Camera di Commercio di Catania

Our theater was founded in 1887 by Mariano Pennisi, the last descendant of a nomadic puppeteer family. Although Mariano was not literate, he recite "Furious Roland" and "Freed Jerusalem".

Under Pennisi"s skilled hands, the great theater welcomed hundreds of excited spectators every night. Because of Pennisi, the theater grew in popularity and they expanded their number of Sicilian puppets from around thirty puppets to about one hundred. Pennisi then gave the theater to his successor, Emanuele Macri. In reference to Emanuele came to be involved in the Sicilian puppet theater, in 1908, as soon as he knew about the disaster in Messina, Pennisi left with a team of workers and helped for two days and two nights under the beating rain, to exhume the bodies of the Macri family.

Amazingly under the rubble of the earthquake and protected by the deceased bodies of his parents, a small thirteen month old baby who would grow up to be Emanuele. After the excavation of this small baby from the rubble, Pennisi buried the deceased members of the Macri family and decided to raise Emanuele as if he were his own child. Pennisi however, did not want Emanuele to follow his career path as a professional puppeteer. Pennisi wanted Emanuele to go to school and receive an education - nonetheless, it seemed as though little Emanuele was fascinated by the theater.

Emanuele believed that the theater was his destiny, he felt at home in the Sicilian puppet theater. Emanuele was only sixteen years old when he began his career as a puppeteer. In 1936, Pennisi died and he made a plea to Emanuele, "Swear to me that my Sicilian puppets will not die with me".

Emanuele then decided to begin putting on the History of the Paladins of France of Giusto Lo Dico (Episode 36 of the first volume, where Mambrino steals Reynold´s fiancée). The puppet show was a great success. The children of the town simply adored this play and thus Emanuele as well, this adoration was enough to convince Emanuele Macri that the art of the Sicilian puppet shows was worth the costs.

The ancient theater Macrì of Acireale sell a small part of unusable ancient material for the shows to private collectors as well as museums. We sell armed and unarmed puppets, scenes, puppet heads, and placards made of paper painted with temper.

The condition of the material is not ´mint´ condition as the material has been handled and moved for decades, but today arouse a great emotion for their historical value.

This handmade craft is an artistic expression of a Sicily tradition but unfortunately slowly disappearing. If you are interested in purchasing from this website or you have any question, please send us an e-mail so that we can give you more information about prices according to the quantity of the purchase.