Katkatha is an amalgam of two Hindi words, Kat meaning wood and is derived from the word Katputli (puppetry) and Katha meaning story, together becoming puppets and stories. Fabric and styrofoam figures, papier mache sculptures, Shakespearean comedies and Indian epics, the stories from conflict zones and the worlds of little children are all a part of Katkatha’s work where puppets are not dolls with strings but the theater of inanimate material.

Katkatha started as an association of like-minded puppeteers in 1998 and was registered as a trust. At the core of the group are sculptors, dancers, writers, designers and puppeteers whose vision is to support a professionally set up and managed space for the promotion, preservation and development of Puppet Theater and allied arts.

This includes the creation of original productions using puppets, masks and objects and touring to international and Indian performing arts and theatre festivals. The repertoire includes over twenty five original performances.

Katkatha is committed to training the next generation of puppeteers and creating a new space to seedbed new puppet groups and companies by holding annual master-classes, mentorship projects, internships and residencies.

ABOUT ANURUPA ROY

Anurupa Roy is a puppeteer, puppet designer and a director of puppet theatre. She is the Co-Founder and Managing Trustee of Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust since 1998. She has a diploma in puppet theater from Dramatiska Institutet,DI, University of Stockholm, Sweden and has trained at the Scoula De La Guaratelle under Bruno Leone.

She is a recipient of the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar in Puppetry, a National Award in Puppet Theater in 2006 and a CLORE Chevening Fellowship in 2021-22.

She has been a Pro Helvetia, artist-in-residence at Rote Fabrik, Zurich and at World Arts and Cultures, UCLA. She has been a researcher in residence at the Deutsches forum fur figurentheater, in Germany.

She works as a consultant in arts for public health, peace-building and education projects for communities, schools, juvenile homes, in conflict zones like Kashmir, Sri Lanka and Manipur. She has designed puppet exhibitions for Serendipity Arts Festival, The National Museum in Delhi, the Children’s Musuem at Prince of Wales Museum(CSMVS) Mumbai and the Goethe Institutes Infinite Library Project. She has directed over forty puppet productions for Katkatha supported by India Foundation for the Arts, Festival Mondial Des Theatres de Marrionnettes, Charleville- Mezieres, France, Helios Theater, Hamm, Germany, The Japan Foundation, Atelier de la Luna, Spain, as guest director for TIE Repertory Company, National School of Drama and the Sandbox Collective, Bangalore.

A key priority for Anurupa is creating a rigorous training system for puppeteers with a focus to train the next generation of professional puppeteers in India, creating a discourse around puppetry and also building a network of puppeteers thus through UNIMA Puppeteers Trust where she co-founded the Master class programs in 2014 and the Foundation program in 2019.