PNCA making efforts to preserve, promote centuries old folk art “puppet making”

ISLAMABAD, Jul 16 (APP):Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) National Puppet Theatre is making efforts to promote centuries old folk art “puppet making” by organizing training workshops for students of various educational institutions.
To educate youth about the centuries old art, the Arts Council organize special training workshops on “How to make puppets”. In these workshops the training also provided to the students about handling, operating of puppets, light sound and puppet sets.
An official of PNCA told APP that National Puppet Theatre (NPT) is carrying on its services to entertain and educate the children and norms through puppetry at home by conducting free puppet shows. He said that NPT teams also organize shows every year to highlight important international events like Earthquake Victims Day, Kashmir Solidarity Day, Pakistan Day Celebrations, Independence Day Celebrations, World Tourism Day and Universal Children Day and Quaid-e-Azam Day Celebrations.
“The puppet shows also depicting folk tales and skits to entertain and educate children regarding social problems including health, education, environment etc. Besides, entertainment, these puppet shows are conscious efforts to explain socio-cultural issues and nurture a sense of responsibility among children to combat such evils” he said.
He said that National puppet theatre has numerous puppets, which are hand made by the apprentices of National Puppet Theatre and this section has trained many groups.
Folk art is a very ancient art form, thought to have originated about 3,000 years ago. Puppets have been used since the earliest times to animate and communicate the ideas and needs of human societies.
NPT introduced also introduced modern techniques where the puppets would move their eyes, mouths and many other parts of their body, making them seem even more animated.
There are still a number of puppeteers and young artistes, who yearn to go ahead with puppetry.