The celebration will take place on May 16 from 2:00 pm, with programming for the whole family. The anniversary commemorates eight and a half decades of being the artistic and cultural oasis of boys and girls.
In 1936 one of the most transgressive buildings of the time was inaugurated, a precursor of the Modern Movement of the country: the Magical Cultural Theater of the National Park. It was part of the recently inaugurated Enrique Olaya Herrera National Park and its mission was to feed the spirits of children with puppet theater and dolls. 85 years later his mission is more alive than ever.
After several names, temporary closures, hours of laughter and a claim through Idartes, El Parque Theater celebrates eight and a half decades of being the artistic and cultural oasis of the boys and girls of Bogotá.
To commemorate this anniversary, the stage of the District Institute of the Arts – Idartes, that of the Bogota families, will carry out several activities on May 16 from 2:00 pm A learning and awareness circuit in a safe environment starring for the rich puppetry history of Bogotá in five decades, the language of miniature theater, a creation laboratory and Hamlet in a different version.
First, the El Parque Theater will present the exhibition Del Títere Museo de Historia Natural, an interactive exhibition that narrates in a fantastic way various evolutionary lines of puppet art based on fragments of the history of the Bogota movement of the last 50 years (1970-2020) , presented through a sample of objects, photographic images, sound and audiovisual records.
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Another of the scheduled activities is the reactivation of five Magic Boxes, better known as the Lambe-Lambe Theater; a show that aims to explore the artistic language of miniature theater, which involves the construction of a micro-universe within a box, accompanied by animations, audio, scenery and characters. The micro stories are designed to be very specific, not last more than five minutes and to be presented to only one viewer per function.
“We celebrate 85 years of El Parque Theater, the oldest in Bogotá, recognizing its resilience in all these decades. It is an example of persistence around culture and the performing arts, in its specific case for children and families. Since 2011 it has been part of the Idartes facilities and since then it has regained its place as a magical oasis of art for the boys, girls and families of Bogotá ”, says Catalina Valencia Tobón, director of Idartes.
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google NewsThe circuit will also offer a Toy Creation Laboratory, the space for girls and boys to create toys with new or recycled materials , developing their own narratives and micro-stories from their creations.
At the end of the day, the closing will be in charge of the Toy Theater company, with a free version in children’s puppets, of the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare, in which the most outstanding scenes will be presented: the appearance of the father’s ghost of Hamlet, the mounting of the mousetrap to make the king confess, Ophelia’s madness, the duel with Laertes and the great monologue.
El Parque Theater has been a resilient cultural space by nature. Children’s Theater of the National Park, Theater of the Park, Puppet Theater of the National Park and Cultural Theater of the National Park have been some of their names; others, such as those of Antonio Angulo, Carlos Alfonso Muñoz, Beatriz Caballero and Gabriela Samper have been some of its directors and leaders.
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The Theater, which since 2011 is part of the District Institute of Arts – Idartes, has experienced intermittent closures that have transformed it, but above all it has endured its commitment to the most vibrant performing arts for the boys and girls of Bogotá.
“El Parque Theater is a stage that has witnessed 85 years of history of art, culture and the city of Bogotá , its building crosses the barriers of time; Since his birth he has had a vocation centered on children and was a great promoter of the puppet theater movement in Bogotá. Full of curious and funny stories, it is an example of resistance and resilience, surviving different events ”, says the stage leader, María Paula Atuesta.
(You can read: Digital Theater and its special programming for May).
The invitation to all citizens is to consult the page idartes.gov.co and participate in all the events that this stage of the Idartes has scheduled on May 16 to celebrate 85 years of the founding of El Parque Theater.