A group of young puppeteers from Thailand has earned the country a great pride and honour when they won the Best Carnival Performance prize at the World Puppet Carnival held in Poland during September 24-30.
The Thai team of 25 puppeteers aged from 7-25 from the Nattayaburapha club under the coach of Mr Den Halert also won the Young Puppeteers Award. The team outperformed 54 final teams from many countries which were selected from about 900 entries.
The team’s performance, entitled “the First Human in the World”, is about the world’s first ape and giant who set out to look for four ultimate weapons namely Gratitude, Sacrifice, Discipline and Tolerance.
Initially, the Nattayaburapha club could not afford the trip to Poland to participate in the annual event because they didn’t have enough funding. So the young puppeteers tried to raise fund by selling soft drinks at Don Muang flea market.
Their fund-raising struggling was eventually posted in the social media and widely shared among netizens and, later on, attracted the attention of government and private sectors who stepped in for help, making the club’s dream to participate in the carnival come true.
After winning the two top prizes, the Thai troupe was feted at a luncheon hosted by Thai ambassador to Poland Manasvee Srisodaphol.
