Puppets for Children in Hospitals or How theatre gives meaning to the world (and vice versa)

CRISTIAN PALACIOS

Iranian Children Literature Studies

SHIRAZ UNIVERSITY & IRANIAN SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF PERSIAN

Lugar: Shiraz; Año: 2013

2008-8647

Titiribióticos is a programme developed by Omar Álvarez, Roxana Bernaule and Vanina Grossi whose lines seem very simple at first sight: to make puppets shows for children in hospitals of the province of Buenos Aires. The show takes place "at the foot of the bed", in a face-to-face exchange between a child and a puppeteer, based on the transformation and resignify of surgical material that change in penguins, fantastic animals, quirky characters. But the Titiribióticos are determined to tell a story, a full play, and this is what makes them different from other similar projects. Its members are trained with tools aimed at acquire strategies for performing the shows. That is why we believe that this is not a social action programme, but a theatrical event in its purest expression. What we propose in this paper is to analyse the transformative potential, not only therapeutic, of the true aesthetic experience, following the works of Jacques Rancière and Sigmund Freud and our own point of about humour; through documents and testimonies of its creators and its audience, the children, their families and the hospital staff. The work of Titiribióticos interpellates creators and researchers of Theatre for Young Audiences in all his ways; and bring us new question about the different senses of all that we do (NOTA: el trabajo ha sido presentado en inglés para ser traducido al persa por el Journal of Iranian Children Literature Studies).