MOSCOW, March 18. /TASS Correspondent Viktoria Ivonina/. Almost everyone played with puppets in childhood, but how many people holding those puppets have managed to make them alive? It's not easy: both imagination and skills is what you need. No less important is a well-made puppet. Ekaterina Deryusheva leads Yamal's first puppet theatre - Zhuzha. She knows what magic is about: in her hands a walrus is alive, little bear Umka shows great appetite, and a heard of deer are emerging from a fire in the tundra. Ekaterina shares the talent with kids in far northern villages and at boarding schools - so that they could feel the puppet theater magic.

Idea from the soul depths

Ekaterina, trained to be a teacher and psychologist, had worked as a producer on regional television. She has always enjoyed working with kids: at positions of an animator, or a team leader at children's camps. However, at some point, she couldn't resist the desire to find exactly the form that would be comfortable to her.

- I really like creativity, the life around the stage. It so happened that once I took part in the My Business regional competition of young entrepreneurs, and the idea sparked - I believe it got from the very depths of my soul - I want to do puppets. And my first idea, like a flash: it must be a street theater! I dreamed to bring together people in yards, to make a leisure place for families - Ekarterina seems to be inspired by the idea as strongly as it was in the past.

The initial plan was it would be a mobile theater and home gatherings to tell everyday stories. That plan was far from how big the project may become - its own theater, unique puppets, original scripts, and a creative team.

First of all, Ekaterina decided to take a course to learn as much as possible about puppets. Back then, Yamal did not have any puppet theaters, no were there theaters for kids in Salekhard. The children's theater existed in the 1990s, and now it remains in history only. Clearly, there was simply no one in the region to ask about how to create a theater for children. The Yekaterinburg Puppet Theater agreed to help Ekaterina.

- I was incredibly lucky with the training. I learned from the theater's chief director, Evgeny Sivko. My "creative box" opened there: I attended rehearsals, learned all aspects and tricks, but, most importantly, I got inspired and could see how it all could be. When I watched a performance in Yekaterinburg, I had a desperate desire to bring all this to Yamal children, to tell the story on stage, with the light, and at a professional level. Evgeny Sivko showed me photos and recordings from different countries of the world - what theaters there are like - those were theaters of water, shadow, from a tent - no limits in fact.

Ekaterina returned home with one and only thought: she needs a team. In Salekhard, she found a director - he had some experience with the Tyumen Puppet Theater. The first casting was in the summer of 2020 - children were reciting at the city park. Everything turned out to be more difficult than she had expected. She was about to give up, but the love for creativity took over the fears. Additionally, Ekaterina won a grant, which came in very handy.

Quite many people, when thinking about a puppet theater, imagine "a bunny behind a screen" in the kindergarten, she said. Her idea was to show that the theater is much more complex and bigger.

First friends

- Our first performance was on December 26, 2020. To me and the team, that event was a landmark - we could realize something very historic was happening for Yamal, Salekhard. That was the beginning of our progress towards a new cultural space, - Ekaterina said with excitement.

They were happy to see the first audience, like people, are happy to meet true friends - they received gifts and responded in kind - thus, a new idea was to make up a small theater museum. The first plot was based on Two Brothers, a Nenets tale.

In spring of 2021, began the Puppet Theater to Every Yard project. Certain COVID restrictions still remained, but they did manage to show performances outdoors. They posted ads in different parts of the city to bring as many people as possible. Due to the project, the locals learned about Zhuzha, and the number of fans was growing.

- Right now, we have six performances in the repertoire, I can say very proudly that the quality grows with every show. We are bringing here professional directors on a "shift basis", and we take a large number of courses. I have brought Evgeny Sivko here, - Ekaterina added with a special feeling. - Gleb Laskin, a composer from Moscow, works with us, helps in writing music for the performances. Our team has been to Stavropol, to Chelyabinsk. We've studied the history of private theaters, how they develop, what they consist of, what they need to introduce into the repertoire to keep the audience interested.

It was from the very beginning that they made it a family theater - to be interesting both to children and parents. The kids immerse into the world of fairy tales and fantasies, while their parents recall their childhood. The creative team welcomes everyone: there are school and university students there, and even young mothers, for who it is most important to achieve progress.

- It's like I've been taught - if an adult and a child talk after the performance, then it was good, and brought a result, - Ekaterina said. - In Yamal, I have always dreamed to have places for family leisure. One day, I received a call from a spectator, asking where she could see our performances. I said - they are not available yet, we are only on tours and we have certain problems with a venue, she was very upset and said: but look - kids are growing up right now… Back then I realized many people truly needed Zhuzha.

Charmed with the North

One of the theater's own fairy tales is Vai and the Sea. To create it, Ekaterina was "digging into" archives.

- Together with the director, we searched through a huge pile of Nenets legends to find the fairy tale "How Vai Won the Sea." We adapted it: added poetry, music and a game, and made puppets," Ekaterina continued.

By the way, we took this fairy tale on the first tour abroad - to Minsk. During the tour, we realized we need to adapt the story: words like "tynzyan" and "yangtze", well-known to Northerners, were something completely new to Belarusians. Thus, we have adjusted the script to make clear those are deer-catching ropes and sticks used to knock out snow. Ekaterina recalled the Belarusian audience was touched by the fairy tale. They were charmed by the North, which they had never seen.

- This is a tale about a boy who went to the spirit of the sea to ask it not to turn over the boats, not to disturb the fishers. Vai, witty, cunning and kind, managed to come to an agreement. He sings a song to the sea - about how important it is to protect this world and to preserve harmony in it, and the spirit of the sea gives way to him. And here, look, what a wonderful walrus we have! - Ekaterina added suddenly, raising a large puppet's head. - I always make sure its mustache sticks out beautifully, it seems very funny to the children.

Special effects are doable even with puppets. This is how deer puppets were made: at the performance beginning on the stage the audience can see a hearth, it seems there are branches stacked for a bonfire, but then they come to life and deer appear to the music.

- Some would say I don't take care of the puppets, - the director added, folding carefully the puppets on the table, - that it's bad that I let children feel them in hands. But I believe the puppets must work, must play their role.

How to fill puppets with life

All puppets in the theater are moved differently. Some theaters use only one system, but for Ekaterina's ideas this may be not enough. At Zhuzha they use tablet puppets that work in one dimension, then there are puppets, and those that need a screen, cane, shadow, and many others.

- Whenever masters asked me what a puppy should do on stage, I could not understand the question sometimes. We've made mistakes in the beginning: we make a drawing, then we create a puppy, but it wouldn't be working. Experience and deep knowledge are instruments to fill a puppet with life. And for this, sometimes you don't need complex mechanisms or hidden levers.

The biggest desire was to stage the Umka tale about a little bear. That was one of the first ideas. Puppets were made in Nizhny Novgorod - a cute bear cub with big eyes could not leave indifferent even adults. Umka is one of the most complicated puppets in the theater. It can move paws and head, and even blink. And since in the script the bear cub eats carrots and condensed milk, it was important that the puppet could open the mouth. Some time ago, such a puppet could cost up to 20,000 rubles ($218), but now prices are much higher, Ekaterina admitted.

It takes at least six months to prepare one performance. Over this time, the idea turns into a script, and it also matters to win a grant, to pick venues, to bring together all the actors for whom theater is a hobby, not a job. Besides, new puppets, which very often are ordered from other regions.

One performance normally costs at least 800,000 rubles ($8,708). This includes the script, directing, the scenery, costumes, music, and trip expenses for the troupe, because the performance must travel to the faithful viewer.

Big turtle in love with the North

Zhuzha's new stage in development was the Theater for Children project - the team travels to Yamal's remote villages, to boarding schools where students rarely go to "mainland". To most of them, Zhuzha is the first theater in their lives.

- This is how we introduce theater to children. After the performance, they go backstage, and there we offer master classes: we let them have the puppies in their hands, we explain how to work with them, and even create puppets together so that a child receives most impressions from the children's puppet theater, Ekaterina said.

The biggest obstacle here, of course, is logistics: how to bring everything - puppets, scenery, how to find accommodation - most often boarding schools accommodate the troupe. The theater does not use hotels, not for reasons of costs or comfort, but simply because small northern villages do not have any hotels. However, they have viewers who are looking forward to meeting the theater.

Ekaterina dreams about baby shows in the future - those are performances for the youngest. As yet, she seems too busy - the theater has plans for six months ahead.

- By the way, why is it Zhuzha?

- When I put together an application for the first grant, I realized that I need some eye-catching name. I had a red-eared turtle, Zhuzha, at that time - so, I "stole" its name," - Ekaterina said laughing. - Further on "Zhuzha" gained a romantic legend: once upon a time there were three turtles, one of them went on a journey and got to the North, to the chum (traditional dwelling in the North). She liked it there very much and decided to stay. The locals nicknamed her Zhuzha as the name was similar to the sound of the wind hitting its shell. Moreover, the shell is a theater house, filled with kind tales from the wise turtle. We wanted to reflect this concept in our theater's design - we truly want to have our own house. I want to buy pillows so that kids could sit or even lie on the floor while we are telling fairy tales. It will be a very cozy place for the whole family.

The applications for grants eventually "hit" the target: the Zhuzha family puppet theater has received three grants from the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region's governor with the co-financing from the Presidential Grants Fund - almost 4 million rubles ($43,540). To a big extent, this became possible due to the fact that since 2022, the grant fund of socially-focused NGOs in the region had tripled: from 34 million ($370,000) to 103.6 million rubles ($1,128,000) in 2024, and over that time the number of recipients has doubled - from 39 to 75.

The theater hopes to settle in the new "little house" in April. If it works, then in May the Zhuzha Puppet Theater will be happy to welcome first guests.