2021 - Honorary Püberg
The Jury unanimously chose to distinguish Michael Meschke for his entire career and for his work in education by awarding him a PÜBERG D’HONNEUR.
His career as a teacher is remarkable in many ways. He has trained generations of puppeteers who in turn have committed themselves to the transmission of their puppetry know-how.
The Jury underlines the exceptional international dimension of Michael Meschke and his extraordinary commitment to UNIMA.
BIO
Michael Meschke is a puppet designer, director and teacher who has trained generations of artists.
He founded the Marionetteatern in Stockholm (Sweden) in 1958, directed it for 40 years, and created the International Puppet Museum in 1973 which he directed for 48 years. He contributed to the creation of several schools in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. At the Marionetteatern he welcomed and trained artists from all over the world such as Toru Nishikawa, Dadi Pudumjee, Chrissoula Alexiou, Clio Kiolpali, Arunee Vasanserekul, Hannu Räisä, Jorge Onofri, Anurupa Roy, Namboon Chaisingharn and others…
In 1981, along with Margareta Niculescu, Jan Dvorak, and Henryk Jurkowski, he co-directed the first international summer course of the Institut International de la Marionnette, which lasted three months and was entitled: From the first idea to the first performance; the string puppet. Michael Meschke was vice-president of UNIMA for 30 years and encouraged the creation of national UNIMA centres in different countries (Sweden, India, Thailand, Mexico, Iceland, etc).