Puppet Theatre in Kabul
The Goethe-Institut Kabul has been holding four-week puppet theatre workshops every year since 2007. This stimulus resulted in the 2009 founding of Parwaz, the first puppet theatre ensemble in Afghanistan. Abdulhaq Haqjoo, one of the workshop participants and co-founder of the group, was invited to Berlin in October 2009. Supported by the Goethe-Institut, he completed a one-year special course in puppetry at the Ernst Busch Academy of Drama in Berlin.
Improvisation and puppet making – rehearsal routine 2007
The first Puppetry Workshop was held in July 2007 with 14 students from the University of Kabul, College of Fine Arts, as well as eight members of the Mobile Mini Circus for Children (MMCC). Wieland Jagodzinski, puppeteer, director and freelance lecturer for the Puppetry course of studies at the Ernst Busch Academy was artistic director of both workshops. Each rehearsal day began with a warm up to train the body parts and muscles strained by puppetry. This was followed by improvisation – at first using the fingers, then the whole hand and later with puppets. 
The workshop first taught the chief types of puppets, hand puppets and rod puppets. Four “naked” prototypes of rod puppets had been made at the Ernst Busch Academy for the workshop participants to experiment with and develop short plays. After the ninth day of the workshop, nine mini-plays had been created in this way based on Afghan fairy tales and fables as well as everyday circumstances in Afghanistan. Following this, the participants began with puppet making. The rod and hand puppets were partly “carved” from hard foam and then painted and dressed in clothing and turbans the students sewed themselves. The materials for the puppets and the stage, foam plastic of various thickness, glue, paints and newspapers had been purchased at markets.
In spite of many difficulties, the workshops and production work were successful. At the premiere on 18 July at the MMCC, a well-coordinated ensemble presented nine imaginative plays (e.g. The Beggar-Woman, Forbidden Fruit, The Lecher, Flamingo & Fox), which were accompanied by music played on the flute, tabla and harmonium. The performances were repeated in August 2007 at the Kabul Theatre Festival.
Lasting impact – the second workshop in 2008
The project had a lasting impact: since then four of the participants work exclusively in the field of puppetry. It was therefore only natural for the Goethe-Institut Kabul to hold another workshop in cooperation with the University of Kabul, College of Fine Arts the following year under the direction of Wieland Jagodzinski. Together with 18 participants, he adapted The Hare and the Hedgehog after the play by Peter Ensikat.
In the manner of a parable and without finger pointing, the fable reflects on the condition of Afghan society. It is an amusing and enigmatic plea for tolerance and mutual acceptance. In this case, too, the performers were first familiarized with the basic techniques of puppetry. Training of the body and muscles was playfully integrated in etudes and improvisation based on supplied subject matter, first using the naked hand and later hand and rod puppets to portray human behaviour. The puppets and stage design were, as in the first workshop, mainly created, fitted and painted by the students themselves. However, the participants had previously only staged their own improvisations and were not accustomed to working with a written story. Producing the text version in Dari was a correspondingly time consuming task. The interpreter patiently and repeatedly called for proper translation in order to preserve the wit, philosophy and subtleness of the original.
During the third workshop in 2009, Parwaz worked on another play under the expert supervision of Wieland Jagodzinski, the Afghan version of The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats, which premiered at the sixth theatre festival in Kabul.
Parwaz – Afghanistan’s first puppet theatre ensemble
The premiere of the puppet theatre production The Hare and the Hedgehog opened the fifth Afghan National Theatre Festival on 23 August 2008. This lent the genre of puppetry new status in recent Afghan theatre history. The stimulus of the workshops led to the founding of Afghanistan’s first puppet theatre ensemble, Parwaz, supported and supervised by the Goethe-Institut. The Hare and the Hedgehog was its first repertoire play. Parwaz consists of nine members. Their target audience is chiefly children and young people, but adults as well. 
A number of performances in Kabul, in the neighbouring provinces and even abroad enabled the troupe to enhance their experience and gain more self-confidence and independence. In January 2010, Parwaz took part in the 12th National School of Drama Theatre Festival of New Delhi with two plays, The Hare and the Hedgehog and Buzak-e-Chini, the Afghan version of The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats. The group also has the opportunity to appear in the National Theatre in Kabul. Presently, Parwaz is developing a play about children’s rights commissioned by UNICEF for the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Starting in May 2010, 26 performances are scheduled at schools in Kabul, Mazar, Jalalabad, Kandahar and Herat.
Abdulhaq’s study visit at the Ernst Busch Academy of Drama will now offer Parwaz more stimuli. In 2009, Wieland Jagodzinski invited Abdulhaq to Berlin for a workshop. Abdulhaq then applied for a one-year special course in puppetry at the academy and was accepted following a successful qualifying examination. He has been living and studying in Berlin as a scholarship holder of the Goethe-Institut since October 2009, supported by the Culture and Development initiative. The Goethe-Institut invited Wieland Jagodzinski to another workshop in Kabul in 2010, which will take place from mid-May until mid-July. Its objectives are further professionalization of the group, expansion of its repertoire and strengthening its solidarity.
“This is a great opportunity for me.”, Interview with Abdulhaq Haqjoo.
