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The Sema Thai marionette troupe garnered some much-deserved home praise last week following its prize-winning performance at the World Festival of Puppet Art earlier this month in Prague.

A reception was held at the Culture Ministry honouring Nimit Pipitkul and his puppeteers, who very nearly missed out entirely in the Czech Republic - the cases holding the puppets were shipped to Denmark by mistake.

The worried troupe held a rehearsal with their hands unencumbered by the puppets, but once the real things finally arrived, they ended up winning the festival's award for the "most poetic creation".

"Sema is an outstanding resource," said Apinan Poshyananda, director-general of the Office of Contemporary Art and Culture. "They give people in other lands a delightful impression of our country."

Praise for the art

Apinan praised Nimit, 39, for preserving traditional Thai arts as well as creating a new style of puppets, and said the government might someday hold a puppet festival in Thailand.

Nimit pointed out that you can learn all about puppets in a day, but it takes a long time to develop the necessary skills to manipulate them in such a way that they actually express human emotions.

"I'm never apart from my puppets," he said. "They're the children in my family."

"The puppets are indeed alive," added puppeteer Pongsokorn Thaotony, 31.

"Chao Ngor" - the contemporary play that won the award at the festival - carries a heartfelt message in its story of a mother who's deeply concerned about her child growing up in a confusing world.

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Strung up

>> The Sema Thai marionette troupe will stage "Chao Ngor" at 2pm in Thai and 5pm in English on June 28 at the Thai and Japanese Youth Centre in Din Daeng.

>> Call (085) 188 2636.