The Zagreb Puppet Theatre (ZKL) was founded in 1948, as a successor to the tradition of Zagreb puppetry (the first public performances in Croatian were held in 1916) and the Puppet Theatre of the Youth Company (founded in 1940). In the seven and a half decades of its existence, the ZKL has gone through several developmental and aesthetic phases (a significant modernisation of its expression occurred during the 1960s), and its history has been marked by numerous prominent puppeteers from Croatia and abroad. ZKL performances are performed in a wide variety of puppetry techniques, and the theatre’s repertory, mainly based on reinterpretations of classic fairy tales and plays for children and young people, is primarily intended for preschool and school audiences.
Since its establishment, the ZKL has operated in a building erected in 1923 by the Croatian Literary Society of St. Jerome. Various courses and cultural and sporting events took place in the Jerome Hall, and since its opening it has also housed the Marionette Theatre (operating intermittently between 1920 and 1937). After the last renovation (2004), the building received a stage with state-of-the-art technical equipment and a new, sloped auditorium with 230 seats.
Link: zkl.hr
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