Ouroboros is set to tour Europe. Also in Handspring news: War Horse Opening Night in Sydney, Basil & Adrian at theReinventing Democracy conference in Delhi, A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Bristol, Max Frisch’s I’m Not Stiller in Munich, Woyzeck in Czech Rep. and Germany this Summer, A New Professiorship for Jane Taylor in Leeds and the End of an Era at the factory.

Ouroboros to Tour Europe 2 Month tour as part of the France-South Africa season 21 September : Brugges 24 – 25 September : Charleville October is currently open 5 – 9 November : Toulouse 19-21 November : Combs La Ville 24 November : Fontenay 26-27 November : Mulhouse 29 November – 1 December : Strasbourg Ouroboros is set to tour Europe from September to December this year. The show will open it’s French season at the World Festival of Puppet Theatre in Charleville-Mézières. The tour is made possible by theInstitut Francais de l’Afrique du Sud and the National Arts Council of South Africa.Having premiered at the 2010 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, Ouroboros went on to run at the Baxter Theatre in 2011 and Out The Box Festival in Cape Town. It won the 2012 Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for Best Puppetry Design and was nominated for best sound and lighting design. Ouroboros will be touring to Charleville-Mezieres, Brugges, Toulouse, Combs La Ville, Fontenay sous Bois, Mulhouse and Strasbourg amongst other venues. There are still a few dates available in the tour. Interested producers should contact Handspring’s European agent Quaternaire: (sarah@quaternaire.org) * * * *The Cape Argus * * * * Die Burger   ‘A beautiful story of love won and lost over a lifetime. . . told in a most unusual and refreshing way which makes it linger in the mind long after the curtain has fallen. Definitely worth an evening out!’ – Cape Town Tourism‘…a world which is fantastical and yet manages to hold up a mirror to human vulnerability and mortality. A primal piece of story-telling that defies description.’ – The Cape Critics ‘Ouroboros thrilled and delighted us all; this is the best show I have seen in years.’ – Thelma Mort, Cape Town Kids ‘Sometimes even the seasoned theatre-goers get to be surprised, elated and dazzled by the performance less expected. I encountered such brilliance at Ouroboros.’ – The Daily Maverick For those of you who have not seen the show, get a taste of it here. Sydney Welcomes War Horse Gala opening of War Horse to the Lyric Theatre 21 March – 30 June 2013 War Horse has now moved from Melbourne to Sydney till 30 June. Here’s a YouTube video of the way it was received there.“The designers and puppet masters have triumphed. The puppeteers are both technically brilliant and work together so well that Joey and the other animated creatures – including a scene-stealing goose – come alive.” - Veronica Hannon, Gay News Network Reinventing Democracy Basil Jones on the India Today Thought Leadership Conclave in New Delhi 15-16 March 2013 “The Thought Leadership Conclave is a forum for some of India’s most creative minds to talk out loud – loosely on the subject of democracy – but covering many other subjects too: corruption, agriculture, the internet, and Bollywood, all came in and out of focus.Adrian and I were delighted to be invited to speak as part of the two-day event. The trip also afforded us the opportunity of visiting India for the first time. Indeed it proved to be a highly stimulating encounter, with many new ideas being put forward and debated. Many people were highly impressed by Malcolm Gladwell’s take on the pros and cons of the youth’s embrace of the social media as a political tool. His analysis of what happened during Egypt’s recent political turmoil was highly insightful. He said governments, parties and corporations must partner with new-age networks and not see them as adversaries. He noted how traditional institutions are hierarchical and how networks aren’t. Gladwell is a staff writer for The New Yorker. Also impressive was Narendra Modi’s presentation right at the end of the conference. He is currently the Chief Minister of Gujarat but is tipped as a very likely candidate for the Prime Ministership. His arrival in the room was massively anticipated and his pitch to the gathered politicians and businesspeople of India was intense and well-supported by a blockbuster video on his successes in Gujarat. Our piece, centering on War Horse and its development, was something of an anomaly in all this. The thing that touched and stimulated people most however, was the openness and duration of our relationship and marriage. After the Q&A session, many people approached us and thanked us for talking about being gay. We got the strong impression that India is now ready for more openness and debate on this subject.” Basil Jones A Midsummer Night’s Dream A Spectacular Opening Night in Bristol Bristol Old Vic till 4th May Spoleto Festival in Charleston SC, USA 2013 | 23 May – 9 June International Festival of Arts & Ideas New Haven, CN | 16 – 23 June “In the months running up to Christmas last year, the company worked incredibly hard to finish the puppets for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Indeed some members of the “Dream Team” came back to the factory during their holidays to continue their round-the-clock work. At times it seemed like people were hypnotised by fatigue and only the puppets were alive. Once we arrived in Bristol, Adrian continued to work 24/7. Andy Jones came over to assist him for two weeks, Joe Wallace, the Bristol based puppeteer and animator, was constantly at his side and Simon Dunckley also came over for a few days for the opening. And of course the puppets turned out to be truly beautiful, varied, and amazed our audiences. Dream is a wonderfully visual, exuberant, youthful & sexy interpretation of the Shakespeare text, which audiences have embraced with cheers & whistles. A cast of 12 with intriguing doubling and a simultaneous ensemble role for everyone has revealed the play in a new and refreshing light, with some of the most side-splitting comedy we’ve seen in ages.” Basil JonesWatch the BBC Television Interview. “Funny, filthy and consistently watchable” – The Financial Times“Magical and mysterious” The Guardian “Eerily beautiful… irresistibly funny” The Times“One riotous surge of profane comic energy” The Independent“Anything can come to life; anything can be transformed” The Observer“Magnificent… extraordinary… astonishing” The Telegraph Max Frisch’s I’m Not Stiller A new production by the Residenztheater, the Young Vic Theatre and Handspring Puppet Company opening 8th June I’m Not Stiller is a new collaboration between the Residenztheater in Munich, the Young Vic Theatre in London and Handspring Puppet Company.The play is based on Frisch’s novel ‘Stiller’ and will be directed by Tina Lanik of the Residenztheater with puppetry direction by Mervyn Millar. The set is being designed by Stefan Hageneier and the puppet design and manufacture will be done in London by Ed Dimbleby and his assistants.“Frisch’s questions revolve around identity and second chances. Even if the prisoner had previously been silent – he is not anymore. He has reinvented himself and his character is different from that of the missing person. The project includes themes of identity, responsibility, courage and tenderness. The puppets allow us to explore the Stiller character in a sea of possibilities.” Mervyn Millar – Handspring Puppet Company Synopsis. Upon entry into Switzerland, the U.S. citizen James L. White, is arrested. The authorities insist that he is Stiller, a man long sought by the police for several offences. “I’m not Stiller!” he declares. But, he is jailed as the sculptor Anatol Ludwig Stiller, a man with a dark past, and who has been considered lost. Only his guard, Knobel, believes White’s outlandish stories of America. At stake is the identity of the individual. ‘Am I the same person I was ten years ago? And can I (should I) be held responsible for the acts that the ‘other’ person committed back then?’ Max Frisch’s first novel from 1954 is a magnificent monument to the crisis of the Individual in the 20th Century.Basil & Adrian will be attending rehearsals during May and will be in Munich for the opening on 8th June. Woyzeck in Europe this Summer Tour to The Czech Republic and Germany 13-28 June Dates still available! Woyzeck on the Highveld will play at Theatre World Brno from 13-14th June, at The International Büchner Festival in Gießen on the 24th June,Frankfurt Oper on the 26th June and the Wiesbaden Staatstheater the 28th of June. There are still a few dates available in the tour after Brno. Interested producers should contact Handspring’s European agents Quaternaire: www.quaternaire.orgOriginally created in 1992 and directed and designed by renowned artist and filmmaker William Kentridge, the current revival is directed by Handspring Associate Director, Janni Younge. The production, an adaptation of German writer Georg Büchner’s famous play of jealousy, murder and the struggle of an individual against an uncaring society which eventually destroys him, was the first collaboration between Handspring and Kentridge Woyzeck on the Highveld combines Handspring’s rod-manipulated puppets and Kentridge’s animated film, graphically illustrating Woyzeck’s tortured mind as he tries to make sense of his external circumstances. Büchner’s Woyzeck was a German soldier in the 1800s but, in this version, Woyzeck is a migrant worker in 1956 Johannesburg – a landscape of barren industrialisation.‘You believe in this fragile, buffeted creature as surely as if he were the object of some human Academy Award-winning performance on some big suburban screen’ – Chicago Tribune‘The creators of War Horse are back – and they remain the best puppet company in the business’ – The Independent, UK ‘One of the most evocative experiences I have had in the theatre’ – The Sunday Times Leeds Chair for Jane Taylor Handspring dramaturg has been given the Wole Soyinka Chair in Drama and Theatre Studies September 2013 We are proud to announce that Prof. Jane Taylor has been appointed the Wole Soyinka Chair in Drama and Theatre Studies in the English department at Leeds University. She’ll be taking up her post from September this year. Jane intends to develop a relationship between Leeds University and Handspring, as one of the criteria for research in the United Kingdom is the category called ‘Impact’ in which the universities are encouraged to imagine their citizenship in relation to the broader community.Taylor will be teaching undergrad and postgrad students. The MA Theatre Studies course was established in 1968 and was the first postgraduate programme of its kind in the UK. Leeds has traditionally approached the study of drama and theatre from a practical and multi-cultural context. The school is also home to the Workshop Theatre, founded by Martin Banham, one of the heroes of Nigeria’s liberal arts. Jane has a long association with Handspring – she wrote the Handspring production Ubu & the Truth Commission and the the libretto for Confessions of Zeno. She edited the book, Handspring Puppet Company, and is a trustee of the Handspring Trust.Last week Taylor presented a paper “Inner Cities” at the Cities of Memory Colloquium in Belfast. The Colloquium focuses on the performing and media arts in post-conflict cities. It was organised by Prof. Mark Phelan of the Drama dept at Queens University in Belfast. Taylor spoke about public and personal archives. End of an Era Handspring to ship the 8th and final set of War Horses October 2013 The War Horse production changed the face of the workshop in so many wonderful ways and now that this chapter is coming to a close in our lives, we are making room and preparing to take on new challenges and projects. It is a very exciting time for the company. Puppet makers look back on the journey of this build over the last 8 years.“The War Horse journey has been a rather unexpected adventure for all of us. The depth and breadth of skills development, personal and collaborative achievement that has come out this project is hard to quantify and very deeply appreciated. Further than that, the sense of pride that I have come to feel for the work we have done together, challenges we have overcome and the beautiful puppets we have made is, I believe, the ultimate gratification any manager could ask for. I am extremely proud of every person I have had the privilege of working with on this outstanding piece of theatre. I extend my sincerest gratitude to all our makers, administrators and directors for making the War Horse project a truly valuable experience for me. I wait with anticipation to see what we will achieve next.” Jessica Mias-Jones, Assistant Factory Manager “It is with great pride that I will look back on the War Horse era. The level of dedication and skill shown by everyone involved has been exceptional, with spectacular results. My deepest gratitude to you all for making this possible.” James Dee, Factory Manager“As a theatre production War Horse became a phenomenon that shifted boundaries, set benchmarks and rewrote textbooks on puppetry. The development and building of the puppets presented huge challenges to the creativity, ingenuity, tenacity, dedication and effective communication skills of everyone involved – even more so as the project escalated. By digging deep into ourselves and rising to every occasion the boundaries of the possible in our minds got shifted and we are left so much the better for it. Perhaps this is the real lasting legacy of War Horse. Now that the wheel has turned full circle – well, been there, did it, got the t-shirt(s). Does the next challenge have a name??” Thys Stander, Chief Cane Sculptor “War Horse required us to make bigger than life-size puppets which would be fail-safe in countries and situations far, far from Cape Town and over a period of many years. This meant that we had to up our technological game exponentially. We had to meet the demands of rapidly shortening deadlines. Each puppet’s construction had to be mapped and surveyed so that its production process could be passed on to new builders. Some parts were specially engineered by local firms, other parts were digitised and sent out for CNC cutting, hugely reducing the time it took to produce them. We all became so much better at our jobs, devising innovative ways to streamline production, generating a startling amount of specialised jigs. We are indeed fortunate to have had leadership within our team of artists who have been capable of realistic planning and setting of goals which have enabled each and every set to be delivered on time and with such consistent quality. In London, New York, Toronto, Berlin and Sydney, people in the industry have been aghast when they’ve seen our puppets unwrapped, ready to be put through their paces in their cities. Despite the demands of War Horse we toured Il Ritorno d’Ulisse (2009) and Woyzeck on the Hightveld (2008 – 2013) and were able to produce Or you Can Kiss Me (2010), Ouroboros (2011), I love You When You’re Breathing (2012), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2013) as well as the two Barrydale Festivals. There were also puppetry exhibitions at the KKNK Festival and in London. With War Horse manufacturing now rounding off, the emphasis of the company’s work will move more towards performance and the production of new shows as well as the revival of old favourites, like Ubu & the Truth Commission. We are planning enthusiastically for this next chapter in our company’s history.” Basil & AdrianThe War Horse productions to date: #1 London, #2 New York, #3 Toronto, #4 US Tour, #5 Australia & New Zealand, #6 Berlin, #7 UK Tour, #8 London Replacement. The following people have been specifically involved in the War Horse build: Thys Stander (Chief Cane Sculptor) 2007 – present, Phyllis Midlane (Fabric Engineer) 2007 to present, James Dee (Factory Manager) 2009 – present, Luyanda Nogodlwana(Assistant Cane Sculptor and Supervisor) 2009 – present, Jessica Mias-Jones(Assistant Factory Manager and Puppet Maker) 2009 – present, Simon Dunckley(Puppet Engineer) 2009 – present, Kyle Daniels (Puppet Builder) 2010 – present, Ncedile Daki (Puppet Builder, Assistant Engineer) 2010 – present, Andy Mias-Jones (Puppet Engineer and Supervisor) 2010 – present, Phillip Roberts (Studio Assistant) 2010 – 2013, Peter Collard (Puppet Maker) 2010 – present, Lyn Holm (Assistant Puppet Builder) 2011 – present, Jonah De Lange (Puppet Builder) 2011 – present, Zweliyashakuma Ngcombela (Assistant Cane Sculptor) 2011 – present, Panicho Makondora (Studio Assistant) 2012 – present, Lungiswa Mkwasi(Studio Assistant) 2012 – 2013, Zanmari Nel (Studio Assistant and Fabric Engineer) 2012 – present. Handspring Puppet Company Postal Address: PO Box 39332 Capricorn Square, South Africa 7948Physical Address: 21 Boulevard Way Capricorn Cape Town 7945 t: +27 (0)21 709 0269 f:+27 (0)86 579-8678 Facebook Twitter Website LinkedIn Google Plus

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream opens at the Bristol Old Vic. Also in Handspring’s news:The India Today Conclave, Stiller, Handspring Trust, Honorary Doctorates andWarHorse updates. View our Website Newspage or View this email in your browser

A Midsummer Night’s Dream  The Bristol Old Vic in association with Handspring Puppet Company.   7 March 2013 Having last worked together on the internationally acclaimed War Horse Tom Morris, artistic director of the Bristol Old Vic, and Handspring, will present A Midsummer Night’s Dream on the 7th March 2013. Shakespeare’s inexhaustible A Midsummer Night’s Dream interweaves the lives of lovers, actors, friends, foes and fairies. This is a …Dream about love, transformation, survival and song, where a belief in the mystical presence of fairies isn’t mere superstition, but a magic lore encoded in the routines of a community living on the edge. Trees, objects and tools all pulse and tingle with the possibility of existence in a world where, thanks to the magic of puppetry, all objects are granted the right to life.

“In October 1995, I fell in love with a hyena. It was in the middle of a show called Faustus in Africa, it looked as if it was alive. I’ve followed and occasionally been lucky enough to work with Handspring ever since. They are the greatest puppet company in the world and it is a huge thrill to be able to invite them to collaborate with us on this experimental version of Shakespeare’s sexiest and most magical comedy.” Tom Morris Listen to a BBC Radio Interview with the Creative Team

Thought Leadership Conclave 15 & 16 March Basil & Adrian have been invited to present a Key Note Address about their work at the 12th annual India Today Thought Leadership Conclave, in New Delhi, on the 16th March this year. Other speakers include: Actress – Anushka Sharma, Author – Amish Tripathi, CEO of Pearson Education – Meena Ganesh, Co-founder of Games2win – Alok Kejirwal, Co-founder of Flipkart – Binny Bansal, Journalist at The New Yorker – Malcolm Gladwell, Chief Minister of Gujara State – Narendra Modi, CEO of India Today Group – Aroon Purie, Chief Economic Adviser to the Gov. of India – Raghuram Rajan, Professor of Economics (Massachusetts) – Abhijit Banerjee, Chairman of Adani Group – Karan Adani, Singer & Composer – Bombay Jayashr, Communications & IT Minister – Akhil Sibal, CEO of Teleno – Jon Fredrik Baksaas, Co-chairman Infosys Technologies – Kris Gopalakrishnan, Politician – Dharmendra Yadav, Politician – Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Minister of Information & Broadcasting – Manish Tewari, Minister of Home Affairs – RPN Singh, Actress, Producer & Politician – Smriti Irani. Stiller  Residenztheater in association with Handpsring UK 7 June 2013 Stiller opens at the Residenz Theater (Bayerische Staatschauspiel), Munich, Germany on the 7th June in the Cuvilliés Theater. A new adaptation of the novel by Max Frisch made with Handspring will be directed by Tina Lanik and Mervyn Millar. Actors and puppeteers from the Residenz ensemble will perform with puppets designed by Ed Dimbleby. The puppets are being made in London in advance of rehearsals, which start in April. Handspring Trust Barrydale Parrade 2013  - Photos by Eva Häberle  The Barrydale Parade 2013 marks Handspring’s third collaboration with Net Vit Pret and the Magpie Art Collective. The facilitators Pedro Espi, Lisa Jacobson and Jill Joubert were partnered by the staffers at Handspring once again, who decamped for a week to make puppets in the old bioscope in Barrydale. This year, our work was strengthened by Fullbright scholar Karen Zasloff, Marina McClure CalArts MFA(directing) graduate and Aja Marneweck UCT PhD(puppetry). This year we instituted Bread and Puppet’s famous tradition of baking bread in makeshift ovens. Free bread made with donations of flour from the Barrydale Karroo Hotel and the OK Market were distributed amongst the community, with preserves and toppings by The Jam Tarts Cafe on the R62. One distinctive feature of this year’s event (buoyed by the enormous generosity of individuals from Barrydale and Smitsville, as well as support from the Blumberg Trust in Toronto), was that the direction of the march changed. Indeed there were two marches, each led by a giant puppet. A peacock led a marching band through Smitsville (the coloured community established after apartheid legislation designated Barrydale a white village), gathering children as it passed. An ostrich puppet marched through Barrydale itself. Both groups met in Smitsville at the primary school where the festivities took place. The police gallantly provided light from their police vehicles to illuminate the performance. The last few months in the area have been marked by wage strikes and a great deal of animosity between workers and management. The Barrydale parade reminds us of other possibilities that come out of group effort and cooperation. Parents see their children being challenged as performers, watched, acknowledged and cheered by the general public, with everyone mucking in to make the event a success. Honorary Doctorates  Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler awarded an honorary doctorate in Literature.  The University of Cape Town has honoured Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones for their outstanding contribution to contemporary theatre through the medium of puppetry. Both graduated from the Michaelis School of Fine Art at UCT in 1974. In 1981 they established the Handspring Puppet Company (initially with two other Michaelis graduates). It has since become one of the best known and respected puppet companies in the world, with a wide international reputation. The special genius of Jones and Kohler’s work has been to bring their imagination as artists and sculptors to bear in theatrical and performative traditions. Their collaboration with artists such as William Kentridge and, more recently, the Royal National Theatre’s WarHorse project has brought their work to international attention. The accolades they have received reflect the astonishment with which audiences have encountered the powerful assimilation of animated puppet-character, sculpture, puppet mastery, and performance.   Watch the video WarHorse To Open In Sydney War Horse to Open at the Sydney Lyric Theatre Previews: 16 – 20 March Opening Performance: 21 March Season: 22 March – 30 June Following sell-out seasons across London, New York and Toronto, the multiple award-winning stage production of War Horse will gallop into the Sydney Lyric Theatre from March 22. Nick Stafford’s adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s book War Horse tells the story of Joey, the beloved horse of a boy called Albert, who is sold to the cavalry at the outbreak of World War I and shipped to France. Joey is soon caught in enemy fire, serving on both sides before ending up alone until Albert goes on a treacherous mission to find him. At the heart of The National Theatre of Great Britain’s production of War Horse are the puppets, which are strong enough for men to ride and come to life on stage. Handspring is thrilled that this multiple Tony and Olivier Award-winning show is soon to open in Sydney. War Horse held its Australian premiere in Melbourne on New Year’s Eve at Melbourne’s State Theatre. After the Melbourne season War Horse will travel to Sydney for the season at the Lyric Theatre from Saturday 16 March and to Brisbane for a season at theBrisbane Lyric Theatre from Saturday 6 July. Handspring Puppet Makers see WarHorse  In 2012, the puppet makers from Handspring all visited London. This was the first time for many of our artists and craftsman to leave South Africa. It was also the very first time our puppet makers saw the show. Watch the video Handspring wins Special Award from the LA Drama Critics Circle  The Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) has announced its nominations and special awards for excellence in Los Angeles and Orange County theatre for 2012. The 44th annual LADCC Awards ceremony will take place on Monday, March 18 at the historic Los Angeles Theatre Center. A special award will be presented to Adrian Kohler with Basil Jones for Handspring Puppet Company, in recognition of the design, fabrication, and direction of the puppets of War Horse. The touring version of WarHorse opened at the Ahmanson Theatre. Upcoming US Cities for WarHorse  The North American touring version of WarHorse was rehearsed in New York under the direction of Bijan Sheibani, assistant director Sarna Lapine with puppetry direction by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler. The production opened at the Los Angeles Theatre Centre in June 2012 and has performed in 19 cities across the states. Spokane, WA – INB Performing Arts Center 03/05 – 03/09/13 St. Louis, MO – The Fox Theater 03/13 – 03/24/13 Cincinnati, OH – Procter & Gamble Hall – Aronoff Center for the Arts 03/26 – 04/07/13 Cleveland, OH – Palace Theatre 04/09 – 04/21/13 Columbus, OH – Ohio Theatre 04/23 – 04/28/13 Tampa, FL – Carol Morsani Hall 04/30 – 05/05/13 Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Broward Center 05/07 – 05/19/13 Fayetteville, AR – Walton Arts Center 05/22 – 05/26/13 Charlotte, NC – Belk Theater 05/28 – 06/02/13 Providence, RI – Providence Performing Arts Center 06/05 – 06/09/13 Minneapolis, MN – Orpheum Theatre 06/12 – 06/23/13 Appleton, WI – Fox Cities Performing Arts Center 06/25 – 06/30/13 To book WarHorse for your theatre, contact WarHorse Global: warhorse@nationaltheatre.org.uk Joey’s Jubilee Salute Among all the ships, and flags, and (unfortunately) rain during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant, the National Theatre’s salute to the Queen was proudly made by Joey. The puppet star of War Horse, galloped along the roof of the National Theatre and reared in salute to The Queen as she passed on the Royal Barge to mark her 60 years on the British throne. The Queen is well-known for her love of horses, and she seemed very pleased by Joey’s salute. Well done team National Theatre! Handspring Puppet Company PO Box 39332 Capricorn Square, South Africa 7948 21 Boulevard Way Capricorn Cape Town 7945 t: +27 (0)21 709 0269 f:+27 (0)86 579-8678 Facebook Twitter Website LinkedIn Google Plus

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We are proud of the great work Handspring people are doing and we’d like to share our news with you.

Handspring at the ABSA Klein Karoo Nationale Kunstefees

Handspring has been named as this year’s festival Visual Artist. The exhibition , Living Things,
includes puppets from Woyzeck, Or You Could Kiss Me, Ouroboros and features
one of the life-size horse puppets from War Horse. The Festival runs from 31 March – 7April.

Handspring presented I Love You When You’re Breathing, directed by Jason Potgieter
at the opening of the Visual Arts component of the KKNK and at the opening of the Klap!
Learner program. This short piece, which is one puppet’s behind-the-scenes exposé of life as
a puppet, was very warmly received and several people asked if it could be seen again.

Also at the KKNK the Handspring Trust for Puppetry Arts brought 20 young people from
Barrydale to parade their puppets and see shows at the festival. They really appreciated
being included in the massive parade (over 250 paraders, almost all with puppets), seeing
so many other puppets and being cheered and photographed from all sides.

Warhorse opening in Toronto, Canada

Toronto marks the third concurrently running version of the production.  The show opened
on 28th Feb and the all- Canadian cast have received rave reviews. The production runs at
Mirvish’s Princess of Wales Theatre, a state-of-the-art 2000 seat facility.

Inja Ka Vuyo

We would like to congratulate the recipients of our 2011 Handspring Awards for Puppetry
(Best Puppet Debut) Isibana and Puppetry SA (UNIMA SA) for the great success in the production of Inja Ka Vuyo during the Zabalaza Festival at the Baxter Theatre. Due to the high demand of the audiences and sold out shows, Inja Ka Vuyo was asked to perform on almost a daily bases after the initial slot of four performances per week. Inja Ka Vuyo was developed as part of the Active Puppet program run by Puppetry SA. The production is currently in negotiations to run in the Main Theatre at the Baxter for another season and in Gauteng.

The Naledi Theatre Awards

This year’s Executive Directors Award went to Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones for their work on
Warhorse. The Naledi Theatre Awards recognise and reward excellence in South
African professional theatre and the performing arts.

Ouroboros wins Fleur du Cap Award

Janni Younge won Best Puppetry Design for the Ouroboros puppets at this year’s Fleur du Cap
Theatre Awards in Cape Town. Daniel Eppel was nominated for best sound design and Mannie
Manim for best lighting design in the same production. Handspring is particularly pleased with the inclusion of puppetry design as a new nomination category. “It represents an interest in an expanded language of what theatre is in the world of contemporary arts, while also supporting the exciting diversity of new South African work as it emerges” says Janni.

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If you receive CNN International, you may wish to view a program on our work which will be airing in the next few days at the times shown herewith.
Watch the Trailer: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10150423331411051

Showtimes in GMT  (SA Times in brackets)

Fri 23 Dec:         08h30  (SA 10h30)

Sat 24 Dec:        10h30 & 15h30  (SA 12h30 & 17h30)

Sun 25 Dec:       01h30 & 09h00 & 18h30  (SA 03h30 & 11h00 & 21h30)

Mon 26 Dec:     10h30, 17h30  (SA 12h30 & 19h30)

Tues 27 Dec:      05h30  (SA 07h30)

Barrydale Parade 16th December 2011 : Handspring Trust

We are also pleased to report that Handspring Trust, in collaboration with Net-Vir-Pret and Magpie Art Collective, had a joyful time in Barrydale on the 16th December.  We set up a temporary workshop in the Belanti Cinema, courtesy of Theo Nel and the Barrydale Karoo Hotel. There was a procession of puppets by the children of Barrydale and giant puppets by Handspring Puppet Company. The children performed a San story about the creation of the Milky Way. A highlight of the evening was the lighting of the Magpie Christmas tree.

The newly formed Handspring Trust is a registered not-for-profit organization seeking to inspire creativity, commitment and innovation in the puppetry arts. The Trust is focussing on developmental work with the communities of rural Barrydale and the urban settlement of Vrygrond near Handspring’s factory in Capricorn Park. For more about Handspring Trust please visit the website www.handspringtrust.org.za or find us on Facebook! www.facebook.com/handspringtrust

We thank you for your support and wish you a relaxing festive season and a healthy, fulfilling & prosperous 2012.

Best,

Adrian, Basil and all at Handspring

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A Successful Opening!

Ouroboros @ OutTheBox

After Cardenio – Jane Taylor @ Out the box

Woyzeck @ BITE Charleville Meziers, Bolzano, Budapest, Cardiff, Belfast, Coventry, Aberstywyth, Truro, Exeter and Oxford

 Making WarHorse to screen @ Out the Box

It’s a busy time for Handspring with local productions, events at Out The Box, the ever expanding War Horse and Woyzeck going on tour in Europe.
Don’t miss After Cardenio, written and directed buy Jane Taylor CEO of the HandspringTrust. Ouroboros is on at Out The Box for just 2 days on Sunday the 4 and Monday the 5th. Handspring is also doing a number of other things at Out The Box including Iqonga, The Handspring Awards for Puppetry and two hands-on workshops. We look forward to seeing you around many of these exciting events coming up in the next two weeks.

HANDSPRING IN SOUTH AFRICA
At Out The Box Festival of Puppetry and Visual Performance

Out The Box (3-11 Sept 2011) is South Africa’s premiere puppetry event. This year the festival is hosting 55 productions including international productions from 15 countries! Handspring is proud to be associated with several events on the festival, detailed below. For the full festival program visit www.outtheboxfestival.com. Booking through Computicket.

After Cardenio
This is a new work of puppet theater that arises from a commission by the world-renowned Renaissance scholar Stephen Greenblatt, who has charged a dozen playwrights around the world to make versions of a so-called “missing” Shakespeare play, Cardenio. Literary historians presume that the play originally explored the character “Cardenio” from Cervantes’ Don Quixote. The new work thus engages with the great traditions of the novel and the play in the West while making a piece of contemporary puppet theatre.
Writer/Director Jane Taylor winds the plot around a story from the archive about a girl who was hanged for infanticide in Oxford, and who resuscitated when her body was given over to surgeons for an Anatomy at the University. The play is a meditation the Body/Soul split and it seeks to expand the dialogue onstage between the puppet and the puppeteer.
After Cardeniois on in the Anatomy Theatre, Hindingh Campus UCT, at 8pm 25, 26, 27, 29, 30 Aug, 1, 2 Sep, and at Out The Box Sat 3/9 @14h00; Sun 4/9 @ 14h00 and on5/9 @ 21h00, booking through Computicket.

Ouroboros
Another chance to catch Ouroboros in Cape Town if you missed it at the Baxter in June…or if you loved it so much you want to see it again!
Created by Janni Younge, Handspring’s Associate Director and 2010 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Theatre,  Ouroboros is a tale of dreaming and the cycles of life. At its heart, it is a love story between a dancer and a poet finding the courage to commit.
Using the unique transforming powers of the puppetry medium, the two characters are able to appear as several versions of themselves.
In its recent run at the Baxter Ouroboros received outstanding reviews including 4* in Die Burger and Argus.

“Sometimes even the seasoned theatre-goers get to be surprised, elated and dazzled by the performance less expected…(I) encountered such brilliance at Ouroboros.” – Emily Gambade, Daily Maverick

Based on the work of US poet laureate Billy Collins the production is set to original music by Neo Muyanga and Eppelsource with choreography by Mamela Nyamza and lighting by Mannie Manim. Ouroboros is not to be missed!
4 shows only on 2 days: Sun4/9 @15h30 and 19h30 and Mon 5/9 @11h00 and 20h00, booking through Computicket.

Iqonga
Iqonga is a once off performance featuring seven brand new puppetry works of 12 minutes each. Handspring is producing Iqonga 2011 in association with UNIMA SA at the Out The Box Festival.  The project aims to encourage experimentation with puppetry by artists who might otherwise not work in that medium. Audiences can expect to see the weird, wonderful and completely wacky.  Distant planets, quirky crows, deadly sins and a puppet talking about the ups and downs of life as a puppet… all in one show!  This year participants include: Mwenya Kabwe; Hearts and Eyes Theatre Collective; Handspring Puppet Company; Jungle Theatre Company; The Instant Arts Collective; Yawazzi Theatre Productions and others. Iqonga explodes onto the Little Theatre stage @ 20h00 on Sat 10 September.
Don’t miss this once-off big bang, booking through Computicket.

The Handspring Awards for Puppetry
Very few awards exist specifically for puppetry. In 2010, Handspring launched the first such awards in this country. Handspring committed to the awards being exclusive to productions at Out The Box for the first 3 years in order to encourage the important platform for puppetry that the festival represents. Established to encourage the art form in Africa, the awards are a project of The Handspring Trust (more about the Trust below).
Each prize is valued at R7,000 and the first four categories are awarded only to African companies. The Best Puppet Production award is open to all productions showing on the festival, including those from beyond the African continent. The panel of judges faces a daunting task this year as there are about 60 shows to see!

Handspring Workshops
Hidden Life: An Alchemy of Objects is an exploration into materiality and the fundamental principles of puppetry.  Facilitated by Jason Potgieter, participants will work with pre-sculpted materials in a hands-on process as they learn about the art and science of puppet manipulation. Wed 7/9, 14h00-18h00.

Accessing Bunraku-Style Puppetry: Bunraku is a form of Japanese puppetry where 3 visible manipulators control one puppet. In this workshop participants will learn the essentials of constructing a Bunraku-style puppet. Participants will learn the basics of manipulating this form of puppet, learning to work together to create life. Thurs 8/9, 10h00-14h00.

Handspring Films
Moving Things is the stop-motion and puppetry film program at Out The Box. As part of the 2011 line up Moving Things is screening what they call Handspring, A Celebration.  The films will include the Making of War Horse, The Puppet Factory(about the building of the horse puppets), the TED talk given by Basil and Adrian as well as a short clip of Handspring receiving the Tony Award. Basil Jones will be talking at the screening on Sat 3/9 at 12h00.

Thinking Out The Box
Jane Taylor of The Handspring Trust has curated the Out The Box conference, which encourages scholarly thinking and critical debate around puppetry and related questions. The day and a half of talks and conversations (Thurs 8/9 and sun 11/9) bring together topics ranging from puppetry and its therapeutic applications to puppets in post-metaphysics and a talk by Zapiro on the use of puppetry in political satire.

Our Puppet Factory
The 14 craftspeople who make up the puppet making team in the Handspringworkshop have just completed their third set of War Horse puppets. They are destined for the Toronto production of the show and will depart for Canada on 1st September with some fanfare. We are expecting quite a turnout of dignities and local children who will witness Topthorn walk up the ramp and into the bowls of the sea container mounted on a large truck. As it pulls away, we’ll be setting off 30,000 firecrackers and drinking a toast to a safe 15,350 km journey to Canada via London. (London is where the harnesses and saddles are added.)

The building of the Toronto set of War Horse puppets has been so much more efficient than ever before. We have Jessica Mias and Andy Jones’ excellent scheduling work to thank for that. We’re happy to see how well Luyanda Nogodlwana has come on as a creator of horse heads. This is cane bending at a very high level of artistry and a far cry of simple knotting and binding which is where he started two years ago. Newer members, Philip Roberts and Christian Johnson are showing steady promise in the profession, with Kyle Daniels and Ncedile Daki soaring beyond all expectation. Each production of War Horse includes four full horses, four half horses a foal, six soldier puppets, a goose, two crows and four swallow puppets. Each build is a great achievement, met with skill, enthusiasm and pride. One could not ask for a better team to work with.

Handspring Trust
The Handspring Trust is committed to developing puppetry through encouraging new work, promoting critical thinking around the art form and developing new skills amongst school children and young adults, particularly in Barrydale.

Puppetry scholarship: This year marked a significant new engagement with puppetry within the world of scholarship. A major conference was held at the University of Connecticut, and members of Handspring gave papers here and at a follow-up conference at the Segal Centre in New York. Basil Jones, Adrian Kohler and Jane Taylor spoke at the journal Cabinet in New York; and Kohler and Jones gave a public lecture at the New School. As a result of this international conversation, the conference at the Out the Box Festival (curated by Jane Taylor) has in 2011 attracted scholars from around the world.

Barrydale youth project:The 5-day June Puppetry workshop in Barrydale was a great success. Led by Handspring founder member and longstanding associate of the company Jill Joubert, the workshop combined drama, puppetry and music and the participants were facilitators working with Net Vir Pret under the leadership of Peter Tokela. Two more workshops are planned for later in the year culminating in the lighting of the Christmas Tree festival on the evening of the Day of Reconciliation on 16th December, organized by Magpie, Barrydale’s highly respected arts collective who’s found plastic chandeliers are to be found in Barak and Michelle Obama’s private Apartments in the White House.

HANDSPRING ABROAD

Woyzeck on the Highveld
1st September sees the departure of the Woyzeck company for their final tour for 2011. They’ll be starting out at the Barbican Theatre’s BITE Festival in London, then on to Charleville-Mézières, forthe 50th Anniversary of their International Festival of Puppetry. (Janni Younge will be attending the whole festival.)  Other cities on the tour will be Rome, Budapest, Coventry, Belfast, Cardiff, Aberystwyth, Truro, Exeter and Oxford. Charleville-Mézières  is a very sentimental gig for us as it will be the first time we return to this city since our first ever international appearance which was in 1985.
Our Woyzeck company is made up of Hamilton Dhlamini, Wesley France,  Nkosinathi Gaar, Bruce Koch, Simon Mahoney (now based in Sweden), Jason Potgieter, Mncedisi Shabangu, Busi Zokufa, The company is directed by Luc De Witt who lives in Brussels and is William Kentridge’s assistant director.

War Horse
The West End and Broadway versions of War Horse continue to play to packed houses. A third production, destined for the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, will soon be in rehearsal and opens on 28 Feb 2012.
Topthorn, one of the new Toronto puppets for War Horse, will make his first presentation in South Africa this year, at the Business Day BASA Awards, ahead of his departure for Toronto. Craig Leo from South Africa, Mikey Brett from the UK and Tommy Luther from Canada will be his puppeteers.

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Ouroboros at the Baxter

Multiple-award-winning team brings evocative puppetry
Production to the Baxter for a short season in June
Ouroboros show times and special events
Shows at 20:15 every day from Monday to Saturday
Matinees: Saturday at 14:30 and Tuesday 7th at 11:00 (12yrs and up)
•   Wed 1st preview: only R60. Join us for a “tweet and taste” wine tasting and twitter about the show.
•   Sat 4th – drinks with the directors, Janni, Adrian & Basil, after the show.
•   Tues 7th Q and A with the Director and Cast after the 20:15 show
•   Wed 8th Q and A with the Director and Cast after the show
•   Thursday 9th – join us at 18:30 for ‘The Making of War Horse’ and the South African premier    of a special feature on the building of the War Horse puppets by Clifford Bestall.

Prices:
•   Wed 1st preview: only R60.
•   Thurs 2nd, Mon 6th – Thurs 9th: R100; Fridays & Saturdays: R130
•   Discounts: Seniors/Students: R80; Scholars: R70
•   Block bookings and school specials contact Sharon on 021 685 7880

Ouroboros, the extraordinary puppetry production by one of South Africa’s leading creative teams, comes to the Baxter Theatre for a limited season from 1 to 11 June.
Directed by 2010 Standard Bank Young Artist Award winner for Theatre, Janni Younge, with master puppeteers Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, this is an evocative tale about dreaming and the cycles of life.  At its heart, it is a love story.

Using the unique power of the puppetry medium, the two characters are able to appear as several versions of themselves. Their interactions form a web of relationships, revealing the interdependence of the past, present and future.

The production is based on the work of US poet laureate Billy Collins. It offers a swirling interaction of performers, exquisitely created puppets and filigree shadow work. Set to original music by Neo Muyanga, with choreography by Mamela Nyamza (Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance 2011).
Ouroboros runs at the Baxter Theatre from 1-11 June.
Book through Computicket on 083 915 8000, or online at www.computicket.co.za

Handspring Puppet Company
This year at the 65th Tony Awards, on June 12 in New York, Handspring Puppet Company will be honored for their work on the hit play War Horse, which is currently running on Broadway and the West End.
Ouroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent swallowing its own tail and forming a circle. “We are constantly re-creating ourselves, and stories in our lives begin anew as soon as they end,” explains Younge.

The post 30 May 2011 appeared first on Handspring Puppet Company.

Handspring’s Tony

We can’t believe that we’ve come to the 30th year of Handspring, how they’ve flown by.

The year was off to a busy start with TED Talks in Long Beach, California, where we made a presentation on Puppet Design. You can view the talk by clicking this link.

War Horse continues to run at the New London Theatre in the West End,  while across the pond the Lincoln Centre welcomed it to New York on the 14th of April for an indefinite run. We’re humbled by the numerous award nominations and our first ever Tony!

Ouroboros

It’s also been a year of new developments back home with Janni Younge (Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre 2010) joining Handspring as Associate Director.

Ouroboros marks the first creative collaboration between Janni, Basil and Adrian.
Booking has just opened at computicket. Don’t miss out on this short 2 week season.

Directed by Janni Younge, with Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, this tale of dreaming and the cycles of life has been created with evocatively imagery.  At its heart it is a love story between a dancer and a poet finding the courage to commit.  Using the uniquely transforming powers of the puppetry medium, these two characters are able to appear as several versions of themselves.
Audiences witness the unfolding drama of their lives from birth to death. Their interactions form a web of relationships, revealing the interdependence of the past, present and future.

It is these images and a sense of the stories they depict of inhabiting a space beyond time, That stay with one long after the show is done – Cue

Poignant, visually lovely, beautifully crafted – Artsblog

This exciting and innovative production runs at the Baxter from the 1-11 June 2011.

Handspring continues to collaborate with William Kentridge on Woyzeck on the Highveldt, which tours the US, Italy and France this year.

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