High Diving - Trailer

This is the trailer to my new play 'High Diving' which is actually quite an old play - I first did it in 2004 when we were at film school - in our, meaning Deborah and my, third year - making theatre at film school - i know - so it sucked actually! I also played the lead... and I was so unbelievably bad! Shame for me. Deborah played all the supports - even the boys - she was so funny but it was a bit weird... Then we did it again in our honours year - but with real theatre people this time - the fantastic director and theatre maker Helen Iskander from Fresco Theatre in Johannesburg - they did 'Baobabs don't grow here' - the best play I think i've ever seen, if ever it comes anywhere near you GO! - anyway, she breathed so much new life into it our little story - so really I have a lot to thank Helen for, as much of her hand still remains in the piece.

But it was only when I discovered shadow theatre (with Janni Younge's Elise's Adventures in Congoland - rocked my world!!!)... that for me the magic really happened - the doors flung open - the music soared - and the sun shone. Shadow theatre is like animation - it's cinematic - I think it's the ultimate film-meets-theatre - without having to go the more technically complex route of multi-media... so yay. We made the play - with real actors! - with original music by Andrew Ord (who I have never actually met - but he rocks) - I'll post the songs soon - Nick Warren (brill writer!) edited and read and re-read and edited the script (and wrote the lyrics for the new songs - which he says I butchered cos I made them a tiny bit more commercial - sorry) - Janni came on board with the shadow construction and flew to Joburg from Cape Town to help us with the sceneography (even though she was pregnant. p.s. she had a little girl!)...

I messed up the rehearsal schedule and in far too little time we were off to the Grahamstown Festival (July this year) - that's the biggest arts festival in SA. It rocked. I have such a fab cast - Toni Morkel, James Cairns, Deborah Da Cruz & Roberto Pombo - and that really is so much of the work done with theatre... So we filmed it and this is our trailer.