Annex 1
Company Profile of Handspring Puppet Company
Handspring Puppet Company, founded in 1981 by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, initially focused on creating plays for children. But this changed in 1985, when they produced their first adult play, Episodes of an Easter Rising. Directed by Esther van Ryswyk, the play was well-received in major South African cities and at the 7th International Festival of Puppet Theatre in Charleville-Mézzières, France.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream (also directed by van Ryswyk) followed in 1987, Carnival of the Bear (directed by Mark Fleishman) in 1988 and Tooth and Nail (directed by Malcolm Purkey of Junction Avenue Theatre Company) in 1989.
Handspring’s first major international success came in 1991 when Starbrites, a fable about renewal and directed by Barney Simon, performed for six weeks in London.
In 1992 with Woyzeck on the Highveld, Handspring began the first of several collaborations with William Kentridge - and for the first time combined puppets and film animation.
The company is currently working on a new production with the Sogolon Puppet Troupe from Mali and choreographer Koffi Koko from Benin, among others. An exhibition of their puppets, Episodes, which was on a nationwide tour from mid 2001, ended at the South African National Gallery in Cape Town in March 2003.
Annex 2
Profile of Director, Composer, and Writer
William Kentridge
Director
William Kentridge has gained international recognition for his distinctive animated short films, and for the charcoal drawings he makes in producing them. But Kentridge has worked in theatre for many years, initially in designing and acting, and more recently, as director. Since 1992 his theatre involvement has been in collaboration with Handspring Puppet Company – creating multi-media performance work using actors, puppets, projected images and animation, words and music. While he has throughout his career moved between film, drawing and theatre, Kentridge’s primary activity remains drawing – and he sometimes conceives his theatre and film work as an expanded form of drawing.
Since participating in Dokumenta X in Kassel in 1997, solo shows of Kentridge’s work have been hosted by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and MCA San Diego, and, during 1998 and 1999, a survey exhibition of his work was seen in Brussels, Munich, Barcelona, London, Marseilles and Graz. In 1999 he was awarded the Carnegie Medal. February 2001 saw the launch of a substantial survey show of Kentridge’s work at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, traveling after that to New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Cape Town. Recent projects include a shadow oratorio, Confessions of Zeno, seen (with the associated film Zeno Writing) at Dokumenta XI in 2002.
His projects for 2003 include a commission for large bronze figures for the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth, a survey exhibition to open in Turin in November, planning for an exhibition to tour venues in Japan, China and Korea and preliminary work towards a production of Mozart’s Magic Flute, scheduled for 2005. In October this year, William Kentridge will receive the Goslar Kaisserring in recognition of his contribution to contemporary art.
Kevin Volans
Composer
Kevin Volans was born in South Africa. From 1973 to 1981 he lived in Cologne where he studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen and later became his teaching assistant. He is now an Irish citizen and lives in Dublin.
In the late 1970s, following several field-recording trips to Africa, he embarked on a series of pieces based on African compositional techniques that quickly established Volans as a distinctive voice on the European new music circuit.
Since the mid 1980s his work has been extensively performed and broadcast worldwide. Sixteen compact discs which feature his music are currently available, two of which, performed by Kronos, have reached the top of the classical charts.
Recent commissions include a concerto for the double orchestra for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, an orchestral work, Strip-Weave, for the Ulster Orchestra, a piano trio for the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, a trumpet and string quartet for the Tromp Musiek Bienniale, a string quartet for the Norwegian quartet Cikada, commissioned by Up North Festival in Dublin, and a work for percussion for the Norwegian percussion group Sisu.
Jane Taylor
Writer
Jane Taylor is a South African who has worked for two decades in cultural practice and cultural critique. In 1987 she edited (with David Bunn) From South Africa, a collection of graphics and writing covering the years of the State of Emergency in South Africa (University of Chicago Press). In 1996 she curated Fault Lines – an exhibiton conceived to engage with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In the same year she wrote Ubu and the Truth Commission for William Kentridge and Handspring Puppet Company.
In 1999 she was a Rockefeller Fellow, and she curated Holdings: Refiguring the Archive. In 2001 she wrote Zeno at 4am which has been absorbed into the larger work, Confessions of Zeno. She has a PhD from Northwestern University, Chicago USA, and currently holds the Skye Chair of Dramatic Art at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. She is currently writing a book on the history of affect and the performance of sincerity, and is working on a new play script.
Annex 3
Profile of Cast and Puppeteers
Dawid Minnaar
Zeno
Dawid Minnaar completed drama studies at the Universities of Cape Town and Stellenbosch, started his career as a professional actor in 1981 and has been in the field ever since. He has worked extensively on stage throughout South Africa in productions such as Aars (directed by Marthinus Basson and performed at the Spier Summer Festival in 2002 and the Potchefstroom and Oudtshoorn Festivals) and Gert Garries, an adaptation of Eugene le Roux’s Magersforntein O Magersfontein (also directed by Basson and performed at the Oudtshoorn Festival). His work with Handspring includes Faustus in Africa, Ubu and the Truth Commission, and Zeno at 4am.
Otto Maidi
Zeno’s father (bass)
This is Zonderwater Prison warder Otto Maidi’s first major solo singing role in a production which has toured internationally. He has, however, successfully auditioned for chorus parts in State Theatre productions such as Porgy and Bess. Maidi has been singing since he was a boy – first in his local Sunday school choir, later in the choirs at his primary and high schools. He remains a member of his local church choir. He recently enrolled as a music student at the Pretoria Technikon and has since been invited to apply for a two-year opera course at Dallas University in the United States of America. Maidi will be singing baritone in a work composed by Mzilikazi Khumalo for a South African television show to be broadcast in September.
Ntokozo Xaba
Zeno’s wife Augusta (soprano)
Currently studying towards a Masters Degree in Music at the University of Natal in Durban, Ntokozo Xaba also performs with Kwa Shaka Dynamics, a dance and music group which has released an album under the Sony music label. As an opera student and member of the KwaZulu Natal choir, Xaba has sung a range of classical opera pieces by Handel, Haydn and Mozart, as well as for roles in two new operas by Mzilikazi Khumalo – uShaka and Princess Magogo.
Pumeza Matshikiza
Zeno’s mistress Carla (soprano)
Pumeza Matshikiza initially registered to study Quantity Surveying at the University of Cape Town. After a year, she changed her mind and is currently completing a Performer’s Diploma in Music at the university’s College of Music. Since Matshikiza switched to music in 2000, she has twice been awarded the College of Music’s prize for best vocal student. She has performed on several occasions at the annual Spier Summer Festival in, among others, Dido and Aeneas and West Side Story.
Fourie Nyamande
Puppeteer
Nyamande’s acting career started with Skhwenene Dhlamini’s productions of Reaping the Whirlwind and Faces of Madiba in 1994 and 1995. In 1997 and 1998 he studied drama at the Market Theatre Laboratory. His first work as a puppeteer with Handspring Puppet Company was on The Chimp Project in 2000 and he has subsequently worked with the company on Zeno at 4 am, the precursor to Confessions of Zeno. He recently premiered the role of Simon Nkoli in Your Loving Simon by Robert Coleman at the Market Theatre.
Tau Qwelane
Puppeteer
Qwelane began working as a puppeteer with Handspring in 1994 and has worked on their productions of Woyzeck on the Highveld, Faustus in Africa, The Chimp Project, Ubu and the Truth Commission, IL Ritorno d’Ulisse, Zeno at 4am and Confessions of Zeno as a puppeteer and puppet-maker. Qwelane has also worked as a translator, actor and technical assistant in theatre and film.
Busi Zokufa
Puppeteer
Zokufa was born into a family of musicians and her early professional work was as a vocalist. In 1987 she joined Sibikwa Players in Daveyton where her first stage role was in So Where To? which played at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg and also toured abroad. Zokufa performed as a puppeteer for the first time in 1990 with Handspring in Barney Simon's Starbrites. She has since performed as a puppeteer with Handspring in Spider's Place, Woyzeck on the Highveld, Faustus in Africa, The Chimp Project, Ubu and the Truth Commission, Il Ritorno d'Ulisse and Zeno at 4am. She also does television drama work and recently appeared at the Market Theatre in Bruce Koch’s production of Best Wedding Ever.
Annex 4
Profile of The Sontonga Quartet
Formed in 2002, the quartet was named in honour of Enoch Sontonga who composed Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, which became part of South Africa’s national anthem in 1994 and is the national anthem of several other African countries. The quartet comprises the following members:
Marc Uys
First Violin
Marc Uys has received a number of prestigious awards and scholarships including the Sasol Music Prize for Overseas Study. Uys has toured internationally with Jeunesse Musicales and has performed as soloist with several South African orchestras in recitals and concerts promoting contemporary South African works. Uys plays a fine Italian instrument on generous loan from the Lindbergh Arts Foundation.
Waldo Alexander
Second Violin
Waldo Alexander is a former concertmaster of the University of Cape Town’s Symphony Orchestra and of the university’s Jazz String Ensemble. He was the soloist in the National School of Arts concerto festivals for three years and has appeared on national television in South Africa. Alexander is also acclaimed as a pop musician performing in live performance and recordings with top South African bands.
Xandi van Dijk
Viola
Xandi van Dijk, who is also a conductor, has attended international master classes, performed as a soloist in Holland and America, and has won several prestigious prizes, such as the Overall Winner of the Volkskas National Youth Music Competition and the University of Natal Prize. He has played as soloist with several South African orchestras.
Brian Choveaux
Cello
Brian Choveaux has performed extensively with the Schwietering Quartet, the piano trio Triptisch and I Grandi Violoncellisti, a sextet of cellists, and has won such awards as first prize in the Oude Meester Chamber Music Festival in 1994. He is also an orchestral musician and soloist and plays on an 1842 JB Vuillaume cello.
Wesley France
Tour Manager and Lighting Designer
France has 20 years experience in production, company management and lighting design for the performing arts. He was senior production manager for the Market Theatre in Johannesburg for eight years and has been nominated numerous times for a Vita Award for Best Lighting Design. France has been company manager and lighting supervisor for many international tours.
Leigh Colombick
Stage Manager
Colombick first worked with Handspring during her period as stage manager at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg between 1989 and 1993, when she stage-managed Starbrites. She has since worked with Handspring on The Chimp Project, Zeno at 4am and Confessions of Zeno. For the past nine years she has been freelancing internationally.
Simon Mahoney
Sound Engineer
Mahoney has worked extensively on sound in the theatre, film and television studios. His theatre experience includes engineering sound for the Handspring / Kentridge production, Faustus in Africa!, and engineering sound for musicals like A Chorus Line and Fiddler on the Roof.