How a Christmas gift started a lifelong love affair and career for Italian puppeteer, now 80
- In 1946, young Augusto Grilli was given a puppet theatre and puppets, and 74 years on, he is still passionate about them
- He has plans to open a museum in Turin, Italy, to show his family’s collection of 20,000-plus puppetry items from around the world
Augusto Grilli’s eyes still light up when he recalls receiving the little theatre and 12 puppets almost 75 years ago, a childhood gift that sparked a career and a lifelong passion.
“It was in 1946, the first Christmas after the war, a moment of celebration, of joy – a very special atmosphere,” recalls the elegantly dressed Italian, now 80. “I woke up and among the gifts from ‘Baby Jesus’ was a big box containing a theatre and puppets. It was love at first sight.”
He turned out to have a talent for marionettes – puppets with strings – and soon became something of a star in his school in Turin, northern Italy.
“I used to put on a show, they made me go to all the classes in primary school because the children had so much fun,” he says. But while he was happy to show off his toys, “no child was allowed to touch them”, Grilli says: “The theatre was always a sacred place.”
The little gold and white theatre is today carefully preserved in one of the countless plastic boxes waiting to be taken to the new International Puppet Museum. A long-time dream of Grilli and his wife Mariarosa, 78, the museum is due to open in 2023 in Turin, financed both privately and publicly with the help of various institutions.