The National Puppet Troupe was established in 1979 following a six-month exchange programme the previous year in which a group of Lao arts practitioners went to study with the Central Puppet Theatre in Sofia, Bulgaria. While they were there they created puppets and also developed stories based on original Lao material. On their return additional puppets were constructed and the new National Puppet Troupe was given a small budget for performing at festivals and special occasions, both in Vientiane and in other centres around the country. In 1985 the military-owned Phattanakhet Phudoi (Rural Development) Company gave them funds to travel around the provinces educating the population on key issues, and since that time they have focused mainly on the production of ‘social theatre’ for agencies such as UNICEF and Population Service International (PSI), using puppets to educate rural children on issues such as the importance of clean water, malaria and HIV prevention and the dangers of unexploded ordnance. Over the years the company has enjoyed particularly strong support from UNICEF, which supplied the company with its truck and sound system. In 1990 a foreign expert working with UNICEF funded the creation of a set of duplicates of the Ipok puppets of Luang Prabang with a view to enabling the National Puppet Troupe to stage the Ipok stories themselves. Their repertoire has been further expanded in recent years through the creation of hun kabong puppets - a new style of hand/rod puppet manufactured from recycled materials - with support from French experts. Today the National Puppet Troupe performs four main styles: (i) Bulgarian-style hand/rod puppetry - using both Bulgarian-style and Lao-style puppets to present mainly 10-minute ‘social theatre’ playlets on development issues aimed to amuse, entertain and educate; (ii) Ipok puppetry - using copies of the Luang Prabang-style large hand/rod puppets to present the Lao traditional stories Karaket, Sithong and Manora and Linthong (although in practice the one-and-a-half hour stories are rarely performed and when they are it is usually in a shortened and simplified version in order to make them easier to understand); (iii) Hun kabong puppetry – using a new style of hand/rod puppet made from recycled materials with French assistance and support (see below); and (iv) humans in costume. The troupe receives many requests to tour outside Vientiane, but is unable to tour anywhere unless an NGO or government agency pays for the tour. The company operates out of a tiny and rather run-down office/rehearsal space immediately behind the Lao Plaza Hotel in central Vientiane which can double as a performance space for small audiences, but it has no theatre of its own and is very keen to identify overseas aid to build one. It is also in need of a second vehicle since the existing one is heavily overloaded when the entire company travels with their equipment. The National Puppet Troupe is not currently a member of UNIMA since it has no funds for the membership fee.