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The event will follow the conclusion of the 16th Arab Theatre Festival, which will be held in Cairo in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture from 10 to 16 January 2026.
Launched in 2013 as an initiative of the ATI, the forum aims to activate the role of puppet, doll, and related arts in drawing inspiration from Arab heritage and the new cultural and artistic scene.
It seeks to highlight the bright aspects of inherited culture as a content that can be presented through puppet arts, to develop mechanisms and themes within puppet and popular performance arts in line with contemporary creative, intellectual, and human output, to activate the role of these arts in educational, social, and civic institutions, and to continue efforts to document and preserve these arts in the Arab world, protecting them from extinction and strengthening ties among Arab puppeteers.
The fifth edition of the Arab Puppet, Doll, and Related Arts Forum, themed From Stone to Digital, continues the journey that began with the first forum in Sharjah in December 2013, followed by the second in Tunisia in October 2014, the third in Egypt in October 2015, and the fourth in Morocco in October 2017. The event will feature performances from Egypt and across the Arab world, selected through a competitive participation process.
It will also include practical academic symposia under the title Techno Puppets, Techno Popular Performance, with Egyptian and Arab contributions within the framework of peer-reviewed research, alongside training workshops and a puppet exhibition. The ATI has released special application forms for participation, which are available on its official website.
The forum’s activities will take place across several venues to reach the widest possible audience. The puppet exhibition will be held at El Hanager Theatre, the symposia at the Supreme Council of Culture, while performances and workshops will be staged at the Cairo Puppet Theatre, the Cultural Park for Children in Al-Sayeda Zeinab, the Metropole Theatre, and Bayt Al-Suhaymi.
On this occasion, Ismail Abdullah, Secretary-General of the Arab Theatre Institute (ATI), stated: “Since its inception, the Institute has worked to activate the role of puppetry, doll-making, shadow theatre, magic box shows, and related arts, as well as their practitioners. This stems from our belief in the importance of preserving these arts on the one hand, and developing them on the other.
Previous editions of the forum have succeeded in creating a network of inter-Arab relations among puppetry artists and have increased interest in these arts in Arab regions where they had once been neglected. The Institute has published numerous important books in addition to the proceedings of previous forums, which include highly valuable research and experiences.”
He added: “We have honoured puppetry artists and made this recognition a fundamental aspect of our work, in appreciation of their efforts and contributions. In this edition, however, we will miss three of the great masters whom we honoured in the past: the late Aragoz master Uncle Saber Al-Masri, the renowned designer Naji Shaker, and the storyteller and magic box artist Adel Al-Tartir. Yet, we hold great hope and optimism in the young artists who continue to carry the craft forward. We believe the time has come for puppeteers to take the necessary steps to organise their profession, a move that will contribute to its development and reaffirm its importance, placing it on equal footing with the rest of the performing arts.”
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