Pillow Fort Theatre tours to creches in Johannesburg this September, in partnership with ASSITEJ SA and UJ Arts & Culture; as well as offering a workshop to professionals interested in making theatre for toddlers, and a performance open to members of the public.
ASSITEJ SA, in partnership with UJ Arts & Culture (a division of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture at University of Johannesburg), will host a workshop and performance series by acclaimed theatre company, Pillow Fort Theatre. As one of the companies pioneering the creation of work which engages young children, they will be touring their show ‘Just Here’ to creches in the Johannesburg area in the mornings, but will also make a performance open to members of the public, as well as a workshop series for anyone interested in learning more about creating this type of theatre. Both the public performance and workshop series will be hosted at the UJ Art Centre on the University’s Kingsway Campus in Auckland Park.
Pillow Fort Theatre specialises in making artistically-conceived theatre productions for the very young, and particularly pre-verbal children. The workshop series for theatre professionals, students and anyone else interested in learning more about creating this type of theatre will take place at the UJ Arts Centre on Tuesday 25th September 14:00 – 17:00, Thursday 27th 14:00 – 17:00 and the whole day on Saturday 29th September, 09:00 – 15:00. Attendance at this three-day workshop series costs R150 for ASSITEJ SA members and R300 for non-members and can be booked through UJ Arts & Culture, via their website: www.uj.ac.za/arts ASSITEJ members should contact ASSITEJ for their promo code to access their discounted workshop rate).
‘Just Here’ will be performed in the Large Studio at the UJ Arts Centre on Saturday 29th September at 09:00, at a cost of R40 per person. All ages are welcome, and tickets can be booked via www.uj.ac.za/arts
‘Just Here’ is the latest offering from Pillow Fort Theatre Productions, the company behind the highly acclaimed ‘Patchwork’, which won ‘Best International Performance’ at the 2015 Festival of Theatre for Children and Youth in Iran. Directed by Handspring puppeteer Gabriel Marchand, featuring Asanda Rilityana and Roshina Ratnam, and with handmade instruments and original music by Pedro Espi-Sanchis (Pedro the Music Man); this production has toured successfully to Reunion Island, Italy, Germany, and Hungary.
It is a unique piece of puppetry theatre about a little someone called Kodu, who finds herself in an unfamiliar place, far from home and from the people she knows. Unable to leave her bed, but with a little magic and the power of her own imagination, Kodu goes on an enchanting adventure. It is created for 1-3 year olds and meets this special audience eye-to-eye, mind-to-mind. For a trailer of the production, go to http://www.designindaba.com/videos/interviews/making-theatre-specifically-kids-below-age-2
‘Just Here’ was created with the support of ASSITEJ SA and the South African National Arts Council and has previously toured to creches in Limpopo, the North West and the Northern Cape with support from ASSITEJ SA, where successful workshops with artists led to the development of new productions. ASSITEJ SA hopes that the works inspired by these workshops will get their first outing at the ASSITEJ SA / UJ Family Theatre Festival to be hosted by UJ Arts & Culture from 26 November – 9 December 2018. The best works may be invited to participate in some way in ASSITEJ SA’s international theatre for young audiences festival, Cradle of Creativity, to be held from 20-25 August 2019 in Cape Town at the Baxter Theatre.
For more information, contact Alison at ASSSITEJ SA via education@assitej.org.za or 011 028 6638. ASSITEJ members should contact ASSITEJ for their promo code to access their discounted workshop rate.