The programme for the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the successful work of the puppet theatre in Rijeka was opened by the promotion of the Monograph dedicated to the puppet theatre. The monograph, edited by Prof Krešimir Cvjetković, is based on Maja Verdonik's doctoral thesis. Not only does the book give an insight into the half a century of the activity of a city institution, moreover, it endeavours to evoke the good atmosphere and creative energy of this merry theatre. Vanja Cuculić signs the monograph's design. During the promotion the monograph was presented by its consulting editors Darko Gašparović and Antonija Bogner-Šaban.

Before a numerous audience, Rijeka mayor Vojko Obersnel expressed his congratulations to the theatre, emphasising this theatre's enormous creative energy not only in local and Croatian terms, but much wider, in international terms. Srećko Šestan, former director of the Rijeka Puppet Theatre expressed congratulations on behalf of the Minister of Culture. The occasional words of welcome were addressed and suitable gifts presented to the Rijeka Puppet Theatre by Zvonko Festini on behalf of the Croatian Centre of UNIMA /Union Internationale de la Marionnette/, by Romano Bogdan on behalf of ASSITEJ / International association of theatres for children and young people/, by the directors of the puppet theatres in Zagreb, Osijek and Zadar and by the directors of the Children's Theatre Dubrava, the Šibenik Children's Festival and the Vukovar Puppet Spring Festival.
The same day the exhibition "Where puppets (do not) sleep" was inaugurated at the Small Salon, devised by authors Luči Vidanović, Marija Volkmer and Vedrana Balen Spinčić. The exhibition, thorough chronology and synchrony tells the story about the past half century of existence and artistic work of the Rijeka Puppet Theatre.

The third, interactive part of the exhibition takes place at the atrium of the Croatian Cultural Centre at Sušak where an interactive room has been organised, displaying puppets and scenography from the theatre holding, where the visitors themselves can try to animate the puppets, have a look around and thus feel the spirit of the theatre.

At the roundtable held on 26 October at the City Hall, addressing the topic of "Communication between the puppet and the populations of preschool and school children and university students" the participants, first of all, tried to respond to the question – how the show watched influences children – and point to the disproportion in education of nursery assistants and teachers. While puppetry is an integral part of the nursery curriculum, this subject is not included in the curriculum of future teachers of class tuition.

(S.R., V.T.)