A surreal and larger than life outdoor performance tells the story of a girl through movement and dance. Hiding in a tree house, she cries herself to sleep and dreams the sounds of her garden, which turn into music. She dreams of two old giant butterflies dancing a dance of love. The male catches the pregnant female’s eggs and hangs them on a leaf where they hatch and grow into giant caterpillars. A hungry black crow is hunting and the haunted girl wakes up inside her dream to challenge the predator and protect the miracle of life.
Butterfly Dreams is the creation of Jungle Theatre Company’s Laduma Jungle team and was developed as the final part of a National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund funded trained programme. It was directed by Vincent Meyburgh with set and costume design by Monique Fagan of Junkanew. Through the actors’ involvement in choreography, writing, composing, designing and making, Butterfly Dreams fosters a closer link between the actors’ experience, characters’ stories, the music and creation of images.
The production was performed as community event at the start of the school holidays in December 2011. It was partly commissioned for the KKNK in 2012 and was staged at a number of festivals during 2012 i.e. Khayelitsha Cocktale Festival, International Kite Festival, Harfield Village Carnival and Hout Bay Green Faire. With funding received from the National Arts Council and Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport the show was recently re-developed during 2015 and performed in Muizenberg early December 2015 and the Company Gardens in March 2016. During February 2017 Butterfly Dreams was performed as part of JTC’s Our Beaches Our Stories project which brought public art performances to public recreational spaces i.e. Monwabisi, Strandfontein and Muizenberg Pavilions, promoting natural and cultural heritage.
Does anyone have any idea what the impact of the pandemic of HIV and AIDS is having on our children and their family life? How does one approach this sensitive subject? Did you know that a live theatre show like, Tand’ Impilo can open up a safe space to discuss the subject and this forum can save lives?
Objective
Creating a visual experience using CREATIVE ARTS and MAGIC to show easy examples of how to re-duce, re-use and up-cycle with objects found in the house. In doing that, the students will understand what these concepts are and why they are important. Using STORYTELLING AND by giving them each materials that they can DESIGN into an up-cycled creative art at home themselves, creates a full rounded and internal experience to inspire them to care for the earth.
About the Director:
Studying performing arts and teaching in drama at the Waterfront Theatre College, she taught drama at the Stellenbosch Waldorf School for 3 years and in 2016 she was a part of a programme called ‘Miss Earth South Africa’ and became one of 16 National finalists. At the end of the year she wrote a play called “The Recycling adventures of Reece”. A play that aims to inspire children and up lift them through storytelling and teaches them about taking care of the earth.
Details:
Limited
amount
of students: 100
Price includes
(For each student): Materials to create an up-cycled design for themselves. (There are options and depends on what each school prefers.)
Production runs once a year during the months of May and June.
Vision statement:
To create a sustainable difference and educate our children through storytelling, inspiring them to care for the earth so that they can have a greener future.
The Whale Show is a family production that uses a large puppetry to enlighten and entertain the audience. The two protagonists have spent so much time with whales they behave just like them and even speak whale language, sharing their awe and wonder of these magical creatures. Themes include similarities and differences between whales and humans, threats to whales and whale facts and figures. The audience is encouraged to think critically about their values and the importance of whale conservation when the audience is invited to stop the giant harpoon.
The Whale Show is 45 minutes in duration and is suitable for Grades R – 3. An accompanying drama skills workshop of 45 minutes is also available.
After a 3 year hiatus The Whale Show, based on Heathcote Williams’ ‘Whale Nation’, returned to the stage in 2011 opening with a run at Kalk Bay Theatre. Created in 2001, the play has toured the National Arts Festival; Out The box festival, the Whale Festival in Hermanus; and numerous schools as part of International Fund for Animal Welfare’s (IFAW) outreach education and awareness campaigns including twinning programmes with underprivileged and privileged schools. It has also been included in the YES programme for Marine Week and enjoyed successful public runs in Knysna, Plettenberg Bay and Muizenberg in 2008. In October 2015 The Whale Show traveled to the Overstrand region where it was performed for learners from local schools. The show was last performed at the City of Cape Town, Biodiversity Management Staff at their year end function in November 2016.
Patchwork is South Africa’s first professional show created just for 1-4 year olds. It was developed through intense research with the age group, to develop a theatrical language that meets our audience eye-to-eye, mind-to-mind. The show is designed to engage and delight the senses and imagination, promote empathy and create a bonding experience for children and their caregivers. Told through the languages of physical theatre, puppetry and live music (by Pedro The Music Man) the show is accessible to children of all languages and backgrounds.
Patchwork unfolds around a bed: the place where the comfort of home meets the strange world of dreams. In this world pillows become creatures learning to fly, a sheet dances with a life of its own, a teddy and a lamp makes best friends, and the proverbial cow jumps over the moon (as do the sheep and the dinosaur)!
The whole experience is carefully orchestrated to both calm and delight, making sure no little ones are left behind. ‘Patchwork’ promises to be a one-of-a-kind first theatre experience.
Patchwork is an experiential rather than educational show, however it will engage children on concepts such as bedtime, friendship, music, big and small, losing and finding. It will also stimulate imagination and creativity, and engage empathy and focus.
MEMORY is a story for all ages that speaks about the universal impulse of loving animals.
They say that somewhere in Africa the elephants have a secret grave where they go to lie down, unburden their wrinkled gray bodies, and soar away, light spirits at the end.
Robert R. McCammon
MEMORY is a truly African story. It has been created for a purpose to allow the public into why man has hunted/hunts the elephant. Using equal demographics and four part harmonies to original music throughout the show, MEMORY has been well received by all aged audiences especially for the well-known Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s highly detailed animal passion images. It is like going to a real life zoo in the safe space of the theatre.
First adapted in 2014 and set in a classroom, this production brings eight of the most famous short stories writers (that include South Africans) to life. Stories include The Dube Train, by Can Themba, Manhood, by John Wain and many more!
FISHY FLIPPERS is an interactive, spontaneous and playful storytelling show, about a boy who finds a penguin on his doorstep. The clowns invite the audience to explore the shores of their imagination as the boy and the penguin set off on an adventure in search of home, only to find it within each other. This is a story of an unusual and delightful friendship, told by two (very silly) clowns!
Brought to you by CREATIVE BEANS, this award-winning clown and storytelling show for children has been performed internationally since 2011. In 2013 Fishy Flippers won the Audience Favourite award at Musho! Festival and went on to enjoy great success during the ASSITEJ Family Season in the Western Cape. The show was created and performed by Nadia Woodward (clown & performer from South Africa) and Annabel Morgan (clown & storyteller from Swaziland), in collaboration with Clowns Without Borders South Africa.
Hans is baie ongelukkig, want sy broers het elkeen ‘n groot erfporsie by hul pa gekry, en hy het vir Kiets gekry. ‘n Kat. Wat doen mens met ‘n kat? Of eerder, wat kan ‘n kat vir jou beteken as jy honger en werkloos is? Maar Kiets laat hom nie onderkry deur Hans se negatiwiteit nie, Hy maak ‘n plan, of drie!