From September 1, the Latvian Puppet Theater will present productions only in the national language, Lita Kokale, head of the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Culture (KM), told LETA.
She explained that in connection with the education reform implemented in the country, as well as the amendments made to the Law on Education and the Law on General Education, which provide for a gradual – 3-year transition – to teaching in the national language in general education pre-school and primary education institutions, the Latvian Puppet Theater has been delegated to stage diverse and high-quality puppets theater performances, ensuring the breadth of the repertoire and encouraging creativity, as the theater prepares for the transition to the repertoire in the national language by September 1, 2023.
Already at the beginning of October 2022, amendments were made to the agreement on the delegation of functions of the Latvian Puppet Theater, after the new strategic goals of the theaters were approved by the Cabinet of Ministers.
According to Kokale, in order to ensure the national language and education policy also in the cultural environment, the state theater – the Latvian Puppet Theater – is preparing for the transition to the repertoire in the state language. Performances are performed in which verbal communication does not take place, for example, in the performance “Skeleta Juhan Gaitas”. Performances that would take place in several languages are also planned. From September 1, implementing a unified education and national language policy, the Latvian Puppet Theater will operate in the national language.
Mikhail Chekhov’s Riga Russian Theater and Daugavpils Theater must provide a translation of the performances – titles or handouts reflecting the content of the performance – in the national language for performances in minority languages since the signing of the amendments to the delegation of functions contracts. Both theaters perform this task.
