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Handspring Puppet Company and the making of War Horse

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One of Nelson Mandela Bay’s homegrown talents, Adrian Kohler, will be back in town to share the story behind the production of the award-winning puppets for the stage production of War Horse. The talk will take place at the NELSON MANDELA METROPOLITAN ART MUSEUM on Saturday, 28 June 2014 at 16:30 for 17:00. This event has been organised by Grizel Hart from the Castle Hill Museum and will form part of Nelson Mandela Bay’s programme to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War.

The internationally acclaimed Handspring Puppet Company was founded by Adrian Kohler and his partner, Basil Jones, in 1981. In 2007, Kohler and Jones worked with directors Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris and choreographer Toby Sedgwick to design and construct life-sized horse puppets for the play War Horse, which premiered at the Royal National Theatre in London, England. The masterfully hand-crafted puppets require a three-man team to animate their movements and represent ground-breaking innovation in the field of puppetry.

Adrian’s love and talent for puppet making was fostered by his parents, Thelma and Harold. The Kohler family lived in Redhouse, Port Elizabeth, where Thelma ran a nursery school that included puppet shows as part of the day’s entertainment. With Adrian and the rest of the family’s help, these amateur shows, staged in the family’s converted garage, provided entertainment for all local Redhouse residents. Harold Kohler is also well known in sailing circles as a founder member of the Algoa Bay Yacht Club (ABYC), the winner of the Lipton Cup Trophy in 1957 on his 30 square meter boat, Trickson, and the subsequent hosting of the Lipton Cup Challenge in Port Elizabeth in 1958.

The play War Horse will make its South African premiere on 22 October at the Teatro Theatre in Johannesburg and at Artscape Opera House in Cape Town from 5 December 2014.

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.

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