![]() They have collaborated with many artists including Malis Sogolon Puppet Troupe and South African artist William Kentridge, and have appeared in over two hundred venues in South Africa and abroad. Founded in 1981 by Basil Jones, Adrian Kohler, Jill Joubert and Jon Weinberg, the company has produced eleven plays and two operas, often directly addressing pressing political concerns such as the proceedings of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The extraordinary success of Warhorse has drawn attention to Handsprings decades-long experiments and innovations in the art of puppetry and their remarkable contribution to theater in South Africa. Taylor has worked with Handspring in developing two major works: the script for Ubu and the Truth Commission and the libretto for The Confessions of Zeno. They focus on puppetry as a contemporary medium of communication and advocacy, and look at what the artists have defined as object as verb, movement as thought and the authorial audience.Ĭome hear writer, curator and scholar Jane Taylor speak on Tuesday April 12, 7:00-9:00 p.m. On the eve of the premiere, Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, founders of Handspring Puppet Company and winners of Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics Circle Awards for this piece, converse with South African-born poet, author, and scholar Yvette Christiansë and puppeteer Dan Hurlin. It will open at Lincoln Center on April 14, 2011. Set in World War I, the novel speaks of the immense slaughter of soldiers on all sides told from the perspective of an English farm horse. Warhorse is based on the celebrated novel by British writer Michael Morpurgo. Photo by Simon Anandįrom South Africa, via London, comes Warhorse, the hugely successful theater and puppetry collaboration between Cape Town’s Handspring Puppet Company and the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain. The festival's shows are followed by fireworks.Handspring Puppet Company and the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, Warhorse, 2010 (production still). This year's schedule calls for 160 performances and a final concert on June 9 by the Red Stick Ramblers - a Cajun, honky-tonk and swing ensemble. ![]() The festival was founded in Charleston in 1977 by the late composer Gian Carlo Menotti as a companion to his festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy. The Spoleto Festival USA opened May 24 and continues through June 9. "My understanding of what puppets can do was completely transformed by working with Handspring," he said. Morris, who had not really worked with puppets before "War Horse," expects they will find their way into future Bristol Old Vic productions. "Puppets and actors work seamlessly together to bring life to the puppets and expand the emotional and physical possibilities of the actors," he said. Spoleto Festival General Director Nigel Redden said the production has exceeded his expectations. "You are not only casting the role, you are casting the aptitude for learning physical puppetry." "The actors need to be able to deal with text, they need to be able to deal with music and all of them are puppeteers," he said. Those sketches led to puppets representing everything from scorpions to Greek masks and birds.Ĭasting the play was a complex process, the director noted. Show me your response - show me your sketchbook,'" Morris said. "It was a case of saying to Adrian, 'Here is this profound text. In "War Horse," the challenge was merely to create a horse that everyone would believe was alive, while in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the designers need to create objects that reflect abstract concepts such as changes of heart and pretentions. Morris worked with Handspring's puppet designers Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones in developing the show, which came together differently than "War Horse." That's not a boat, it's just a bundle of wood,' or 'That's not a horse.'" "There is a risk, because there could come a moment when anyone in the audience could say, 'Hang on. "The bigger the scale of the imaginative investment, the more you need to take care of it, in a way," Morris said. "If you put a puppet on the stage and the audience wants to hear the story and follow the story, the audience will imagine the puppet is alive."īut that's not necessarily easier for the director, he added. A bit of us understands that," he told The Associated Press in a recent interview. The director isn't completely surprised by the appeal puppets have for theatergoers.
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