Budrugana Gagra - Shadow Theatre • ბუდრუგანა გაგრა - ჩრდილების თეატრი

The first premiere of the Budrugana’s performance took place in 1991, during the international festival Les Semaines De La Marionette a Paris in France. In 1993 theatre was invited to USA in order to take part in the international festival Puppetry`93. In 1995 theatre went on tour to Germany and played at 3rd International Shadow Theatre Festival in Schwabisch Gmund. In 1998 the theatre went to

Japan and performed at the 20th International festival The Puppetry Carnival Lida. 1998 Budrugana played at the Georgian National Festival of Arts Gift. In 2002 the name of the theatre was changed to Budrugana-Gagra. Gagra is a city in a breakaway region of Abkhazia. The reason for that is because the staff of the theatre was completed mainly of refugees from Abkhazia. Members of Budrugana-Gagra founded non-governmental educational association Kvali XXI, including film studio Kvali XXI and shadow theatre Budrugana-Gagra. In 2004 the theatre took part in the international festival Borjomi Second International Art Festival in Georgia. In the same year Budrugana-Gagra played 9 performances in Berlin, Dresden and Munich. In 2007 Budrugana-Gagra together with Georgian and German musicians took part in the festival of contemporary music Tbilisi-2007 Evenings of Contemporary Music with multimedia performance Helicopter and Budrugana. In the same year Budrugana-Gagra took part in the International Cultural Market Kavkasia 2007 with performance of Budrugana-Gagra and show of films created in studio Kvali XXI. In 2008 the theatre took part in the international festival Kukla Gunleri in Turkey, International Tbilisi Easter Art Festival and created a multimedia program Magic Box for the festival of contemporary music Tbilisi-2008 Evenings of Contemporary Music, that was dedicated to Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 2009 the theatre had tourney in Lithuania (Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipeda, Palanga). Also took part in international festival ArtPole in Ukraine and created multimedia program Musikalische Opfer for the festival of contemporary music Tbilisi-2009 Evenings of Contemporary Music. In the same year the theatre participated in Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre with performance The Four Seasons of Year. From 2010 Budrugana-Gagra theatre is being performing on Tbilisi Shota Rustaveli State Theatre’s stage. In 2010 Budrugana-Gagra was granted official status of the state theatre. In September 2010 the theatre took part in the Tbilisi International Festival of Theatre with performance Isn’t This a Lovely Day. It also participated in the festival of contemporary music Tbilisi-2010 Evenings of Contemporary Music with multimedia programs Ebony Concerto and Shadow Theatre and Jazz. During last 15 years the theatre played more than 300 performances. Most of the performances were charitable, since the audience were mostly children of refugees and habitants of children homes.