Matanzas - Meetings on art direction, design, masks and manufacture of paper puppets, are included at the 12th International Workshop on Puppets of Matanzas (Titim), running here until Sunday.

Experienced artists and amateurs attend these workshops taught by professors from Argentina, Brazil, France and Mexico, while a special event on rhythm and melody in the playwriting for children is also running.

Last Tuesday the event began with a program of more than 90 plays with the slogan: "A stage with the color of the world" and the presence of 17 Cuban groups and nine from abroad.

Foreign groups are from Argentina, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, France, Finland, Bulgaria, Switzerland and Puerto Rico, which comes for the first time and will be responsible for closing the event with the play "Y no habia luz".

Organizers dedicated the event to the 60 years of Pelusin del Monte, Cuban national puppet, made by Guiñol de Cuba, which was founded in 1956 by Camejo and Carril brothers and Dora Alonso (1910-2001), one of the most important Cuban writers for children.

The event also honors the artistic work of Teatro Andante, from the eastern Cuban province of Granma, and playwrights-poets Federico Garcia Lorca (Spain) and Javier Villafañe (Argentina).