2016 was a special year for us. We turned 18 and we got our own new space to further explore our puppetry encounters. Our space is at the Southern border of Delhi, 12 kilometers from the city centre. The population around is dense and semi urban.
2016 was a special year for us. We turned 18 and we got our own new space to further explore our puppetry encounters. Our space is at the Southern border of Delhi, 12 kilometers from the city centre. The population around is dense and semi urban.
These are the programs the space is currently supporting or planning to support
Mentorship Program -
In December 2017 we kick start our artists mentorship program with the mentoring of young directors from across India by the Director of Helios Theatre in Hamm, Germany, Barbara Kolling. Barbara will mentor 5 young Indian directors in creating 5 new performances using material only.
These are the programs the space is currently supporting or planning to support
Mentorship Program -
In December 2017 we kick start our artists mentorship program with the mentoring of young directors from across India by the Director of Helios Theatre in Hamm, Germany, Barbara Kolling. Barbara will mentor 5 young Indian directors in creating 5 new performances using material only.
Puppet Incubation Lab & Katkatha Puppet Fringe Festival
Presented by The Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust
Introduction
The Puppet Incubation Lab and the Katkatha Puppet Fringe Festival are interconnected initiatives that aim to nurture, expand, and reimagine puppetry as a contemporary performance practice in India. Conceived by The Katkatha Puppet Arts Trust, these platforms respond to a crucial gap between training, experimentation, and public presentation within the puppetry ecosystem. The key intention is to create a strong puppetry community of new and veteran puppeteers, artists of multiple forms and puppet theatre and between producers,funders, venues and puppetry practitioners
While India holds a rich and ancient puppetry tradition spanning over 3000 years with numerous living forms, contemporary puppetry remains an emerging field. These initiatives create a space where tradition meets experimentation, and where artists can explore puppetry beyond conventional definitions.
Puppet Incubation Lab
Launched first in 2023, the Puppet Incubation Lab was envisioned as a residency-based, collaborative platform that enables artists to experiment, build skills, and develop new work in puppetry.
The Lab focuses on:
- Bridging gaps between skill-building and practice by offering a space to test ideas without the pressure of large-scale production
- Multidisciplinary exchange, bringing together puppeteers, visual artists, musicians, writers, designers, and performers
- Reimagining puppetry, by questioning the very idea of “what is a puppet” and expanding it beyond object animation into a broader visual and performative language
- Encouraging experimentation, where failure becomes part of the process and avant-garde approaches are supported
- Professional development**, including pitching, proposal writing, and interactions with funders and curators
The 2023 edition resulted in:
- Creation of six original puppet performances across forms such as shadow puppetry, material theatre, mask and rod puppetry, and immersive site-specific work
- Strong industry engagement, with festival programmers, schools, and over a thousand audience members attending the showcases
- Long-term artistic impact, with multiple productions continuing to tour and evolve
Importantly, the Lab fostered lasting collaborations. New companies and collectives emerged, and participants continued to train, perform, and support each other, forming a sustainable artistic cohort.
Building on this momentum, the second edition in 2026 expanded the Lab into a more focused incubation model.
- Four selected projects were awarded incubation grants
- Artists received mentorship through hybrid engagement (online and in-person)
- Each project culminated in the creation of a 35-40 minute performance, developed specifically for presentation at the Fringe Festival
Katkatha Puppet Fringe Festival
The Katkatha Puppet Fringe Festival serves as the public interface and culmination of the incubation process. It is a platform dedicated to showcasing works-in-progress, experimental performances, and new directions in puppetry.
The Fringe brings together:
- Works developed through the Puppet Incubation Lab
- Collaborative projects and interdisciplinary explorations
- Student performances, exhibitions, street interventions, and conversations around puppetry
- Artists and audiences interested in pushing the boundaries of form, narrative, and material
The 2026 edition of the Fringe marked a significant milestone, presenting the four incubated projects alongside a wider range of experimental works. It reinforced the festival’s commitment to being a space where risk-taking, innovation, and new artistic voices are foregrounded.
Vision
Together, the Puppet Incubation Lab and Katkatha Puppet Fringe Festival aim to:
- Build a sustained ecosystem for contemporary puppetry in India
- Encourage cross-disciplinary collaborations and new performance vocabularies
- Support emerging artists and experimental practices
- Create a recurring platform that nurtures ideas from conception to presentation
Looking Ahead
With successful editions in 2023 and 2026, the initiatives have demonstrated the need and potential for such platforms. The long-term vision is to establish the Fringe as a biennial space for cutting-edge puppetry, while continuing the Lab as a seedbed for innovation, collaboration, and artistic growth.