German puppet training centre. Located in Bochum (Germany), Figurentheater-Kolleg Bochum was founded in 1970 by Fritz Wortelmann (see Deutsches Institut für Puppenspiel (DIP)). Since 1977, the college has been a State approved organization of continuing education.

Its training programme, which includes construction of puppets, puppet manipulation, playwriting/dramaturgy, and directing, is aimed at those who wish to become puppeteers and also with specific topics for professional puppeteers who want to further their training. A certificate is awarded after attending fifty classes and successfully passing a final exam. In addition, workshops and projects aimed at professionals seeking continued training in the field of the performing and visual arts (drama, dance, painting and the plastic arts) are offered. Courses are taught either as weeklong seminars, or on weekends, or on a repeated cycle throughout the year.

The Figurentheater-Kolleg Bochum has about two hundred and fifty students from Germany and abroad participating in its programmes every year.

(See Germany.)