Creative Week Cape Town is just around the corner! This 10 day event (9-18 September 2011) was created as a forerunner to the Loeries with the aim to showcase local creativity in design, music, film, theatre, business, innovation, digital media, fine arts and crafts in Cape Town. Creatives in Cape Town are invited to add their event, exhibition or other creative happening to the Creative Week Cape Town website. The idea is that all events are independently planned and organized and then promoted using the website and a centralized marketing campaign.

A couple of events have already been added. You can check them out here.

The Baxter Theatre celebrates women’s month in August with the hilarious Cracks and the City ll, featuring the all-female quartet that stars comedians Shimmy Isaacs, Anne Hirsch, Anthea Thompson and Marianne Thamm.  The Cracks as they are now known, return with a two-week run from August 1 to 13 in the Baxter Golden Arrow Studio. Audiences can look forward to a new full-length show, Cracks And The City II, with fresh material and sketches that are sure to get you laughing as well as thinking. The show is directed by comic whizz, Alan Committie.

The original Cracks And The City began life at the Flipside at the Baxter in the middle of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in July. Critics immediately picked up on the troupe’s maverick and unique comedy style. Continuing in this tradition the all-new Cracks and The City II will see the comedians explore South African identity, travel, celebrities as well as a range of other contemporary issues.

Cracks and the City enjoyed a successful three-week run at On Broadway after the original Baxter Flipside run. Later, as Cracks Only, the women attempted an ambitious comedy first, presenting new material every last Friday of the month

Individually, all four Cracks are involved in a range of other work. Shimmy Isaacs has been touring with her award-winning show Allie Pad Funny Worcester and more recently wowed audiences at the Vodacom Funny Festival. Anne Hirsch is due to star (along with actor Stephen Fry) in the BBC series, The Borrowers soon to be filmed in Cape Town. Anne is a sought-after performer on the Cape Town comedy circuit as well a regular member of the award-winning Theatresports troupe.  Anne has performed and co-written three successful one woman shows and went on to win SABC’s So You Think You’re Funny? (Season 2) crowning her the funniest new stand-up comedian in the country. Since then she is the only white woman to have ever performed as part of David Kau’s Blacks Only comedy tour performing to sold out audiences in Bloemfontein, Joburg, Cape Town and Durban.

Anthea Thompson has had a busy year and starring in the acclaimed local production of Arthur Miller’s Broken Glass sharing the stage with Sir Antony Sher. She also wowed audiences as Kate in the Maynardville production of Taming of the Shrew and has just completed a run with the award-winning Not The Midnight Mass. She is due to open her one-woman show Living Remote at the Kalk Bay Theatre.

The award-winning Marianne Thamm continues to work as a columnist and social commentator. She has just finished adapting Douglas Rogers’ Zimbabwe memoir The Last Resort for the stage. A production of the play is due to be staged early next year. She is also currently working on a memoir of DA leader Helen Zille, due out in the near future.

Director Alan Committie is one of this country’s most versatile, prolific and sought-after comic talents. His work ranges from several acclaimed one-man shows including Stressed to Kill, One Man One Remote! TV or not TV, The Clown Jewels parts I and II, Titanic on Ice and Dick and I. For the last three years, Alan has performed the stage phenomenon, Defending the Caveman, at theatres around the country.

Tickets cost from R85 to R100 with block bookings available, and all booking at the Baxter box office and via Computicket or 08619158000.

Join Freeworld Design Centre on the 4th of August for a Women’s Day celebration in aid of the Safe Spaces campaign. Safe Spaces is a public art and education campaign that focuses on the creation of safe spaces for girls and women across Cape Town. As part of the initiative, benches designed by local artists will be installed city-wide. Each bench is linked to a toll-free number that connects young women to resources, support and inspiring stories of successful South African women. For every bench that is installed in the City Centre, a sister bench will be placed in a surrounding disadvantaged community. The first Safe Spaces bench, designed by Tim Lewis and mosaicked by Lovell Friedman has already been installed at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.  Its sister bench was installed at the Red River School in Manenberg on 10 June 2011.

Freeworld Design Centre is showing its support by hosting a Safe Spaces bench, the unveiling of which coincides with the launch of the next Freeworld design exhibition, Spring Break, featuring interiors by Frank Bohm, Inhouse Brand Architects, Jay Smith Collection and Sam Scarborough. The unveiling is to be held in partnership with Rock Girl, the organisation that started the Safe Spaces campaign, and Grassroot Soccer, who use football to drive home HIV-prevention messages amongst the youth. Grassroot Soccer also run the Football for Hope Centre in Khayelitsha, where Freeworld Design Centre’s sister bench will be housed. The evening’s activities, which start at 17h00, will include:

• An address by Premier Helen Zille, Western Cape Provincial Government.

• A speech by new Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille
• An exhibition of photographs from Life and Soul: Portraits of Women Who Move South Africa, taken by photographer and Rock Girl co-founder Karina Turok
• A soccer match between girls from the Football for Hope Centre in Khayelitsha
• The auctioning off of soccer balls decorated by award-winning South African creatives Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro), Brandt Botes, Charles Maggs, Lauren Beukes, Tracy Lynch and others.

• City residents forming a human chain across the pedestrian bridge at Waterkant Street to signify their commitment to ensuring safe spaces for all in Cape Town

Freeworld Design Centre is also supporting the campaign beyond their walls. Says Lauren Shantall, head of the design centre, “Safe Spaces took its inspiration from Manenberg and a group of Grade 6 girls who were seeking out ways to make their school safe. Our design team, along with local artists Nathan and Andre Trantaal, have decided to return to where things started – with these girls. We’re going to create a mural at their school and help them install their own Safe Spaces bench.”

Says human rights lawyer India Baird, Rock Girl and Safes Spaces co-founder, “We’re so excited that Freeworld Design Centre has come out in support of Safe Spaces for women, and I’d like to encourage the creative community to follow their lead. Artists and designers are invited to submit their own bench designs. We also have an SMS campaign kicking off in June: Members of the public can donate R20 to the cause, and vote for the location of the next bench.” To make a donation, SMS: 31546 SAFER.

The Gordon Institute for Creative and Performing Arts (GIPCA) invites you to participate in a panel discussion on Thursday 4 August at 17:30 in Hiddingh Hall as part of the Great Texts/Big Questions public lecture series. The topic is: South African artists and cultural boycotts: should the latest call for a cultural boycott of Israel be heeded?

South African artists, including Nadine Gordimer, William Kentridge and the Cape Town Opera, have faced calls for a cultural boycott of Israel. Is this justified? Would it be effected? Should the Israeli occupation matter to South African artists and intellectuals? And is the experience of the boycotts of the 1980s here in South Africa relevant? We are inviting academic Andrew Nash, artist William Kentridge, activist Zackie Achmat and judge Dennis Davis to advance the discussion, which will be chaired, by Dean of Humanities and chairperson for the Gordon Institute Board, Professor Paula Ensor.

Speaker’s Biographies:

William Kentridge’s work has been seen in museums and galleries around the world since the 1990s, including Documenta in Kassel, Germany (1997, 2003), the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1998, 2010), the Albertina Museum in Vienna (2010), Jeu de Paume in Paris (2010). Kentridge’s production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute was presented at Theatre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Festival d’Aix, and in 2011 at La Scala in Milan. He directed Shostakovich’s The Nose for the Met Opera in New York in 2010 (the production goes to Festival d’Aix and to Lyon in 2011), to coincide with a major exhibition at MoMA. Also in 2010 the Musee du Louvre in Paris presented Carnets d’Egypte, a project conceived especially for the Egyptian room at the Louvre. In the same year, Kentridge received the prestigious Kyoto Prize in recognition of his contributions in the field of arts and philosophy.

Andrew Nash teaches history of political thought at the University of Cape Town. Before that, he taught philosophy and politics at the universities of Stellenbosch and the Western Cape, and was editorial director of Monthly Review Press in New York. He is the author of The Dialectical Tradition in South Africa (Routledge, 2009) and he is currently chair of the UCT Palestine Solidarity Forum.

Zackie Achmat is a political activist, most widely known as founder and a chairperson of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and for his work on the behalf of people living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa. Zackie joined the African National Congress in Victor Verster prison in 1980 as an anti-apartheid organiser. From 1985 to 1990 Zackie was a member of the Marxist Workers Tendency of the ANC playing a leading role in establishing its underground structures during the last years of apartheid. Zackie co-founded the National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality in 1994 and remains active in promoting equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people in Africa and elsewhere. Zackie lives with HIV and in 1998 co-founded the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). In 2008, TAC helped coordinate the efforts of civil society to assist people displaced by xenophobic violence. From these efforts, Zackie joined others to found the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), an organisation dedicated to promoting safety and security for all people in South Africa. Currently, he serves as a member of the SJC secretariat. He also helped found and currently serves on the board of Equal Education, a social movement dedicated to achieving quality and equality for all. Furthermore, as a member of Open Shuhada Street, Zackie also works directly with Palestinians and Israelis resisting the Occupation through grassroots and non-violent methods. Zackie has written and directed four major documentaries on children’s rights, the Afrikaans language, South African lesbian and gay history and the Constitutional Court. Today he serves as the Co-Director of Ndifuna Ukwazi, a non-profit organisation involved in leadership development and providing strategic support to other organisations.

Dennis Martin Davis, judge of the High Court in Cape Town was educated at Herzlia School, Universities of Cape Town and Cambridge. Judge Davis has also been Judge President of the Competition Appeal Court since 2000. He was Professor of Law at UCT (where he currently still teaches as Honorary Professor), and at the University of Witwatersrand where he was the Director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) between1990 and1997. While at CALS he acted as legal advisor to the multi party conference that drafted the South African constitution. He is author of 10 books, the latest being Precedent and Possibility -the use and (ab) use of law in South Africa (2008) with Michelle Leroux). He has also authored some 150 academic articles on legal theory, constitutional law, taxation, labour law, competition law, administrative law and South African history. He has held visiting professorial posts at Toronto, Melbourne, Harvard, NYU, Florida, Brown and G eorgetown. Judge Davis is married to Claudette and they have two children Liat and Joshua. He is a keen Manchester United supporter.

This event will take place at Hiddingh Hall, University of Cape Town (UCT) Hiddingh Campus, Orange Street, Cape Town on Thursday 4 August at 17:30 and is free. Refreshments will be served from 17:00. No Booking is necessary. For more information on the series, please contact 021 480 7156 or fin-gipca@uct.ac.za.

Inspired by the beautiful birds of the Cape Peninsula, ‘In Flight’ is a multi-media art exhibition that shows selected works in ceramics, photography, bronze sculptures and paintings.  Located at the gallery at ‘ART in the FOREST’, the exhibition is nestled within the enchanting Cecilia Forest and is open to the public from Monday to Saturday between 9:00hrs and 16:00hrs until 9 August 2011.

Produced by some of South Africa’s leading creative talent, the art on display includes fine art ceramics showcasing bird and fynbos themes by Thila Moyo as well as Ardmore Ceramic Art and carved ceramics by resident ARTIST in the FOREST Madoda Fani.  Also included are Black and White photographs by Gregor Rohrig as well as colour photography by Caroline Gibello.  Amongst the stunning compilation of bronze African bird sculptures by Peter Strydom are also an Oystercatcher and Peregrine in bronze by Keith Calder.  Two delicate linocuts by Hardy Botha and Katherine Pitchulik add interest to the walls along with a mixed media painting evoking controversial discussion by Johan Joubert.  With contemporary Bird Platters by Katherine Rosenberg and a Bird Feeder by Mathilda Fourie to complete the scene, In Flight truly has something to satisfy all tastes and is sure to bring a smile to the face of art lovers and bird lovers alike.

100% of profits raised through the sale of art and products will generate funding for homes for children affected by HIV/AIDS.

ART in the FOREST, Cecilia Forest, Off Constantia Nek (021) 794 0284

English National Ballet principal ballerina, Daria Klimentova, along with her partner, Vadim Muntagirov,  will be guest starring in the Cape Town City Ballet’s Swan Lake at the Artscape Opera House from 19-26 August, 2011.

Klimentova was born in the Czech Republic and trained at the Prague State Conservatory.  After dancing with the National Theatre Ballet Company in Prague, Daria travelled to South Africa in 1992 to join the Cape Town City Ballet as a principal dancer. She became a favourite among Cape Town audiences and had a substantial following, before making her way to London to join the English National Ballet Company as a senior principal ballerina. Daria has maintained a close relationship with the Cape Town City Ballet over the years and is set to enthral Cape Town audiences once again, with her portrayal of Odette/Odile in Swan Lake.

Russian-born Vadim Muntagirov, the latest dance sensation in Europe, will partner Klimentova as Prince Siegfried. He completed his training at the Royal Ballet School in London, joined the English National Ballet in 2009, and with a bevy of competition wins and awards to his name, was promoted to first soloist in 2010.

Swan Lake is one of the greatest classical ballets ever choreographed. The mystery and romance of the story is embodied in the ethereal choreography and Tchaikovsky’s poignant score.

The Cape Town City Ballet’s production of Swan Lake will be accompanied by the Cape Philharmonic Orchestra. Megan Swart, Xola Putye, Laura Bosenberg and Thomas Thorne, along with guest artists Daria Klimentova and Vadim Muntagirov, will be dancing the lead roles.

Performances are in the Artscape Opera House from 19-26 August, 2011. Ticket prices range between  R100-R250. Book at Computicket, Shoprite and Checkers outlets, www.computicket.com or Dial-A-Seat: 021-4217695 Booking opens on  1^st June, 2011.

The Elizabeth Galloway Graduate Fashion Event will take place this year on 29th July in Stellenbosch at the Protea Hotel, Techno Park. This annual event showcases the design work of third year students from the academy and is an evening not to be missed!
For the show, each graduate was tasked with designing 3 garments to form part of a self-expression range. In designing the garments, graduates were free to express their own style and design aesthetic, giving the collection a completely unique and individual flavour.
Tickets are available at www.webtickets.co.za
For additional information contact Martin Ras at 021 880 0775 (ext.114).

The Fugard Theatre has Karen Zoid, Shakespeare’s R&J, Michelle Shocked, Nik Rabinowitz and Sterling EQ all waiting in the wings for July and August.

On 22 and 23 July, legend Afrikaans rock-chic Karen Zoid will take the stage for two live concerts to start her 10 cities, 10 gigs Afrikaners is Plesierig 10-year anniversary tour. Since the release of her first solo album Poles Apart ten years ago, Zoid’s albums have gone gold with hits like Beautiful, Afrikaners is Plesierig, Small Room and Aerop lane Jane. She received a SAMA for Best Female Artist alongside numerous other awards, and has performed with international artists like Annie Lennox, Metallica and John Mayer. The gigs at the Fugard Theatre are the first two of her national anniversary tour.

Returning to Cape Town from a sell-out run at the National Arts Festival, Joe Calarco’s Shakespeare’s R&J directed by Fred Abrahamse will be on stage at the newly launched 150 seat Fugard Theatre Studio from 25 July to 20 August. Set in an exclusive boarding school, four pupils discover an illicit copy of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and start acting it out. Perceptions and understandings are turned upside down. As the fun of play-acting turns serious and the words and meanings begin to hit home, universal truths emerge. Told entirely through Shakespeare’s language, Shakespeare’s R&J is both the story of Romeo and Juliet and the journey of four young men who, during the course of one thrilling night, discover the power of theatre and the new worlds it can open up.

Independent American singer Michelle Shocked is lined up for 8 and 9 August. Joined by top South African musicians, including her long time touring partner Schalk Joubert (who has toured with her over the last five years in the USA, UK, Australia and New Zealand) on Bass, top SA drummer Kevin Gibson and the multi-talented Melissa van der Spuy on Keyboards and vocals, Shocked will display her multifaceted talents as a world-class singer, songwriter, storyteller and entertainer. Tickets are already selling fast!

Sensational funnyman Nik Rabinowitz’s Work In Progress is on from 11 to 13 August. Nik Rabinowitz was raised on the mean, green streets of Constantia, Cape Town, a world of ride-bys (on horseback), piano lessons, and unrelenting love and financial support from family members. He grew up on a farm, climbing trees and commentating on his own rugby games in at least three of South Africa’s eleven official languages.  After graduating from UCT with a Business Science Degree, Nik went off with a troop of donkeys and a bunch of traveling actors, to discover stand-up comedy one afternoon in 2001. Seven years down the line, in 2008, he was awarded ‘SA stand-up of the year’ for being the world’s ‘leading Xhosa speaking Jewish comedi an’. Work in Progress promises to be entirely fresh, new material and fans should expect the unexpected.

Instrumental pop group Sterling EQ is on stage for a once-off concert on 19 August. They are only the second all-girl band to have won a coveted MTN South African Music Award (SAMA) in the past 8 years. Sterling EQ won the SAMA in the Best Jazz / Instrumental / Popular Classical DVD category, for their ‘Sterling EQ Live in Concert, Cape Town’ DVD. ‘From Mozart to Mandoza’ is a phrase that Sterling EQ often use when describing the content of their repertoire. Juxtaposing ‘diverse’ musical styles like C lassical and Latin House, Baroque and Kwaito proves that the stylistic boundaries are certainly not set in stone.

All bookings are available via computicket or through the Fugard Theatre box office on 021 461 4554. Excellent discounts are offered to all registered Friends of the Fugard.

The annual Out the Box Festival of Puppetry and Visual Performance has announced the 2011 line up from 3 to 11 September.

UNIMA South Africa’s annual Out the Box Festival of Puppetry and Visual Performance is a 9-day multidisciplinary event celebrating innovation, diversity and sustainability.

Directed by Yvette Hardie, the festival provides a platform for performing and visual artists to collaborate, to push boundaries and to blur the lines of their disciplines in order to create provocative and ground-breaking work. This 6th edition of Out the Box promises to be the largest festival of puppetry and visual theatre in Africa, and will attract artists from all over the world. The Handspring Awards (launched 2010) adds significant prestige and appeal for both local and international artists striving for excellence.

1. The Adult Theatre Festival

This boasts cutting-edge artists from Switzerland, Germany, Italy, the USA and the UK, amongst others. Puppetry, dance, music multi-media, site-specific work, objects and live performers come together in beautifully evocative, wildly entertaining and highly thought-provoking experiences. Clever, enigmatic and gently self-mocking, La Ribot’s Paradistinguidas sees five professional dancers share the stage with twenty local extras. Uta Gebert brings Anubis which uses bunraku puppetry to draw the audience into an extravagant scenography and atmospheric sound world as souls are led to the underworld. Scarlattine Teatro explodes onto the local scene with The Day Before the World Began, which depicts our desire to design the world the way we want it through bodies interacting with video imagery that creates a constantly changing backdrop to the theatrical action. Another artist to blend the real and the unreal is Miwa Matreyek, who recently presented her work on TED. Semihemisphere is an exquisite live work integrating animation, performance, and video installation in gorgeous, meditative images.

Local productions include 2011 Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winner, Neil Coppen’s Abnormal loads, which headlines the main programme at this year’s Grahamstown festival. Set in a fictional Northern KwaZulu-Natal battlefield town, the play has been described as a whimsical (at times bloody) praise-poem to the province of KZN and its myriad of characters and cultures. Other Cape Town premieres are Dark Laugh’s award-winning Butcher Brothers and FTH:K’s new work Benchmarks, a poetic celebration of the human spirit. Conspiracy of Clowns brings the dark, funny, irreverent Kardiavale, described as a Cabaret Klown Noir piece. Contemporary dance and interactive digital media converge in Athena Mazarakis’ Elev(i)ate. Ubom! brings their innovative, physical theatre Door, directed by Jori Snell. Handspring’s beautifully meditative and poignant Ouroboros will “take audiences on a fantastical trip outside of time and place”. There is also a range of exciting, cutting edge site-specific work from the Paper Body Collective (Plot 99), Penelope Youngleson (Kismet), Mwenya Kabwe (Scaffold) and Luma Lab (The Calling).

2. Out the Box Family and Schools Festival.

Through a partnership with Assitej South Africa, the international association for theatre for children and young people, children of all ages and backgrounds are exposed to new ideas, provocative theatre and mind-opening experiences in the Out the Box Family and Schools festival.

International productions this year include Scarlattine Teatro’s Manolibera, a “seriously clever piece of fun”, that successfully crosses the generational divide. El Retablo (Spain)’s Animals, is a magical, charming piece for young children, celebrating all the senses and turning everyday objects into hand-puppets. La Caravana’s Vecinas (Neighbours) plays with lively physical theatre and clowning techniques to show two neighbours separated by a wall, and bound by curiosity about one other. Libellule’s Just a Bit of Paper is an interactive show specifically developed for 3-5 years to enjoy with their teachers or families. Omar Alvarez Titerez (Argentina) brings The Sand Boy, a moving tale of loneliness and innocence, hailed as the most beautiful children’s puppetry in Argentina. Krinkl Theatre’s Suitcase (Australia) brings home the capacity of people to survive poverty and misfortune through the story of a paper clad homeless family and the little boy puppet who uses his imagination to overcome the challenges of his surroundings.

Local productions include Hearts and Eyes Theatre Collective’s beautiful retelling of Sadako, one of the main productions on the National Arts Festival this year. Other productions are FreeVoice production’s moving adaptation of The Ogreling and Boschwacked Productions’ ever-popular Hats, embracing the clown in each of us. There is also plenty to keep the teenagers engaged with the hilarious Nic Danger and the Rise of the Space Ninjas, and Francesco Nassimbeni’s vampire-driven, suspenseful and uber-cool, Clan.

3. “Arts for a Sustainable Earth” Platform

In 2011 Out the Box is going green and we are working with a number of artists and key stakeholders including COPART and GREENPOP, to raise awareness around climate change and inspire new behaviours for sustainable living. The “Arts for a Sustainable Earth” Platform features plays that inspire us to think differently about our relationship with the planet and with one another, as well as workshops, dialogues and exchanges to heighten awareness and shift perceptions.

This platform will be situated in Observatory at Magnet Theatre and Theatre Arts Admin Collective, as well as at various sites around the vibey suburb. The productions featured span every nuance from the craftily educational to the wildly enigmatic. The Kenyan Institute of Puppet Theatre offers The Last Man Standing, a tale of a brave wildebeest encountering the worlds of the living and the dead. Jori Snell’s extraordinary and deeply evocative Inua, a hit of Out the Box 2010, returns on this platform. Leila Anderson brings a site-specific work, O Happy Living Things! intended for adult audiences and exploring how multimedia collides with organic materials, living and dead.

Well Worn Theatre Company, headed up by Kyla Davis, twice named as an M&G Top 200 Young South African, brings two productions, Planet B, directed by Helen Iskander, and The Pollution Revolution which was been touring extensively to schools in Gauteng. For the younger audiences, Jungle Theatre Company brings their special kind of interactive magic with The Whale Show, while KZN-based Arley’s Workshop will surprise and energise its audiences with the infectious, outrageous The Green Revolution.

4. Moving Things Film Festival

This showcases some of the best puppetry and stop frame films, while providing a platform for new artists in the field of stop frame animation, using puppetry or 3-dimensional objects in creative new media projects. This year’s festival will again showcase two collections of short films, curated by Heather Henson, daughter of Jim Henson of the Muppets. The latest in the cutting-edge political satire, za news, will be presented, as well as an innovative offering of films from South African and international film-makers. These include The Emotional Life of Inanimate Objects by Janie Geiser, a Calarts lecturer, a documentary Rehearsal for a SicilianTragedy by Roman Pasca featuring John Turturro, and a Handspring Celebration, which will include their TED talk, a recently completed documentary film called The Making of War Horses, as well as the original Making War Horse documentary.

5. Thinking Out the Box’ Conference programme

The festival continues to engage with academics, researchers and artists in a one day ‘Thinking Out the Box’ Conference programme, aimed at promoting creativity, innovation and collaboration. Respected South African academic and artist, Jane Taylor, curates the diverse programme, which features Mozambican mask performers, medical puppetry and Handspring Puppet company who presented for TED earlier this year.

6. Active Puppets Mentorship programme

Underdeveloped artists also have an opportunity to participate in the Festival through UNIMA’s Active Puppets Mentorship programme, run by Cindy Mkaza. New community groups are selected each year, and participating mentees from the previous year are able to showcase their work in a professional environment. Isibane’s Inja ka Vuyo explores reactions to HIV-AIDS, through innovative puppetry and storytelling.

Sponsors 2011

Confirmed sponsors for 2011 include The National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund (NLDTF), The Nussbaum Foundation, Artists Project Earth (APE), Arts and Culture Trust (ACT), Cape Tercentenary Foundation, The Learning Trust, Standard Bank, Pro Helvetia, Goethe Institute, Royal Netherlands Embassy, Embassy of Belgium – Delegation of the Flemish Government, and the British Council. In-kind sponsors and partners include Copart, Greenpop, Fire & Ice Protea Hotel, 15 on Orange, G&D Live, Go2 Productions, Coffee Beans Routes, Observatory Community Association (OCA) and Observatory Improvement District (OBSID). UNIMA SA is sponsored by the Department of Culture, Arts and Sports (DCAS) and some of this sponsorship contributes to the participation of the ACTIVE programme in the festival.

The Out the Box Festival of Puppetry & Visual Performance runs from 3 to 11 September 2011.

Booking opens 31 July at Computicket, www.computicket.com or via 0861 9158000. For more detailed info about the offerings on the festival and various venues please visit www.outtheboxfestival.com