Uruguayan puppet company founded in 1976 in Montevideo. The troupe was created under the name of Don Sol before later taking the name Títeres Gira-Sol (also Girasol, Sunflower Puppets). Raquel Ditchekenian (b.1956) and Gustavo “Tato” Martinez (b.1958) began with street theatre, influenced by Augosto Boal’s Teatro del Oprimodo (The Theatre of the Oppressed, 1974). Their street performances, in collaboration with artists from different social backgrounds, evolved into shows such as Barrio Sur o Medio Mundo (South Neighbourhood or Half the World/Middle World, 1980), created by the actor-puppeteer Gustavo “Tato” Martínez, the text of which was later published in 1982. These works typify Títeres Gira-Sol’s style of theatre, which are often collaborations with Uruguayan musicians, such as Coriun Aharonian, Conrado Silva, with the Tambores de Cuareim (Cuareim Drums), a candombe orchestra conducted by Hugo Fattoruso.

Títeres Gira-Sol created a number of shows between 1983 and 1990, among them Circo de sueños (Circus of Dreams), with a musical arrangement composed by Ney Peraza and Manuel Espasandín, with glove puppets and other techniques.

As actor-puppeteers, they have participated in the production of the play by Ramón del Valle-Inclán, Los cuernos de Don Friolera (The Horns of Don Friolera, 1986). El Carozo (The Core, 1993) is a portrait of the Americas and its conquest, while Extrañas compañías (Strange Companies, 1992) of Rubén Olivera and Mauricio Ubal with musicians and puppeteers, was an innovative addition to the Uruguayan stage.

In 1992, they created the art production cooperative Misericordia Campana (from the name of a historically famous puppet character in Uruguayan puppet theatre created by Ambrosio Camarinhas around 1840), which presents a variety of shows performed in different spaces (residential areas, theatres, cooperatives), using puppeteers, jugglers, painters and actors.

Since 2001, Gustavo Martínez and Raquel Ditchekenian have run the Museo Vivo del Títere de Maldonado (Living Museum of Puppetry) located in the Paseo San Fernando in the city of Maldonado, created under the initiative of Irma Abirad.

(See Uruguay.)