Lecture, Performance

From South Africa, via London, comes Warhorse, the hugely successful theater and puppetry collaboration between Cape Town’s Handspring Puppet Company and the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain. Warhorse is based on the celebrated novel by British writer Michael Morpurgo. Set in World War I, the novel speaks of the immense slaughter of soldiers on all sides told from the perspective of an English farm horse. It will open at Lincoln Center on April 14, 2011.

On the eve of the premiere, Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, founders of Handspring Puppet Company and winners of Olivier, Evening Standard and Critics Circle Awards for this piece, converse with South African-born poet, author, and scholar Yvette Christiansë and puppeteer Dan Hurlin. They focus on puppetry as a contemporary medium of communication and advocacy, and look at what the artists have defined as object as verb, movement as thought and the authorial audience.

Come hear writer, curator and scholar Jane Taylor speak on Tuesday April 12, 7:00-9:00 p.m. at Cabinet. Taylor has worked with Handspring in developing two major works: the script for Ubu and the Truth Commission and the libretto for The Confessions of Zeno.

The extraordinary success of Warhorse has drawn attention to Handsprings decades-long experiments and innovations in the art of puppetry and their remarkable contribution to theater in South Africa. Founded in 1981 by Basil Jones, Adrian Kohler, Jill Joubert and Jon Weinberg, the company has produced eleven plays and two operas, often directly addressing pressing political concerns such as the proceedings of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. They have collaborated with many artists including Malis Sogolon Puppet Troupe and South African artist William Kentridge, and have appeared in over two hundred venues in South Africa and abroad.

Participants
Yvette Christiansë, Visiting Professor of Africana Studies, Barnard College, and Associate Professor of English, Fordham University
Dan Hurlin, puppeteer and Director of the Graduate Program in Theater, Sarah Lawrence College
Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, Handspring Puppet Company

At Cabinet
Jane Taylor, CEO of Handspring Trust

The event is co-sponsored by the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons The New School for Design.