by Andrew Periale

All you need is a device that connects you to the internet, and you can see all the events at this year’s PESTA BONEKA (international puppet festival). 

Pesta Boneka is a biennial puppet festival produced by Yogyakarta’s Papermoon Puppet Theatre under the direction of Maria Tri Sulistyani (Ria). It had its 7th outing earlier this month, but for the first time, the festival was entirely online. Puppeteers from 25 countries participated and by the end of the festival over 6000 people from 64 countries had logged on. Although the festival ended on October 11, you can still see all the events of the festival online FOR FREE until November 11

 www.pestaboneka.com

 The website is very well organized and easy to navigate. On the schedule page, you can pull up each day’s events, from which you can link to each activity. Each day starts with two brief segments of a series called “When Puppeteers Cook.” In each one, a puppeteer from somewhere in the world prepares a dish. The videos are entertaining and mouthwatering, with the actual recipes printed below. Does that seem strange? If you’ve ever been to a puppet festival (and I presume most of you have), then you know that the best part is sharing meals with fellow artists. Papermoon has found a way that we can do that – even online. Brilliant.

After the cooking lesson, you might want to sit in on one of the panel discussions, like “Collaborating Before and After the Pandemic.,” or “Puppetry and Ecology.”

Later, you can make a studio visit. I haven’t been to all of them yet, but what a wonderful opportunity to spend time with an artist in their own workshop, see how they create their puppets, and hear about their challenges and triumphs. I really enjoyed seeing Bernd Ogrodnik in his studio in Iceland – a master who has worked tirelessly at his craft, and who has thought deeply about life.

There are several performances every day. Plenty of variety here, but one soon learns that these are not ordinary YouTube videos. Once started, you cannot fast forward, or skip to the next video. These are run like a festival performance. Members of Papermoon introduce each piece (in English and Indonesian) and then the show begins, and you sit through the entire performance. It’s respectful to the performers and makes one feel a part of something presented in real-time. There is a synopsis of the work and a company profile below each video -- very helpful for the shows with spoken text.

I particularly enjoyed Karena Kita Bahagia by the company Wayang Hip Hop. This was a good demonstration of the way that wayang continues to adapt to the times, while still maintaining traditional tropes. Again, I have not yet seen all the performances, but wanted you to have as much time as possible to visit the festival before the recordings are taking down on November 11. The theme of the festival is “A Sip of Joy,” so go pour yourself a big cup as soon as you can!

And thank you, Papermoon Puppet Theater for sharing your festival with the world.