History
The theatre group Asdikaa al Duma Les Amis des Marionnettes started in 1984 with string marionette plays putting in scene friends coming from the various “mohafazat” (administrative regions) in Lebanon, telling about their region in a song and living an adventure together. Touring during civil war, the group tried to explain to children, that Lebanon was more than just the part they lived
in. Due to the 1989 war the group stopped the activities as most of its members left the country. However, activity was taken up again in 1998 when Tamara AbiFadel Keldany, the founder of the theatre company returned to Lebanon and was asked by many people remembering the plays to resume the activity. The group started working with different kinds of puppets and marionettes and toured with 14 plays and following wonderful puppeteers until 2022 : Fadia Tannir, Tatiana Bocharova and Tamara AbiFadel Keldany worked together from 2003 joined later by Suha Nader as well as by Mohammad Bazzi and Dina Kobrosly who participated in various projects. Since 2022 work has continued with collaborations with various artists and puppeteers, and Les Amis des Marionnettes has served as a hub, a federating entity, where people with a passion meet to create and implement projects with puppets. The projects can take the form of applied puppet theatre, awareness-raising campaigns, or creation of films, booklets, games, workshops, training courses, therapeutic expression sessions, and more. Puppets used can be built specifically for the project or chosen from existing puppets in Les Amis des Marionnettes collection. Tamara AbiFadel Keldany is the driving force behind the projects, federator of the partnerships formed as the projects unfold, born of an idea, a felt need, a request or an encounter.
