European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 30, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Doily Magazine Sticks animate Karadz characters. Teacher Don Viny props up the leading puppet in his Kara Golz plays. By Mike Spear staff writer mag1ne two puppets who stand facing each other and scarcely move except for an occasional jiggle. The Story and most of the drama comes from conversation Between the two. Action you can just about forget it right away you can envision a Yawn Factor of at least 8 on a scale of 10.the puppets which stand about two feet High Are made of thin sheets of translucent plastic and Are riveted to Gether. They arc colourfully decorated Wilh fell tip pens and for the plays they Are pressed against a cheese cloth like screen through Winch the audience sees them. It s  main characters Are Karagoz and had wat. Sounds deadly does t it a Bountiful bore. But Wail. Why Are All the children sitting there with their eyes glued to the screen is it the television syndrome carrying Over the answer to that is puzzling even to Don Viny an English teacher at Izmir Turkey who puts on the plays. "1 really Don t know Why. Perhaps it s because of the simplicity of creation and the High visual effectiveness. It ends up being like television it s just a Flat image on a Flat screen. It s not like three dimensional puppets. It s very Static and i did i think the kids would go for it but they do. They re inter ested in both watching them and doing them. But Why Viny thinks about it a Little More then adds almost As an afterthought the plays Are colourful and they have plenty of  Viny has done is resurrect the Folk puppet Kara eos plays that even the turks have lost interest in. And he May be the Only Man in Turkey now who takes an Active so that makes him a Man who s either at the end of the last East of a dying Folk Art or in the Lead of it s revival. Re refers to think of himself As the latter but he is Quick to Tell you that any widespread recognition and revival May be As much As a half Century away. Turkey is just not interested now. Viny says the Karagoz plays have a solid position As a turkish Folk Art form going Back More than 400 years but ironically in was t in Turkey that he first became interested Iii them. That came about nearly 10 years ago when he was teaching in Greece. The greeks have a version of the Karag Tyz plays also and naturally there is considerable debate in the two countries Over which had the most to do with their development. One thing is certain. It is Greece with its Strong feeling for its cultural past that is keeping them alive today in thai country. Kvin greek television shows them periodically Viny says. Vine has been doing his part to keep them alive too. He has shown them in the states in Germany and in Turkey he has a whole series of plays translated into English and recorded on tape with sound effects. He uses the recordings so he can concentrate on manipulating the Mam characters in the plays. This he does by inserting a stick into a Slot on Lff Back of the puppet and holding it against the screen. Even soil gels Tricky sometimes "1 have a lot of this business of go wait behind the Trees with the characters thin i go Back and have the fight with the Soldier and the dragon and the dragon gets killed so that s the end of the dragon. Then 1 go Back and get the Guy from behind the Iree. But you know you can Only say. Go wait behind the tree so Many  so far he has mastered live characters of 13 of the 16 each character is a very stereotyped personality he says the main player from whom the plays get their name is Karagoz who is Black eyed and mischievous he is always getting into trouble and one of his arms is hinged so he can go around and punch people he s the contrast with had Jivat. Had Jivat is a phony intellectual who Speaks Wilh a very High blown vocabulary. Although he in t wealthy he pre tends he is. He makes fun of Karagoz and tells him that he is worthless. When Viny taught in Norfolk he worked with an educational television station to put on a series of the Karagoz plays. However he d scarcely gotten started when he joined the overseas dependents schools system he taught at Hahn air base Germany before moving on to Izmir schools. We had a min course Day at the us school last year and i offered turkish puppetry thinking Proba Bly no one would come and cd have the Day Olf. But kids came. It was amazing. They liked it and one kid was really after me. He wanted to learn Bow to do  Viny says that traditionally the puppets were nude out thursday june 30, 1977 of Camel hide but he has been unable to find any in the Best collection of them is in Offenbach Ger Many he says. Somehow during the War world War Iii the germans got All the Good real turkish Leuther Karagoz characters. It s supposed to be the Best collection and the turks Are a Little bit upset about it but Only a Little upset because they Don t realize what it is yet hut in 50 years you can be sure they re going to try to get those Back so while Greece keeps the plays alive. Turkey does t. Nowadays there Are occasional references to them in Turkey Bill apparently never any plays. Viny says he believes in is because the turks Are too caught up in Liat he Calls the television and Formica  he says the puppet figures apparently first appeared in Turkey in the 16lh Century and their popularity lasted into this Century. But in look a nose dive with the arrival of stat Turk. Viny Al tributes this to More Freedom of expression under the turkish Leader. Formerly in Turkey it was the Only Way the people had to express their feelings about leaders and social conditions. And they did it ail through satire in these plays. So they were very popular bul Wordy in plays without a whole lot of action in Ihm these iwo Guys isl came out and they movie around and they made cracks about so and so and the people who watched understood Hal in was the minister of suite Etc. Then when the plays started losing pop Lunty. They were made a Little Bawdy. In the 20lh Century Wilh Ala Tirk they just  there Are several stories on How the Paragili plays got started in Turkey. Typical is the one where two workmen were working on a mosque in Buna Viny says. They were always joking around these two keeping the workmen from doing their jobs. So the Sultan asked around trying to find out Why the work on the mosque was t going faster and the workers told him this Guy Karagoz tells funny stories and he s keeping us from work so the Sultan Cut off the Heads of Karadz and had Jivat but then later Felt sorry about  once a year to show How sorry he was. He had a puppet show put on to commemorate the death of the two  says people still Tell him to hurry and go to a cer Tain Village that there will be a Karadz play there. But so far these have All been false alarms. As far As i know it is just gone in Turkey now he says except of course when he decides to put on one himself. The stars and stripes Page 13