Q. Technology rules everything in art as well as in life these days. How does it feel having a job that uses traditional ways of expression and basic means?

A. I believe that art coming from your hands and artist-technician still play a fundamental role; they are so important so I don't see any confrontation with technology. I personally use technology when it serves me, but the way I express myself and create is related more to simplicity and raw materials.

Q. Can you imagine a future hi-tech puppet theatre?

A. It is very likely if puppet theatre manages to safeguard its main character, which is communicating with people through objects. I'll give you an example: in a puppet theater performance, a puppet waves a neckerchief on a boy's face to make him smile. And he does smile at the end. If this can happen by any means, then the character remains intact.

Q. Jim Henson's famous TV puppets, the muppets, from Sesame Street and The Muppet Show had had a tremendous acceptance by the public. What do you think of puppet theatre on TV?

A. We suffer two blows that came from the muppets: first it is the belief that puppet theatre is for kids only and secondly that its mission is basically educational. It is hard to overturn this belief and tell people that puppet theatre is for adults too or it can touch social issues. There's no doubt that what Jim Henson did was to adapt the puppets for TV and this has its own value.

Q. What is your best moment when you perform?

A. The audience's captivated look. Beyond that, there's no puppeteer who's not attached to the object and this object is his very soul.

Q. And your worst moment?

A. I'll just tell you that there's no worse moment than when packing everything to put back in the car. Bur there's something even worse than that: When you arrive somewhere and then you realize that for some reason you cannot perform. Then you go back home feeling empty.

Q. Can you make a living out of this?

A. Yes you can but it is clear that you do not become a puppeteer to make money if you are not passionate about it.

Q. What does it take to be a good puppeteer?

A. To play much, play with everything, then learn music, theatre, expressive art forms. We combine all these in our craft.

Q. You founded the House of the Puppet in Abizanda, Spain...

A. Abizanda is a little village in the Spanish Pyrenean region. We have restored two very old houses there and turned one into a small theatre and the other into a puppets museum. They are in a beautiful valley on the mountain. Every summer evening these last years. people were coming to watch the shows and then they were leaving and we were staying back home saying goodbye. It is so nice when this happens to us, even if it is for a short period each year!

Q. What makes your Titiriteros de Binéfar so special?

A. I believe there are three things that make us different from the others: we combine music with puppets, we treat puppets as humans living the story they tell, and last but not least, we use different techniques, without being specialized in any of them, because we believe that every story demands a different technique.

Q. In your play “Stork Man”, you tell a story about the very special link between the puppet and the puppeteer...

A. In Stork Man there are two wanderers who tell the story with the use of very simple objects. They tell the story of a little lake where a stark is fishing for food. It is a story that somehow has captivated the two men. In this show, we use members of our own bodies to recreate the puppets, as we try to explain that they are indeed a part of ourselves. It is an exciting play because beyond that really special relationship, it gives a reflection of what we live through in our daily lives...

Q. Can you introduce new things while you perform?

A. Always. This is something that makes puppet theatre different than cinema or television: our relation with the audience, improvisation. Every show must be unique because we are human beings performing for other human beings as if we are part of a ritual that we call puppet theatre.

Q. What makes puppeteering so important?

A. When art, literature or theatre, are in crisis, just watch the puppets. This is what Lorca, Buñuel, Valle Inclán did. They symbolize above all theatre in its purest form.