Cengiz Özek (born June 4, 1964) is a Turkish traditional shadow theatre manipulator of Karagöz. He established

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

's first annual international puppet festival, Istanbul International Puppet Festival, in 1998, and has organized it every May since then. Özek started performing with a shadow theatre in 1977 at the age of 13. He produced then ''Magic Tree'', a shadow theatre play based on Turkish tradition. In 1998, he produced ''The Garbage Monster'', which, whereas uses the traditional characters of Karagöz and Hacivat, introduces the Garbage Monster and addresses the problems of ecology.

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozek, Cengiz 1964 births Living people Turkish theatre directors Turkish puppeteers