The Mighty Baobab...

Event Client: Mann Made Media

Corporate Client: Standard Bank

Event: Conference (internal audience)

Venue: Monte Casino

My Role: Live Theatre Director

We told such a rousing story about the origins of the Baobab... And how it came to spread it's seed all over Africa... It was beautiful. We did in a cinema with the massive screen as the performance backdrop... These were the backdrops... They are simple but on that enormous screen they were fantastic. Haunting music... dappled light... a beautiful script by Nick Warren... a stunning performance by Yule Mabhena... spectacular visuals by Tyron Janse Van Vuuren... It rocked.

One also remembers how utterly enchanting the baobab tree is.

The below image had nothing to do with the performance... but I just love it.

It's enormously satisfying to watch a corporate audience be enthralled by live theatre. Everybody loves a good story well told. Once upon a time... and everyone leans in.

Ciao Firenze...

I left Joburg on a glorious sunny day and just about instantly felt as if I were in Europe - the Gautrain rocks... So yes, all the way from our wonderful home in Parkview, Johannesburg - where we are planting a brand new garden... Iceberg roses, Lavender... and a whole lot of other plants whose names I can't remember - the air is filled with the smell of Spring and the promise of Summer...  The lanes and avenues of our little suburb about to burst with Jacaranda blossoms creating rivers of purple petals.  But me I am off to Florence for my fourth winter in a row.  Yes, from Parkview to Rosebank, the Gautrain to OR Tambo Airport to Frankfurt to Vienna and finally Florence... a long journey of trains planes and busses which eventually brought me to the little apartment I now share with Vika the Dane, Freya the Norwegian clown and Giulio the Italian yogi.  My room is light bright small and happy.  Even though the winter rain is settling in - I have a view of trees... an inner city park whose secrets I have not yet explored, but will - soon...  I shall pull on my loud orange wellington boots and open my black polka dot umbrella and walk.

Year two has began - and I am delighted that this time it did not start with a couple of hours spent beneath a Mother Mary and Jesus painting on the corner of some road in a city I do not know, crying, waiting to be robbed.  Lost.  And alone.  How much happens in just one year.  And thank heavens for Blackberry Messenger!  Rock on.

The brand new massive aeroplane that flew me back to winter. 

On the run way in Frankfurt after my long and awkward attempt at sleep on the plastic airport chairs.

Flying over the Alps... now a somewhat familiar sight.

Palm Sunday

Towards the end of my first Italian adventure last year - just as Spring was rounding the corner, Freya, Vika and I visited Prato on Palm Sunday... Apparently the Prato Duomo houses - one of many i'm sure - the belt of the Virgin Mary.  No word of a lie - the sacred belt - Sacra Cintola - is only brought out on very special Holy (obviously) occasions - Palm Sunday is (sadly for us) not one of them - so we did not get a glimpse of the precious artifact.  We did however experience the tail end of the Italian Mass and manage to get a sprig of the special Italian Palm

This is my new belt.  A lot can be said about one by ones belt.  

A day in Prato from Jenine Collocott on Vimeo.

I thought this fitting as Spring peers over the horizen in South Africa and I get ready to return to Italy...

Spring back into Winter

In a few short weeks I shall be returning to Italy for my second year of theatre study and for my fourth winter in a row.  Amazing.  But true.  Just when the sun is starting to beat down and Spring is well on its way... with the promise of a blazing summer filled with early evening swimming, flip flops, skirts and sunblock.  Instead, i'm wondering around the final clearance sales for umbrellas, jerseys and tights...  Audibly from my cupboard my summer dresses sigh.  Outside we have finally taken the plunge and called the landscaper my sister has been talking about for far too long.  We are in the process of getting a garden.  With flowers and everything.  Wendy - after she came to have a look at our mess of a garden - took a deep breath and searched for the right words... 'look I have to be honest - there's nothing much I can save.'  That's okay we reassured her.  It is very exciting. 

Hanna and Hugo on the Christmas bed they made on the scraggly lawn (and our attempt at a Jasmine creeper at the end of the pool) - but never the less - cafe lights strung up with the odd lantern can make any garden enchanting.  Even ours.  Kids don't care.  Memories in the making.