Students of the puppet department of the Turkmen State Institute of Culture will take part for the first time in the VII International Festival of Puppet Theaters "Chodari Khayol", which will be held in the capital of Tajikistan – Dushanbe from October 24 to 29.

Students - puppeteers have prepared the "Eternal Legends" play to participate in the festival. The plot of the performance is based on excerpts from the books of Hero-Arkadag: "Worshipping Mother – Worshipping a Sacred Person", "Turkmenistan is the heart of the Great Silk Road" and "Turkmen Alabay". Organically united into a single whole, three stories tell about the spiritual and moral values of the Turkmen people.

However, from the point of view of traditional puppet theater, the performance is not quite ordinary. There are no big puppet dolls in it. The whole action is presented as a spectacular ultraviolet performance with flat figures of characters, objects and devices for fabulous visualization glowing in the dark. Throughout the whole action, the audience hears the poetic narration by the reader, which gives the performance a special parable style.

Ilyas Durdyev, director, teacher of the Department of Theater and Speech, shared the details of the production.

– The "Eternal Legends" play was previously performed on the stage of the Turkmen State Puppet Theater and was a great success. Professional actors took part in it. Now, we study the plastic language of the performance and practice the technique of working with objects with students learning the basics of acting in puppet theater.

For students to represent Turkmenistan on an international platform, among theater groups from Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Iran is not only a great responsibility, but also a step towards the development of stage skills and professional growth.

The International Festival of Puppet Theaters "Chodari Khayol" is held on the initiative of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tajikistan and with the support of the Government of the country. The purpose of the festival is to strengthen cooperation in the field of theater and puppet art, revival and development of the puppet theater, and the improvement of the aesthetic education of the younger generation.