Respect) and civility,
highlighting the importance of a clean environment (Histoires d'Arbres), protecting cultural heritage
(The Colours of Lebanon), tackling gender issues and taboos, as for example
breast cancer (An ounce of prevention). “It is something we don’t speak about,”
Keldany pointed out. With reference to International Women’s Day, Keldany added
that the troupe often work with women in vulnerable communities to sensitise
them.
“Puppets are a superb
therapy,” she highlighted. “Seeing that we often engage with the audience and
we invite audience members to move the puppets, we get strong responses. Some
children that did not speak a word suddenly start talking. Women who were
silent and never share their worries suddenly let out all they have been
holding back. I also remember a Syrian refugee woman, dressed all in black,
drawing only in black who after only three sessions came dressed in colourful
clothes and put together a lovely play. This is the best reward we can ever
hope for with the work that we do!”
Lebanon has a small but vibrant puppetry scene, which is made up of more women than men! This is why we thought that women puppeteers should be celebrated on the occasion of International Women’s Day on 8 March and the up-coming International Puppetry Day on 21 March.
Our sample of 10 women working in the field of puppetry each shared their professional trajectory, gave insight into focus of their work, their passions and views on puppetry in Lebanon.
The women puppeteers provide insight into the medley of traditions and styles that have infused the Lebanese scene, the wide array of contexts and purposes in which puppets are being used, created and performed. Not surprisingly they are a reflection of the magic and versatility of the medium – and Lebanon’s diversity.
Discover Women Puppeteers in Lebanon – A series showcasing several artists
Compiled by Nathalie Rosa Bucher for Les Amis des Marionnettes
March 2017
Lebanon has a small but vibrant puppetry scene, which is made up of more women than men! This is why we thought that women puppeteers should be celebrated on the occasion of International Women’s Day on 8 March and the up-coming International Puppetry Day on 21 March.
Our sample of 10 women working in the field of puppetry each shared their professional trajectory, gave insight into focus of their work, their passions and views on puppetry in Lebanon.
The women puppeteers provide insight into the medley of traditions and styles that have infused the Lebanese scene, the wide array of contexts and purposes in which puppets are being used, created and performed. Not surprisingly they are a reflection of the magic and versatility of the medium – and Lebanon’s diversity.
Discover Women Puppeteers in Lebanon – A series showcasing several artists
Compiled by Nathalie Rosa Bucher for Les Amis des Marionnettes
March 2017
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