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Home , John Kani, Louis Mhlanga, PJ Powers, Sibongile Khumalo, Special Tony Award, Tom Morris (director)

KENNEDY CENTER

Gold Medal in the Arts

SATURDAY,Gala APRIL 14, 2018 ZEITZ MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART AFRICA ,

Stephanie and Karel Komárek, Co-Chairs

The Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts welcome you to the

Kennedy Center Gold Medal in the Arts Gala celebrating

Basil J.R. Jones and Adrian P. Kohler John Kani Sibongile Khumalo Dr. Gcina Mhlophe McCoy Mrubata Gold Medal in the Arts Past Recipients

2005 ST. PETERSBURG 2012 MADRID OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND, PEDRO ALMODÓVAR, VALERY GERGIEV, MARTHA SARA BARAS, PLÁCIDO INGRAM, IRWIN JACOBS, DOMINGO, PACO PEÑA, MÆRSK MCKINNEY MØELLER, TAMARA ROJO 2013 PRAGUE 2006 LONDON JIŘÍ BĚLOHLÁVEK, SOŇA DARCEY BUSSELL, ČERVENÁ, KAREL KOMÁREK, MICHAEL CAINE, JUDI DENCH, JR.,MAGDALENA KOŽENÁ , JACOB ROTHSCHILD, LILY SAFRA 2014 UAE HOOR AL-QASIMI, BADR 2007 BEIJING JAFAR, QUINCY JONES, SONG ZUYING, ARIF AND FAYEEZA NAQVI, MINISTER SUN JIAZHENG ZAKI AL NUSSEIBEH

2008 BUENOS AIRES 2015 PARIS NORMA ALEANDRO, JULIO PIERRE BOULEZ, LESLIE BOCCA, PALOMA HERRERA, CARON, ALEXANDRE DESPLAT, MERCEDES SOSA YASMINA REZA

2009 ISTANBUL 2016 DUBLIN CIHAT AŞKIN, CANA GÜRMEN, SIR JAMES GALWAY, SIR VAN AHMET KOCABIYIK MORRISON, FIONA SHAW, JIM SHERIDAN, ENDA WALSH 2010 TOKYO TADAO ANDO, MIDORI, 2017 MILAN KANZABURO NAKAMURA, SALVATORE ACCARDO, YUKIO NINAGAWA CARLOS BULGHERONI, RENATO BRUSON, GIANANDREA NOSEDA

The Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts proudly bestows the Gold Medal in the Arts in recognition of extraordinary achievement in the arts each year at its international summit. The Committee awards inspiring individuals, whose lifetime achievements have created, nurtured, supported, and championed the world’s greatest arts and artists. Performance Handspring Puppet Company

Handspring Puppet Company was founded in 1981 and, for 30 years, has grown under the leadership of Artistic Director Adrian Kohler and Executive Producer Basil Jones, both of whom are honorees tonight. Based in Cape Town, the company provides an artistic home and professional base for a group of performers, designers, theatre artists, and technicians. Handspring’s work has been presented in more than 30 countries.

The Handspring Trust for Puppetry Arts, a non-profit organization, was established in 2010. The trust’s programs identify, mentor, and champion the next generation of puppetry artists through workshops, academic engagement, and the support of ongoing projects in rural areas and townships.

Cape Town

Africa’s premier opera company, Cape Town Opera provides a stage that allows local talent to launch international careers and attracts international talent to South Africa. As the nation’s largest permanent nonprofit performing arts organization, Cape Town Opera fosters the expression of a national identity through the creation and performance of new South African and musicals.

The Cape Town Opera Studio Training Program is the only comprehensive advanced curriculum of its kind for young graduate singers in South Africa. The program gives singers with soloist potential the opportunity to consolidate and refine their technique and stage skills before launching professional careers.

Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA)

MOCAA is a public not-for-profit contemporary art museum which collects, preserves, researches, and exhibits 21st century art from Africa and its Diaspora; hosts international exhibitions; develops supporting educational and enrichment programs; encourages cultural understanding; and guarantees access for all. Over 100 galleries, spread over nine floors, are dedicated to a large cutting edge permanent collection; temporary exhibitions; and Centers for Art Education, Curatorial Excellence, Performative Practice, Photography, the Moving Image, and the Costume Institute.

The grain silo complex where Zeitz MOCAA is located was once, at 57 meters, the tallest building in sub-Saharan Africa. After its opening in August 1924, it became integral to South Africa’s industrial and agricultural development and allowed for significant economic activities in Table Bay Harbor. Today, with a state-of-the-art design by internationally acclaimed designer Thomas Heatherwick, it remains an impressive icon, easily recognizable on the Mother City’s skyline. 2018 Gold Medal Recipients Biographies Basil J.R. Jones and Adrian P. Kohler

Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler met at The Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town 1981 and have been together ever since.

After graduating from art school with the Michaelis Prize, Kohler joined at the Space Theatre, then South Africa’s only theatre open to all. Jones and Kohler subsequently left the country, working in community theatre in Birmingham UK. They then spent 3 years in Botswana, where Kohler ran the University of Botswana’s National Popular Theatre Program and Jones worked as a graphic artist and the National Museum and Art Gallery. They also became active members of MEDU, the ANC’s cultural organization under the leadership of Mongane Wally Serote and subsequently Tami Mnyele.

In January 1981, they returned to Cape Town, South Africa to form Handspring Puppet Company with Jill Joubert and Jon Weinberg – all former art school students. Jones and Kohler continue to run the company.

For 5 years they traveled in a caravan/truck touring children’s shows to schools throughout southern Africa and performing at theatres in the school holidays. With the declaration of the Emergency in 1985, visiting schools was no longer possible and they relocated the company to working in children’s TV. There they set up the not-for-profit company, Handspring Trust, and raised funding from international donors to make a multimedia science education program, acknowledged in Britain and the USA as a leading example of creative engagement in this sphere.

Whilst in Johannesburg, Handspring began working with directors who had seen their first piece for adult audiences, Episodes of an Easter Rising directed by Esther van Ryswyk for the Baxter Theatre. They participated in productions at the Market Theatre with Barney Simon, Malcolm Purkey, and Mark Fleishman.

In 1982, they began a ten-year collaboration with director William Kentridge. Their plays all featured Kentridge’s charcoal animations and Adrian Kohler’s puppets. Woyzeck on the Highveld, Faustus in Africa, Ubu and the Truth Commission, Il Riturno d’Ulisse and Confessions of Zeno won many awards in South Africa and toured widely in Europe and North America. In 1999 Handspring relocated to Cape Town and there followed three plays, which presented animals as animals in the central roles – the world’s first company to do this.

The third of these productions was , (2007), produced by the of Great Britain in collaboration with Handspring. This production became the most successful show ever mounted by the National Theatre and had extended seasons on Broadway and London’s West End. It continues to tour in the UK and China.

Or You Could Kiss Me, written and directed by Neil Bartlett, premiered at the National Theatre in 2010 and featured the lives of two geriatric gay men. A Midsummer Night’s Dream directed by Tom Morris, 2013 played at The and in the USA at the Spoleto Festival and the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in the Kennedy Centre in Washington D.C.

Through their non-for–profit entity, Handspring Trust, they have a longstanding commitment to community theatre and the Ukwanda Puppetry and Design Collective. Handspring has received numerous awards including a Special Tony Award, an Olivier Award, as well as Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and LA Drama Critics Circle awards. Kohler has had solo exhibitions at the Kennedy Center, South African National Gallery, Cape Town, and the Museum for African Art in New York. His puppets are represented in public collections in Munich, Germany; Atlanta, Georgia; the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg; The Old Mutual Collection in Cape Town; and in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

In 2012, the awarded Jones and Kohler the degree of D.Lit. (honoris causa).

Jones and Kohler were officially married in Oudtshoorn in 2007. They live in Kalk Bay, Cape Town.

John Kani

John Kani is an actor, a director and a playwright. On stage, John has appeared in, among others, The Blood Knot, Driving Miss Daisy, , The Lion and the Lamb, , The Death of Bessie Smith, Playland, “Master Harold”… and the Boys, Hedda Gabler, and My Children! My Africa!, which earned him an Olivier Award and won him an AA life Vita Award in 1990 for his role as Mr. M. John has worked with playwright since 1965 when he joined the Serpent Players at the Market Theatre; directing most of their plays and collaborating to create The Coat, The Last Bus, and Friday’s Bread on Monday, among others. As well as acting in Sizwe Banzi is Dead and , John also co-wrote the plays with Fugard and and won a Tony Award® for Best Actor in 1975 for his performance in the productions, later earning an Evening Standard Award nomination during the shows’ run on the West End. John has taken these two shows to London, Paris, Stockholm, Montreal, and Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center.

John’s film credits include The Wild Geese, The Grass is Singing, Marigolds in August, A Dry White Season, Sarafina!, and Saturday Night at the Palace for which he won a Taormina Golden Award at the Milan International Festival. He has also appeared in The Ghost and the Darkness with Michael Douglas and Val Kilmer, The Tichbourne Claimant with Robert Pugh and Sir , The Suit, : Civil War, and Black Panther.

Nothing but the Truth, John’s debut as sole playwright, opened at Johannesburg’s Market Theatre in 2002 to critical acclaim, winning three Fleur du Cap Awards for Best Actor, Best New South African Play, and Best Director for Janice Honeyman. Nothing but the Truth played at the Baxter Theater and Opera House in prior to running in Johannesburg, Los Angeles, Boston, Brisbane, Sydney, and in . John later made his directorial debut with Nothing but the Truth, which won awards at the FEPASCO, Cameroon, , and Milan Film Festivals, in addition to a SAFTA Best Screenplay award in 2009.

In 2005, John received the Order of Ikhamanaga in Silver for his contribution to a democratic, non-racial, non-sexist South Africa throughout his work in the arts. He has also received a special SAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award as well as lifetime recognitions from the Arts and Culture Trust and the Metropole of Port Elizabeth. He is a former Chairman of the Board of the Museum and was appointed by the Minister of Higher Education to the Wits University Governing Council.

John is a Trustee of the Market Theatre Foundation and in 1989 with Barney Simon founded the Market Theatre Laboratory—a drama school for young people who could not be admitted to university through lack of funds or required educational qualification. The Lab now also has outreach and community training programs and stages annual Community Festivals. Sibongile Khumalo

Sibongile Khumalo is the most celebrated member of a musical dynasty, marked by an extraordinary vocal gene-pool and passion for making music. She was born and grew up in Orlando West, Soweto. Her parents, Mrs. Grace and Prof. Khabi Mngoma, were cultural workers and arts activists, involved in the upliftment of the communities in which they lived. They instilled in her an abiding love and appreciation for music education and for South African music and culture. Through her father’s influence, she developed her singing talents which range from opera to jazz and choral music, always grounded by the traditional and folk .

An award winning musician, she has been lauded as one of the great singing talents of her time, and has inspired the creation of new music by South African composers, both in the classical art song, opera as well as jazz genres.

Khumalo has music degrees from the and Wits University, and an Honorary Licentiate in Music from the University of South Africa. She has qualified with a Post-Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from Wits Business School.

She has been conferred with honorary doctorates by (D. Mus- Honoris Causa), the University of Zululand (D. Phil-Honoris Causa), and the University of South Africa (D. Musicology-Honoris Causa). In addition, she is a Fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI), an Africa-wide collective of leaders interested in developing a cohort of values-based leadership.

Among her many accolades for her stage and recorded work, including four South African Music Awards (SAMA), a South African Traditional Music Award (SATMA) and a Vita Award for her classical and opera work, Khumalo has been bestowed with a Lifetime Achievement award by the Naledi Theatre awards. She reprised her 1993 breakout performance called “The 3 Faces Of Sibongile Khumalo” in a triune of performances called “More Than 3 Faces”, at her 60th Birthday celebrations in 2017.

She holds the National Order of Ikhamanga in Silver (OIS), by Order of the President of South Africa, in recognition of her contribution to the advancement within arts and culture.

This singer-songwriter-producer is also an ardent proponent for Arts Education. She is the Founding-Trustee of the Khabi Mngoma Foundation Trust whose primary aim is to provide support for the Khongisa Academy for the Performing Arts. She is also the current Deputy Chairman of the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (SAMRO). Dr. Gcina Mhlophe

Gcina Mhlophe is an author, poet, playwright, director, performer and storyteller. Influenced by her grandmother’s tales when she was a child, Mhlophe’s written and performance talent has transported her from South Africa to South and North America to Europe, Greenland and Japan. She has performed her stories in theatres like , the Kennedy Centre in the US and collaborated with on a children’s CD. She again worked with Ladysmith Black Mamabazo and Francis Bebey quartet in a unique production, Africa at the Opera, which toured Opera houses in Germany.

For her work in theatre, she received an in New York for her performance in Born in the RSA. Her autobiographical play, Have You Seen Zandile? would earn her the Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival, Sony Award for Radio Drama from BBC Africa, and the Joseph Jefferson Award in Chicago. In 1992 she founded and directed the Zanendaba storytelling company, Johannesburg, RSA. She has received honorary doctorates from the London Open University(UK); University of KwaZulu – Natal; University and Fort Hare, for a body of work that has contributed to Literature and helping to preserve the Heritage of African storytelling.

Dr. Mhlophe has worked tirelessly for the past 16 years running NOZINCWADI Mother of Books Literacy Campaign to help make S. Africa a Reading Nation. The Nozincwadi: Mother of Books, is available as a book which is accompanied by a CD that formed the joyful soundtrack of the roadshow. In April 2012 she was awarded her fifth Honorary Doctorate by University of Johannesburg.

MZANSI MAGIC TV Channel gave her National ICON Award in May 2012. She is currently the Executive Director of GCINAMASIKO ARTS & HERITAGE TRUST , which is the umbrella body where all their other project, SPIRIT OF LIGHT Celebrations, Annual NOZINCWADI Story & Book Festival, Creative Writing Workshops, are hosted and produced. She was awarded her sixth Honorary Doctorate came from Rhodes University in 2014. She is also one of the 21 ICONS in 2015 with the likes of Lillian Cingo, Bishop Tutu, Nadine Gordimer and Tata Mandela.

She has released several CDs including Songs & Stories of Africa which won a SAMA award and the isiZulu version of the same CD won the PanSALB Award for indigenous languages. IMILOLOZELO, a collaborative CD with Bheki Khoza, Ntakemazolo HP School and Umlazi JP School, was released in an effort to resuscitate the culture of African children’s rhymes and rhythms with jazz music. Latest works include the recording of 2 CD’s - African Mother Christmas & HOPE SONG. Both will help raise funds for the soon to be opened MEMORY HOUSE (Oral History Museum for ordinary South Africans). Dr. Mhlophe is due to receive the Kennedy Centre International Artists award as well as he seventh Honorary Doctorate from the Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, in April 2018.

September 2018 will see the 10th edition of the NOZINCWADI Books and Storytelling Festival in .

McCoy Mrubata

Born in Cape Town’s historic Langa township, Reedman McCoy Mrubata grew up with the sounds of African music: the soulful hymns of the Zion Church, the chants and rhythms of traditional healers, and the brassy jive of the Merry Macs band who rehearsed opposite his home. When schooling became impossible in the aftermath of the 1976 uprising, the young McCoy, then playing flute, studied informally under Langa greats like Madoda Gxabeka, Winston Ngozi, the Ngcukanas, Ezra and Duke, Blackie Tempi, and Robert Sithole.

By the early 1980s he was playing in cover bands, and from there moved to crossover outfit Louis and the Jive. In 1987, McCoy was spotted by bandleader Sipho Hotstix Mabuse who helped him make Joburg his home. In 1988, he joined PJ Powers band and was sported by veteran producer Koloi Lebona. Lebona offered him a recording deal with a British based record company, Zomba Records, the same record company that produced music for Jonathan Butler and Billy Ocean. McCoy’s debut album, Firebird was released the following year.

In 1989, he formed Brotherhood, which included guitarist Jimmy Dludlu, pianist Nhlanhla Magagula, and Lucas Khumalo, and later, Moses Molelekwa. In 1990, the band won the Gilbey’s Music for Africa competition, beating top bands like Bayethe, Peto, Stax, and Zanusi.

In 1992, he began touring with ’s Lerapo, alongside Vusi and Bakithi Khumalo, Lawrence Matshiza, and the late Moses Molelekwa, among others. He also created his own bands, Cape to Cairo and McCoy and Friends. In the mid 1990s, he made the first of a series of albums as leader for Sheer Sound label, Tears of Joy. The personnel of Friends, including pianist Paul Hanmer, bassist Andre Abrahamse, and trombonist Jabu Magubane, among others, have formed a consistent team of collaborators for McCoy. Since those days, more albums have followed: Phosa Ngasemva, Hoelykit, Face the Music, which won the 2003 South African Music Award in the Traditional Jazz category, Icamagu Livumile, which won the same award in 2005, and Brasskap Sessions: Volume 1, which won the award in 2008. McCoy also won awards with bands The Sheer All Stars and Kulturation. McCoy has collaborated with an array of South African jazz players as well as overseas artists. He has been involved in drama, creating scores for South African productions. McCoy also worked in three Norwegian productions with the Nordic Black Theatre; two in 1994 and 1995 in South Africa and Oslo on two Bob Marley musicals and one in 2001 starring in a play based on the life of John Coltrane Beyond the Blues, playing a leading role. He has also created what he calls the Young Friends, a collaboration with the next generation of South African jazzmen.

McCoy’s other projects include Kulturation, a duo-led album with pianist Wessel van Rensburg exploring new interpretations of tunes from the African and Afrikaans communities. This project blends together familiar tunes from the Xhosa and Zulu cultures with Afrikaans folk music tunes fusing these into contemporary versions of local South Africa music. Vivid Africa, is another collaboration with multi- instrumentalist Greg Georgiadis, using instruments like oudh and bouzouki alongside saxophones to explore the musical spices of the East African coast. McCoy was also a member of a super band Sheer All Stars, which consisted of some of the best musicians in South African Jazz: the late Sipho Gumede, Errol Dyers, Paul Hanmer, Frank Pako, Wessel van Rensburg, and Louis Mhlanga.

In January 2011, McCoy and his pianist Luyanda Madope collaborated with Norwegian musicians in a project called Indibano, and they performed at the Nordic Black Theatre in Oslo. McCoy also conducted the 2012 South African Youth Jazz Band in June and July at the Grahamstown Arts Festival and in August at the Joy of Jazz in Newtown, JHB, South Africa.

In 2012, McCoy was among the top Jazz educators who helped to launch the Jazz Faculty at University Of South Africa and has subsequently conducted workshops and master classes commissioned by the Institution. Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts Members

Natalia and Ara Abramyan, Russia Marlene and Frederic Malek, United States Yulia Abramyan, United States Christina Co Mather, United States Daris Clifton-Alloy and Martin Alloy, Catherine and Michael Mayton, United States United States Abbe Aron, United States Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, United States Juliet and Joshua Berkowitz, United States JoAnn McGrath, United States Wilma and Stuart Bernstein, United States Donna and Thomas F. McLarty, Nancy G. Brinker, United States United States Natalia Bulgheroni, Argentina and Spain Paula and G. Mac McNichols, United States Nancy Jean Davis, United States Linda and Tobia Mercuro, United States Rachael Dedman, United States Constance Milstein, United States Liz Dubin, United States Noémi and Michael Neidorff, United States Lindsay and Henry Ellenbogen, Suzanne Niedland, United States United States Mary and Mandell† Ourisman, United States A. Huda and Samia Farouki, Jordan and Laura Pels, France and the United States the United States Suzy and Bob Pence, United States Amra and Damir Fazlic, Bosnia and Jania and Phillips Peter, United States Herzegovina Edwin and Linda Phelps, United States Mikhail Fridman, Russia Marzia and Dale Precoda, United States, Virginia McGehee Friend, United States Switzerland, and Italy Norma Lee and Morton Funger, Catherine and Wayne Reynolds, United States United States Nancy and Carl Gewirz, United States Linda and Albert Rosecan, United States Alma and Joseph Gildenhorn, United States David M. Rubenstein, United States Laurel and Vinod Gupta, United States Jeanne Weaver Ruesch, United States Helen Lee Henderson, United States Lily Safra, Monaco Debbie Driesman and Frank Islam, Clarice Smith, United States United States Michelle Smith, United States Heather and Jim Johnson, United States Paul and Ann Stern, United States Y. Michele Kang, South Korea and the Taeko and Kenji Tanaka, Japan United States Susie Trees, United States Kelly Fisher Katz and Martin Katz, Adarsh and Ranvir Trehan, United States United States and India Robert and Arlene Kogod, United States Makiko Tanaka and Takeshi Ueshima, Japan Elizabeth and C. Michael Kojaian, and the United States United States Catherine Vaillant, France Stephanie and Karel Komárek, Allen A. Vine, United States Czech Republic Sherry and Edward Wachs, United States Dale LeFebvre, United States Larisa Zelkova, Russia Martha and Carl Lindner, United States Amalia Perea Mahoney and William Mahoney, United States *Membership list as of March 2018 The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Washington, DC

President Kennedy’s words resonate more strongly than ever for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in the 21st century. The Center, which opened on September 8, 1971, continues its efforts to fulfill President Kennedy’s vision by producing and presenting an unmatched variety of theater and musicals, dance and ballet, orchestral, chamber, jazz, popular, world, and folk music, and multi- media performances for all ages. Every year the institution that bears President Kennedy’s name brings his dream to fruition, touching the lives of millions of people through thousands of performances by the greatest artists from across America and around the world. The Center also nurtures new works and young artists, creating performances, broadcasts, and touring productions while serving the nation as a leader in arts education. The Kennedy Center, located on 17 acres overlooking the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., is America’s living memorial to President Kennedy as well as the nation’s busiest arts facility. Touring Kennedy Center productions and its television, radio, and Internet broadcasts reach more than 40 million people around the world. As part of the Kennedy Center’s Performing Arts for Everyone program, more than 400 free performances are offered each year featuring international, national and local artists. These include daily 6pm concerts on the Millennium Stage which are broadcast live over the internet and digitally archived on the Kennedy Center website.