Festival Management and History

Gerti Tröbinger

^{Artistic Director and Programme Curator}

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Phone: +43 664 240 59 73

Maria Dürrhammer

^{Theatre Education and Programme Curator}

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Phone: +43 650 663 03 65

Ruth Humer

^{Theatre Education and Programme Curator}

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Since 1991, the festival week has been held annually, featuring around 50 performances and attracting an average audience of 4,500 visitors of all ages. The festival is organized by the City of Wels, which works closely with IMAGO-Szene Wels – the Association for the Promotion of Puppet and Figure Theatre.

1991

At the initiative of the Wels puppeteer and puppet maker Prof. Gustav Dubelowski-Gellhorn, the first festival is held under the name “Puppienale”. Trude Kranzl, then an official at the Cultural Affairs Department of the City of Wels, becomes the festival’s founder.

1993

The second edition of the festival takes place. Sadly, Prof. Gustav Dubelowski-Gellhorn does not live to see it.

1994–2008

Trude Kranzl directs and curates the next 15 editions of the festival, which has by then been renamed the “International Wels Puppet and Figure Theatre Festival”, until her retirement. During this era, the festival grows from the small “Puppienale” into an internationally renowned event, with a programme that honours tradition while also creating space for avant-garde developments in puppetry.

2009

Gerti Tröbinger takes over the artistic direction. She largely continues the established programming approach while restructuring public relations and audience outreach. To this end, she invites theatre educators Maria Dürrhammer and Ruth Humer to join the festival management team.