Masterclass · Founding season
Karagöz Shadow Theatre
with Cengiz Özek
Two hours in a working shadow theatre atelier in Istanbul — the story first, then the knife in your hand.
Thu & Fri evenings · Weekends with the show · Up to 10 guests · from €175 per guest + 20% VAT
The experience
A five-hundred-year-old theatre, in the hands that keep it alive.
Karagöz is Istanbul's own shadow theatre: leather figures, a lamp and a stretched screen, and one man behind it playing every part. It was the city's satire, its gossip column and its Saturday night for centuries. Today a handful of masters still make the figures by hand and play them the old way.
Cengiz Özek is one of them. This is not a show you watch from a seat — it is two hours in his atelier, among figures he cut and painted himself. He tells you where Karagöz comes from, and then you go through the stages of making a figure with your own hands: the leather, the knife, the piercing, the colour that has to let light through.
A finished figure takes three days, so the two-hour session sends you home with the craft in your hands rather than a figure under your arm — the three-day course is for that. Groups stay small so that everyone gets a place at the bench. Bring nothing; every knife and pot of paint is already there.
When it runs
The master's programme
Weekday evenings are the atelier alone. Weekends add the performance.
The Workshop
Thursday and Friday, 18:00
About two hours
- Welcome and tea among the figures
- The history of Karagöz, told by the master
- The making of a figure, stage by stage, in your own hands
Show + Workshop
Saturday and Sunday, 16:00
About four hours
- 30 min — welcome and conversation
- 2 h — the atelier: the history, then the making of a figure in your own hands
- 30 min — break
- 30 min — the master's own play, written and performed by him, for your group alone
- 30 min — a talk on the art of Karagöz, and your questions
Founding-season dates
- 2–4 October
- Full programme
- 30–31 October, 1 November
- Full programme
- 2, 3 and 5 November
- Show + Workshop, from 17:00
- 19–22 November
- Full programme
- 26–29 November
- Full programme
- December
- Weekdays the atelier, weekends the show; weekday shows on request
The master performs and travels — 11–15 November he is abroad, and September is fully booked. Three Days, Your Own Figure runs three hours a day on three days, scheduled with you after booking.
The bench
Leather, knives and light
Practical
What's included, what to bring
Included
- Two hours in the atelier with Cengiz Özek — the story, then the making
- Leather, tools and paint for the making — nothing to bring
- Turkish tea, and time to look at everything
- A DAS host with you the whole way, in English
- Small group only — never more than ten guests
Bring with you
- Nothing you need — everything is in the atelier
- A camera; the figures against the light are worth it
- Children are welcome with an adult
- Your questions — there is time set aside for them
The master
Cengiz Özek
Karagöz master, figure-maker and the founder of the International Istanbul Puppet Festival. He has played the shadow screen for more than three decades, carried Karagöz to stages across Europe and Asia, and cut new characters into leather for a theatre that was supposed to be finished. The play performed on weekends is his own — written by him, played by him, and awarded abroad.
His atelier is where the figures are made, repaired and kept. For this masterclass it is also where you sit — at his bench, not in an audience.
- Karagöz master · figure-maker
- Founder, International Istanbul Puppet Festival
- Turkish · a DAS host carries the session in English
In motion
The screen, from both sides
Filmed in the atelier on the day of the photographs. The bench you see is the one you sit at.
Good to know
Questions people ask
Reserve
Three ways into the atelier
Founding-season prices, small groups only. Pick the option, and we set the date with the master's calendar.
Two hours in the workshop: the history of Karagöz, then the stages of making a figure in your own hands.
Up to ten guests.
You keep · The craft in your hands — a figure takes three days, so it stays with the master.
Thursday and Friday at 18:00, about two hours.
Book →The workshop session, a break, then the master's own play performed for your group alone, and a talk on the art.
Minimum four guests, up to ten.
You keep · A play written and performed by the master, for your group alone.
Saturday and Sunday at 16:00, about four hours.
Book →Three sessions of three hours on three days. You cut, work and paint a figure of your own, and see it on the screen at the end.
One to four guests. Dates by arrangement after booking.
You keep · The figure you made, to take home.
Three days, three hours each — dates set with the master after booking.
Book →Private groups, companies and larger parties — email for a quote.
Secure card payment · iyzico · Charged in TRY at today's rate
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