Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival, Ismail Mohamed, is on a team bidding next week to host a prestigious international children's theatre conference in South Africa in 2017.
Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival, Ismail Mohamed, is on a team bidding next week to host a prestigious international children's theatre conference in South Africa in 2017.
The bid happens at the 18th Association International du Theatre pour l´Enfance et la Jeunesse (Assitej) World Congress and Performing Arts Festival, in Warsaw, Poland from 23 to 31 May.
Assitej's mission is to unite theatres, organisations and individuals throughout the world that are dedicated to theatre for children and young people.
If the bid succeeds, it will be the first Assitej World Congress to be held in Africa since the organisation was launched in 1965 and will be themed 'Cradle of Creativity', a nod to Africa's status as the Cradle of Humankind.
The bid has been supported by various organizations, including the National Arts Festival.
The National Arts Festival will again host the Assitej Family Fare this year, based at Oatlands Preparatory School.
Vicky’s and Memory Hall are Assitej satellite venues for the 12 productions, across the three indoor venues and various outdoor spaces.
These include musical theatre troupe BATIDA from Denmark, who will perform a production on the Main Festival, Ouverture, as well as a Fringe production entitled A Man Called Rolex.
DJT de Reus from the Netherlands will be performing a visual theatre production called Maarten Sparrow Flies Out, a highly visual and engaging production for kids over four, which takes the form of a thrilling road-movie.
A collaboration between Well-worn Theatre, Jungle Theatre and Seka Theatre will see a production called The Baobab being performed in the Botanical Gardens.
The play explores the fundamental question of our relationship to nature today.
Other interesting children's theatre pieces include Colours of the Rainbow with Princess and Frog, a delightful not-quite fairy-tale suitable for the 0 – 6 set.
Also for the tots is Double the Fun, a delightful interactive double-bill from Cherry the clown, aka Adi Paxton, and Fishy Flippers, a clowning treat, full of slapstick antics and a charming story of friendship discovered.
Get Kraken is a tale of high adventure with poachers, plucky heroes, ice-cold villains, breath-taking battles and a sea monster bigger than your imagination.
Memory tells the story of why man kills the elephant, while Narrative Dreams is an evocative story about growing up, being alone and finding friends.
Being Norm is a display of pure mime artistry, highly physical and wildly funny.
This simple yet bizarre adventure of one man’s humble struggle against the universe, which conspires to make his life difficult, is pure family fun.
Finally, for older teenagers, the beautifully moving A Girl Called Owl will be returning.
This play, starring Briony Horwitz, looks at a young girl's experiences as she leaves behind childhood in a small town environment.
