We are proud to announce that TOUR 2016 will be taking place under the matronage of Ľubica Laššáková, member of the Banská Bystrica municipal council and of the Banská Bystrica regional parliament and head of its cultural commission. Former director of the Banská Bystrica District Office who had spent many years working for the Slovak Radio but most importantly an indefatigable protector and promoter of all kinds of art and culture in our region, Laššáková agreed to take the aegis over this untraditional part of our festival.
We are proud to announce that First Impulse will also have its patron! We could hardly have chosen anybody else but our own patron, playwright and poet Jozef Mokoš, member of the Regional Puppet Theatre between 1964 and 1980 who stood at the cradle of the Bábkarská Bystrica festival and was instrumental in shaping it. Banská Bystrica was chosen to host the national exhibition of Slovak puppet theatres largely because of the extraordinary creative drive of Jozef Mokoš who at that point was the theatre’s literary manager. Jozef Mokoš currently works at the Department of Puppetry of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava.
We are proud to announce that Second Impulse will be taking place under the matronage of actress Jana Oľhová, member of the Slovak National Theatre. A laureate of the prestigious Crystal Wing award and a pedagogue with the Banská Bystrica conservatoire, Oľhová has ranked among the prominent personalities of Slovak chamber theatre for many years. An outstanding performer in the field of drama theatre, she is one of very few theatre personalities to devote their time and energy to cooperation with the alternative scene including puppet theatre and help the movement aimed at emancipating puppet theatre in the eyes of adult audiences. Currently, Jana Oľhová stars as the mother in the PTAC’s adaptation of Reality snov by Jana Juráňová (2011; directed by Iveta Škripková), which still attracts local people to our theatre.
