Handspring Puppet Company Residency

APRIL –MAY 

ANDSPRING PUPPET COMPANY of South HAfrica is in residence at Cal Performances from April 22–May 3, 2015 . Members of the company, including Ubu and the Truth Commission Director Basil Jones, Associate Director Janni Younge, and playwright Jane Taylor, will participate in a series of public and campus activities. Best known for their celebrated production of e g n

War Horse , at Cal Performances Handspring u o Y

e

Puppet Company give four performances of k u their award-winning, rarely seen historical L piece Ubu and the Truth Commission .

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

Creating Visual Metaphors: A Puppet Creation Workshop with Artists of Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa Saturday and Sunday, April 25 and 26, 2015 MOCHA, 1625 Clay Street, Oakland The artists of Handspring Puppet Company lead a workshop on puppet construction and ma - nipulation techniques used to create dynamic and provocative theatrical images. During this two-day immersion, participants are challenged to conceive, write, build, and create a short piece of theater using the medium of . Participants create and animate their own char - acters guided by award-winning puppetry director Janni Younge and Handspring Gabriel Marchand and Mongi Mthombeni. The artists introduce the process of thinking and writing for this metaphorical medium, the essentials of technical puppet construction, and the principals of manipulation. Presented by Cal Performances in association with Theatre Bay Area.

Performances: Ubu and the Truth Commission Friday, May 1–Sunday, May 3, 2015 Zellerbach Playhouse Ticketed event; see website for details.

CAL PERFORMANCES 19 RESIDENCY

SYMPOSIUM

IMPOSSIBLE MACHINES : PUPPETS , POLITICS & TRUTH COMMISSIONS Saturday, May 2, 2015, 1–6:30pm Wheeler Auditorium

Epm Key Note : Catherine Cole, Chair and Professor, Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, UC Berkeley.

E:FDpm Living in a Majority/Minority State: Lessons for California from South Africa : James Campbell, Professor in United States History, Stanford University. Belva Davis, Broadcast Journalist. Gillian Hart, Professor and Co-Chair of Undergraduate Major in Development Studies, Department of Geography, UC Berkeley, and author of Rethinking the South African Crisis: Nationalism, Populism, Hegemony . Alan Tansman ( moderator ), Director of the Townsend Center for the Humanities and Professor and Louis B. Agassiz Chair in Japanese, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, UC Berkeley.

F:EHpm About Ubu and the Truth Commission : Jane Taylor, author of Ubu and the Truth Commission and Wole Soyinka Chair of Drama and Theatre Studies at Leeds University, in conversation with Catherine Cole, Chair and Professor, Department of Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies, UC Berkeley.

G:FDpm Puppets and Politics : Ubu and the Truth Commission Director Basil Jones and Associate Director Janni Younge Linda Elbow, Bread and Puppet Theater Claudia Orenstein, Professor and Chair of Department of Theatre, Hunter College, and co-editor of The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance (2014 ) Frank Smigiel ( moderator ), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Associate Curator of Public Programs .

H:GHpm Closing Remarks, Q &A: Ugo Nwokji, Director, Center for African Studies and Professor, Department of African-American Studies and African Diaspora Studies, with Rob Bailis, Associate Director, Cal Performances.

CAMPUS PROGRAMS

Lecture-Demonstrations Wednesday, Friday, and Monday, April 22, 24, and 27, 2015, Durham Studio Janni Younge leads a lecture-demonstration series for students and interested observers on puppet construction and technical design elements, body construction, and bunraku -style puppet control.

Special Workshops Wednesday, April 22, 2015, and Friday, April 25: Special workshops for students in Theater, Dance and Performance Studies on control and precision in puppet manipulation run by Janni Younge, with Gabriel Marchand, Mongi Mthombeni, and Mandiseli Maseti.

PLAYBILL Friday, May 1, 2015, 8pm Saturday, May 2, 2015, 8pm Sunday, May 3, 2015, 3pm & 8pm Zellerbach Playhouse

Handspring Puppet Company e g n u o Y

e k u L

Ubu and the Truth Commission

Conceived and Directed by Written by Jane Taylor Puppets by Adrian Kohler

Ubu and the Truth Commission is a production of Handspring Puppet Company with Associate Producer Quaternaire, and is a co-production of the Edinburgh International Festival (United Kingdom), the Taipei Arts Festival and Taipei Culture Foundation (Taiwan), Festival de Marseille— danse et arts multiples (), the Onassis Cultural Centre (Greece), Cal Performances, and BOZAR Brussels (Belgium). It is supported by the National Arts Festival, South Africa.

This program is made possible, in part, by Patron Sponsors Gail and Daniel Rubinfeld and Art Berliner and Marian Lever. Cal Performances’ 2014–2015 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo.

CAL PERFORMANCES PROGRAM

Handspring Puppet Company

Ubu and the Truth Commission

Director William Kentridge Associate Director Janni Younge Writer Jane Taylor Puppet Designer Adrian Kohler Assistant Puppet Maker Tau Qwelane Animator William Kentridge Assistant Animators Tau Qwelane, Suzie Gable Set Designers Adrian Kohler, William Kentridge Costume Designer Adrian Kohler Costume Makers Phyllis Midlane, Sue Steele Lighting Designer Wesley France Sound Designer Wilbert Schubel Music Warrick , Brendan Jury Choreography Robyn Orlin Animation Editor Catherine Meyburgh TRC Research Antjie Krog Film and Video Research Gail Berhmann

CAST Pa Ubu Dawid Minnaar Ma Ubu Busi Zokufa Puppeteers Gabriel Marchand, Mandiseli Maseti, Mongi Mthombeni

Stage Manager Sonnyboy Pule Setlhako Sound Technician Simon Mahoney Tour Manager and Technical Director Wesley France

Worldwide Representation Quaternaire/Sarah Ford: quaternaire.org

The program will be performed without intermission.

Please note that some loud sounds will be heard during the performance.

PLAYBILL PROGRAM NOTES

animation and documentary footage. The performance draws on both the historical archive of the hearings of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (begun in 1996) and on the dramatic figure of Ubu Roi, a licentious buffoon created by the youthful Alfred Jarry. In this production, Pa Ubu rep - resents the various instruments of violence (policemen, assassins, spies, politi - cians) for whom torture, murder, sex, and food are all elements of a single, gross appetite. The dramatic action is structured around a e g n

u metaphorical tale of marital betrayal. Ma’s o Y

e tragi-comic misinterpretation of Pa’s noctur - k u L nal absences affords us glimpses into the BU AND THE TRUTH COMMISSION , with its devastating complexities of apartheid. Udark and sardonic wit, spectacular and Handspring’s puppets provide poignant testi - disturbing animation, and poignant and finely monies that once formed part of the Truth detailed puppetry, is the quintessential collab - and Reconciliation Commission hearings. oration between William Kentridge and Direction and animation are by William Handspring Puppet Company. Kentridge; the cast includes original actors Ubu and the Truth Commission combines Busi Zokufa and Dawid Minnaar as Ma and puppetry, performance by live actors, music, Pa Ubu.

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS

these different art forms creates a web of com - munication, each element as important as the last. The content of the theater Handspring cre - ates varies greatly. Ranging from lighthearted children’s theater of the early days, socially rel - evant political content of the works created with William Kentridge and to the recent series e g n of pieces with Animals at the heart of their dra - u o Y

e maturgies. Handspring always looks for the k u

L unique contribution of the medium of pup - ANDSPRING PUPPET COMPANY is widely petry to the content of the production. Hrecognized as South Africa’s preeminent Whether the content is drawn from external puppet theater company. Their work spans events or interior landscapes, what character - three decades of creating theater for adults and izes the company’s work is an honest emotional children. Most recently the runaway hit play investment in the subject and a commitment to War Horse , produced by the Royal National giving voice to the team’s humanity. Theatre in London, has firmly established Handspring Puppet Company was founded Handspring as one of the most important in 1981. Based in , it provides an puppet companies in the world. artistic home and professional base for a core Handspring’s work has established its sig - group of performers, designers, theater artists, nature of artistic excellence through the use of and technicians. The company is headed by finely crafted puppets within a live theatrical Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones. Originally the context. The marriage of the disciplines of fine creators of children’s shows, Handspring’s first art and theater is at the heart of the discipline adult production, Episodes of an Easter Rising of puppetry in general and Handspring’s work (1985), gained the company exposure interna - in particular. Founded by four fine arts grad - tionally: Handspring’s work has been presented uates, the artistry of the performing object has in more than 30 countries and has included col - always been a priority for the company. The laborations with many notable directors, in - poetry, innate in the expressive and finely cluding Esther van Ryswyk, Mark Fleishman, crafted objects, forms an integral part of the Malcolm Purkey, Barney Simon, and William dramaturgy of Handspring’s productions. Kentridge. The Company has also collaborated Theater is always a collaborative process. with artists from other parts of Africa, includ - The multidisciplinary nature of puppetry has ing the Sogolon Puppet Troup (Mali) and Koffi led the company to collaborate with some of Koko (Benin), and developed works with cre - the finest artists from South Africa and ative partners from Europe, the United abroad. Handspring remains firmly commit - Kingdom, and the United States, including Tom ted to creating fine South African theater, be - Morris, Neil Bartlett, and Khephra Burns. lieving that a synthesis of disciplines and In addition to its own projects, Handspring collaborative creation leads to some of the has created puppets for 18 productions by most exciting artwork. In the creation of the other companies, including the National work the company always seeks to draw in the Theater’s War Horse , which has been presented skills of other artists including musicians, worldwide. War Horse has earned the company sound designers, lighting designers, choreog - many awards including a Special Tony Award, raphers and, of course, the actors. As puppet an Olivier Award, as well as the Drama Desk, theater moves away from a complete reliance Outer Critics Circle, Los Angeles Drama on text for communication (sometimes using Critics Circle, and Naledi Awards. no text at all), the play of messaging between Visit www.handspringpuppet.co.za.

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

William Kentridge is elected an Honorary Member of the one of South Africa’s American Academy of Arts and Letters and preeminent artists, in - awarded the degree of Doctor of Literature ternationally ac - honoris causa by the University of London. In claimed for his 2012, he delivered the prestigious Norton drawings, films, the - Lectures at Harvard University. ater, and opera pro - Recently, his work has been seen at Tate ductions. Born in Modern in London, Jeu de Paume and Louvre 3 1 0

2 , the son in , La Scala in Milan, Albertina in t r a of two anti-apartheid Vienna, Metropolitan Opera and Museum of a l l u

D lawyers, he studied Modern Art in New York, and the Pinacoteca s y h politics and African do Estado de São Paulo. T studies at the University of Witwatersrand in the 1970s, and later co-founded the Junction Janni Younge is a grad - Avenue Theater Company. He went on to uate of the French na - study mime and theater at the École Jacques tional school of puppet Lecoq in Paris. Back in Johannesburg, he theater and has a B.A. worked in various areas of television, film, in fine art and an M.A. and theater and collaborated on projects with in theater from the e g n

Handspring Puppet Company. u University of Cape o Y

Mr. Kentridge’s work draws on varied e Town. Ms. Younge’s k u sources, including philosophy, literature, early L work has been per - cinema, theater, and opera to create a complex formed locally and internationally, winning universe where good and evil are comple - awards such as the Standard Bank Young Artist mentary and inseparable forces. Although he Award for Theatre 2010, three Fleur Du Cap moves back and forth between media, his pri - Theatre Awards, and four other nominations. mary activity remains drawing and he some - From 2005 to 2011, she was CEO of UNIMA times conceives of his films, theater, and opera SA (South African Puppetry), director of the productions as an expanded form of drawing. Out The Box festival of puppetry and Artistic The artist has spent much of his career in - Director of Sogo Visual Theatre. She has cre - tensively exploring themes that resonate with ated and directed puppetry and masks for, his own life experience as well as with the po - among others, FTH:K, ZANEWS , and the litical issues that most concern him. “I am in - Royal Shakespeare Company. From 2011 to terested in a political art,” he has stated, “that 2014, Ms. Younge was Director and Associate is to say an art of ambiguity, contradiction, Director of Handspring Puppet Company. uncompleted gestures, and uncertain end - She created and directed Ouroboros , which ings.” His work transforms sobering political toured extensively in Europe and India in events into powerful poetic allegories and it 2013. With Handspring, in addition to direct - has continually evolved as his subject matter ing Ouroboros , working in the War Horse has departed from a specifically South African puppet studio, and creating puppets for the context to confront more general concerns of Bristol Old Vic’s Midsummer Night’s Dream , social injustice, revolutionary politics, and the Ms. Younge also directed revivals of William power of creative expression. Kentridge’s Woyzeck on the Highveld and Ubu In 2010, Mr. Kentridge received the Kyoto and the Truth Commission . Ms. Younge now Prize in recognition of his contributions in the runs her own production company, Janni field of arts and philosophy. In 2011, he was Younge Productions.

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Jane Taylor is a South at the time—and another in Birmingham, African who now holds United Kingdom, at the Canon Hill Arts the Wole Soyinka Chair Centre and Weld Community Arts Centre. of Theater at the Mr. Kohler then moved to Botswana to run University of Leeds. the National Popular Theater Program for She is a creative writer three years. His puppets for Handspring have as well as a scholar, cu - been widely acclaimed and exhibited. He has rator, and theater direc - had a solo retrospective at the National tor. Her primary areas Gallery in South Africa, and groups of his of scholarship include early modern theater works have been shown at the Barbican Art studies. In particular Taylor has an interest in Gallery in London and th e Museum for the Reformation and its impact on modes of African Art in New York. His puppets are held staging the self. For some years, she has been in public and private collections including the engaged in the study of puppetry arts and has Constitutional Court in South Africa, the written two puppet plays for Handspring Stadtmuseum in Germany, and the Puppet Company and William Kentridge; and Old Mutual Art Collection. Mr. Kohler re - edited the recent study Handspring Puppet ceived the Michaelis Prize, a lifetime achieve - Company. In 1996, she established “FaultLines,” ment award from Tshwane University (2006) a series of arts responses to the Truth and and an honorary doctorate in literature from Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, the University of Cape Town (2012). the same year she wrote the play text of Ubu and the Truth Commission . Ms. Taylor has lec - Co-founder and tured frequently on the Art and the Politics of Executive Producer of transitional justice. She has published fre - Handspring Puppet quently on the work of Mr. Kentridge and is Company, Basil Jones currently finishing a manuscript for the completed his B.F.A. at

University of Chicago on Mr. Kentridge’s pro - e the University of Cape g n

duction of The Nose at the Metropolitan u Town, where he met o Y

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Opera in New York. She has been a Visiting k his future husband, u Fellow at Oxford and Cambridge universities, L Adrian Kohler. In and has been the recipient of Mellon and 1990, Mr. Jones set up a not-for-profit NGO Rockefeller fellowships. Handspring Trust, which produced the award- winning Spider’s Place , an innovative, multi - Co-founder and Artistic media science education series for TV, radio, Director of Handspring and comics aimed at young learners from dis - Puppet Company, advantaged backgrounds. He set up the Adrian Kohler is con - Handspring Awards for Puppetry, which rec - sidered to be one of the ognize and encourage puppet design, direc -

e world’s leading masters tion, and performance in South Africa. The g n u

o of his medium. His Handspring Trust is involved in a number of Y e k mother was a thought - projects in urban township and rural areas, u L ful amateur , using puppetry as a means to educate and em - who with his father, as yacht builder and cab - power youth and bring communities together inetmaker, gave him a firm grounding in through street parades and performance. He woodwork and the creation of moving figures. speaks and writes on the subject of puppetry A B.A. in fine art at the University of Cape and is deeply interested in growing an inter - Town followed. He then spent a year at the national dialogue on the theater of objects. He Space Theater—the city’s only nonracial venue received the Naledi Executive Directors

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Award (2012), a lifetime achievement award based musical releases. Recent activities include from Tshwane University (2006), and an hon - two music video pieces for the WAM’s Mining orary doctorate in literature from the exhibition : Ngezinyawo: Migrant Journeys and University of Cape Town (2012). new Surfers collaborative online releases through Sjambokmusic.com, as well as special - Wesley France has ist software instrument design for Milestone. more than 30 years ex - perience in lighting de - Brendan Jury is Jury sign and technical Music. Brendan is a coordination for the South African com - performing arts in the poser, producer, and international arena. He musical director who was senior production creates original audio manager for the solutions for the live Market Theater in Johannesburg for eight event, film, television, years. He has been nominated numerous times commercial, and for a Vita Award for Best Lighting Design (for music industry markets. Lara Foot’s production of Waiting for Godot , Since 2006, Mr. Jury has also worked inter - among others) and recently was nominated for nationally with Q Department in New York as a Naledi Theater Award for James Ncgobo’s one of their preferred composers. Although production of Nongogo . Mr. France has been based in Johannesburg, he has the ability to company manager and lighting supervisor for work successfully with remote clients both in - many international tours. Since 1991, he has ternationally and within South Africa. worked and toured extensively with Jury Music has forged a broad range of Handspring Puppet Company and William artistic relationships with leading musicians Kentridge, for their productions Woyzeck on in South Africa and abroad. Mr. Jury has col - the Highveld , Faustus in Africa , Il Ritorno laborated with the likes of Vusi Mahlasela, d’Ulisse , Zeno at 4am , and Confessions of Zeno , Arno Carstens, Loyiso, TK, Proverb, the and he is delighted to be touring again with Parolotones, Kabelo, Hip-Hop Pantsula, Jabu Ubu and the Truth Commission . Kanyile, and Blondie Makhene, and regularly works with the backing singers of Miriam Warrick Sony is a Makeba and Johnny Clegg. Jury Music has South African com - won various accolades, including PROMAX poser, producer, musi - World Gold & Silver awards. cian, and sound designer based in Cape Born in 1955 in y t r e Town at Milestone Johannesburg, Robyn h g u o Orlin

D Studios. He has been studied at the o t s i r involved in music com - London School of h C position, sonic art, and Contemporary Dance n a l p sound for films, theater, museums, and exhibi - a from 1975 to 1980. K

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tions, as well as performing his own music at r With the help of a a J

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home and abroad. He is the founder and sole g Fulbright scholarship, e permanent member of the Kalahari Surfers, a P she then completed fictional music group, which became well her master’s in fine art at the School of the Art known for its brand of politically radical, Institute of Chicago from 1990 to 1993. She satirical music in 1980s South Africa, and is has been working consistently on her own still on the cutting edge of social comment- work in South Africa from then onwards .

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Nicknamed in South Africa “a permanent Louis , commissioned by the Louvre and the irritation,” Ms. Orlin is well known for re - Festival d’Automne in Paris. In 2010 , she pre - flecting the difficult and complex realities in sented Call it…kissed by the sun…better still her country. Integrating different media (text, the revenge of geography… , a solo for the video, plastic arts) she investigates a certain French hip-hop dancer Ibrahim Sissoko with theatrical reality, which has enabled her to live graphic illustration by Maxime Rebiere. In find her unique choreographic vocabulary. 2011 , Have you hugged, kissed and respected One often owes her uniqueness to her enter - your Brown venue today? was presented at taining titles: If you can’t change the world, Festival d’Automne in Paris and on tour in change your curtains (1990 ); The Polka dot Luxembourg, Monaco, and at many other fes - lives on! (1995 ) for the Soweto Dance Theater; tivals. She created Beauty remained for just a Naked on a goat (1996 ); Orpheus…I mean moment then returned gently to her starting po - Euridice…I mean the natural history of a cho - sition… at Biennale de Lyon in 2012. This rus girl (1998 ), which obtained the FNB Vita piece was performed at Théâtre National de Dance Umbrella award for choreography; Chaillot for the official opening of the South Daddy, I’ve seen this piece six times before and African season in France. In 2013, she created I still don’t know why they’re hurting each other in a world full of butterflies, it takes balls to be (1999 ); F… (Untitled) (2000 ); We must eat our a Caterpillar… in Reunion Island and at suckers with the wrapper on and The future Bastille Theater part of Festival d’Automne in may be bright, but it’s not necessarily orange Paris. In 2014, she created a new piece for (2001 ); Ski-Fi-Jenni…and the frock of the new, Festival d’Avignon. a piece loosely based on the myth of Iphigeni , at In parallel to these creations, Ms. Orlin de - Montpellier Dance Festival in July 2002; veloped a work of artistic collaboration, no - Although I live inside… , a solo for Sophiatou tably with William Kentridge, within the Kososko ( 2004 ); and When I take off My framework of the creation of Ubu and the Skin… , at MC2 in Grenoble (2005). In sum - Truth Commission (1997), and with Sophie mer 2005, she created a solo piece for Vera Loucachevsky and Jonas Gongwa in 1998. In Mantero in Aix en Provence , “ Hey Dude, I 2004, commissioned by INA and Arte, have talent, I am just waiting for God ....” Ms. Orlin directed a short film, Beautés Ms. Orlin directed Handel’s L’allegro, il cachées, sales histories . She was in residency at penseroso ed il moderato at Paris’s National Centre National de la Danse in Paris from Opéra in 2007. During the 2007–2008 season, 2005 to 2007 . In this frame, she rebuilt she created a piece for the Via Katlehong Daddy… and We must eat… and also created Dance in Créteil, part of Festival d’Automne. a piece in neighborhood cafés and gave many In 2008, in Liège, Belgium, she created a piece workshops and lectures. with Swenkas, Dressed to kill…Killed to dress.... In 1999 she obtains the third price at the Ms. Orlin was invited by Paris’s Opéra African Rencontres Chorégraphiques, and in Comique to direct the Gershwins’ opera Porgy 2000 the Jan Fabre Price for the most subver - and Bess in May 2008 . Walking next to our sive work at the International Choreographic shoes…intoxicated by strawberries and cream, Meetings in Seine-Saint-Denis. Ms. Orlin won we enter continents without knocking… was the 2002 Laurence Olivier Award for created with the Phuphuma Love Minus Outstanding Achievement in Dance for the singers and presented as part of Banlieues creative originality of her show Daddy... . Bleues Festival in 2009. She pursued the Ms. Orlin was made Knight in the French babysitting series with another piece for the National Order of Merit by France Musée du Louvre entitled Babysitting Petit Ambassador Denis Pietton in 2009.

PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Busisiwe Busi Zokufa Her other theater credits include Sister Plus , received training as a Slings and Arrows , The Chimp Project , Zeno at teacher, actress, singer, 4am , The Confessions of Zeno , The Best language advisor, pup - Wedding Ever , Our Father , Ma’s Got the Blues peteer, storyteller, and and Amen , Faustus in Africa , Tearjekker , writer. She taught at Wathintabafazi Wathintantimbo Kodo , April Lesedi Early Learning Fool’s Child , and Tall Horse . Ms. Zokufa re - Centre in Daveyton ceived Shoprite Checkers Woman of the and sang as a vocalist Year Nomination. with various bands between 1986 and 1990. Her television credits include Khayeluthu , She performed with Sibikwa players in So Chicken Bizniz , Emzini Wesinsizwa, Stokfel , Where To? directed by Smal Ndaba and Home Affairs , Isidingo , and Generation . Phyllis Klotz. Ms. Zokufa has performed for Human Rights Conference in , Since graduating from Cape Town, Johannesburg and Edinburgh. the Universities of She also performed in Zurich, London and at Stellenbosch and Cape the Women Conference held in Zimbabwe Town, Dawid Minnaar in 1990. has worked extensively Ms. Zokufa was trained as a puppeteer by on stage, television, Handspring Puppet Company and starred in and film in South Starbrites directed by Barney Simon, which Africa. For the last toured London, Dublin, Cambridge, seven years he has Birmingham and Nottingham. She was in - done mainly television work, but in between volved in a French film Waati directed by these commitments managed to do several Souleymanne Cisse in 1992. The same year plays as well as a major Afrikaans film. His Ms. Zokufa toured with Handspring’s most recent stage work includes Truth in Woyzeck on the Highveld , which toured Translation , which also had as its subject mat - Canada, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Scotland, ter the Truth Commission in South Africa Sweden and the USA. She appeared in the and which toured the now autonomous re - opening act at the New York International gions of the former Yugoslavia. He also per - Festival in Chicago and also in Australia, formed in Arial Dorfman’s Purgatorio for the France and Israel. Baxter Theater Centre in Cape Town and re - Ms. Zokufa taught puppetry to school chil - cently played the title role in an Afrikaans dren at the Civic Theater in Johannesburg translation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth , under with Alida van der Venter. Between 1995 and the direction of Marthinus Basson. Ubu and 1996, together with Handspring Puppet the Truth Commission is the second of three Company, she toured Copenhagen, Hong productions which Mr. Minnaar did for Kong, New Zealand, Australia, Switzerland, Handspring Puppet Company under the di - Norway, France, Germany, and Columbia. rection of William Kentridge, the other two She received Best Actress Nomination in the being Faustus in Africa and The Confessions of 1997 –1998 Vita Awards. During this period Zeno . He also played renowned Afrikaans she toured internationally with Ubu and the poet and naturalist Eugène Marais in a recent Truth Commission and appeared in Return of Katinka Heyns film Die Wonderwerker (“The Ulysses directed by William Kentridge. Miracle Worker”).

CAL PERFORMANCES ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Gabriel Marchand the prestigious invitation to be a performer for graduated with honors the renowned Cirque du Soleil. in acting from the A skilled performer in physical theater, University of Cape mask, and puppetry, Mr. Mthombeni joined Town in 2009. He has Handspring Puppet Company in 2011 as the since however been lead in William Kentridge’s Woyzeck on the developing his skills as Highveld and has never looked back. a puppeteer, working Mr. Mthombeni is currently working with with various Cape Handspring Puppet Theater Company on the Town-based theater companies. His credits in - international tour of Ubu and the Truth clude various other Handspring productions, Commission . He is also an Artist-in-Residence including Woyzeck on the Highveld , directed with the University of Western Cape. by Wlliam Kentridge; Ouroboros , directed by Janni Younge’ and I Love You When You’re Mandiseli Maseti was Breathing , written by Basil Jones and directed born in Mtata, a small by Jason Potgieter. When not working with village of Umtentu in Handspring, he puppeteers on the satirical Eastern Cape. He went puppet show for television, ZANEWS , collab - to Cris Hani Focus orates on independent productions and School of Arts and teaches and directs puppetry. He stills acts trained at UNIMA SA from time to time but generally believes pup - as a puppeteer and pets are better at it than he is. puppet constructor. Mandiseli has worked with Isibane Drama Mongi Mthombeni Group, Paper Body Collective, Both Worlds has been involved in (ZANEWS ), UNIMA SA, Help to Read Behind the theater and film in - the Couch and Handspring Puppet Company. dustry for ten years, He toured garden root with UNIMA SA to with experience in Outhsorn, George, Knysna and Plettenburg over 50 film and the - Bay, and also toured 105 schools with the show ater productions rang - Jabulani and the Book produced by UNIMA SA ing from physical and Help to Read. Mandiseli is now touring the com edy to tragic world with Handspring Puppet Company as a drama to opera. Some of the most striking puppeteer. He would like to thank his family for productions include works by Andrew supporting him all the way with special thanks Buckland, Fortune Cookie Theater Company, to Janni Younge who introduced him to the Market Theater, and Well Worn Theater world of puppets and his first professional piece Company. A highlight of his 2006 season was Umsintsi (The Lucky Bean Tree) .

PLAYBILL