Hello Frank

James Cairns as Frank

The Snow Goose mask performance explorations and rehearsals continue... This is Frank. We are now in a sunny little rehearsal room in Brixton with wooden floors... Today in our break we sat eating lunch and drinking tea in the single streak of sunshine streaming in... A happy winters creation space.

Luggage tag with which to travel

It is nearly time to start getting things printed for the Grahamstown festival... and here is our flyer for 'A Day in the Desert.'  Isn't it cute!  A luggage tag - with which to travel to the imagined world. 

Agency Drive

Event Client:  Mann Made Media

Corporate Client:  Standard Bank

Event:  Agency Drive (external audience), 2011

My Role:  Executive Producer

I am posting this because as part of this event we produced a hard cover coffee table book detailing some of the major deals Standard Bank has done... And it was a huge task and in the end it was very pretty.  Here are some pictures that went into the book... as well as some from the event.  Pretty.

Something to remember

There are as many clowns as there are human beings.  There is one way to stand, and infinite ways to fall.  Intelligence is limited.  Stupidity is infinite.  ~ Giovanni Fusetti

Something to remember as we ready ourselves for 'A Day in the Desert.'

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A proppet...

A 'proppet'... a cross between a puppet and prop... as coined by the gracious and talented Alida van Deventer.  The beginnings of the Snow Goose which the young girl finds in the marshes...  The inciting incident.

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A mask to play in

It has been a long time since i've done a quick bite-sized blog... so here it is.  We are about start full on rehearsals for The Snow Goose with James Cairns and Taryn Bennett produced by KBT Productions (the fab Simon & Helen Cooper)... we have had a number of weeks of research and development... script writing, costume shopping, set building, prop making... and yes... mask making.  And it has been rather challenging.  Not having Matteo (mask maker extraordinaire) there to point out mistakes i'm about to make... has made this process very interesting.  And quite exciting.   We open at the Grahamstown fest in June!

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Woman Online...

Woman Online interviewed me...  Here it is with the link... yay.

Woman Online interviewed Jenine Collocott, Creative Director and an extremely talented woman.

Please introduce yourself and tell us about the path that led you to where you are today.

My name is Jenine Collocott and I am the Creative Director of my theatre and creative consultancy company Hello Elephant.  My work includes commercial theatre, corporate theatre and video, writing, directing and producing as well as television writing.  Most recently I was appointed as a senior writer on two new seasons of Takalani Sesame.

My latest play Sunday Morning, which I directed and produced, was selected by the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown as part of their Solo Season on their Main Programme in 2012 (along with theatre icons such as Pieter Dirk-Uys and Janice Honeyman). The development of Sunday Morning was commissioned by the Goethe Institut as part of their GoetheonMain initiative.  The play has traveled to a number of theatres and festivals in South Africa to high critical acclaim.  In 2013, we were nominated for five Naledi Theatre Awards three of which were for Best Director,  Best Lighting Design and Best Play.  It has been earmarked for an international tour in 2014.

In 2000 after I had returned from traveling for two years in Europe I moved to Johannesburg where I landed my first job in the event company VWV Productions as a corporate theatre producer.  I soon realised that whilst I loved the work – it was dynamic and exciting – I needed something more creative.  I went to study film at the film school, AFDA, in Milpark Johannesburg where I graduated in 2005 with a BA Hons (cum laude) in Live Performance.  All the while putting myself through film school by freelancing for VWV Productions and learning much about the industry.   As a new graduate I immediately began working for various corporate theatre companies as a theatre writer and director as well as making my own plays.  But it still wasn’t enough.   In 2010 (as a newly wed) I decided to further my studies once again but this time in Florence Italy, under the internationally celebrated pedagog Giovanni Fusetti as his theatre school Helikos (much to my husbands dismay!).  

Tell us about your business.

I have produced a number of commercial theatre plays to date, including Willy’s Ark, with the iconic James Borthwick.  Weekend Special, which was selected for ‘the return’ of the Windybrow Theatre Festival in 2011; High Diving, with Toni Morkel and James Cairns.  High Diving won a 2010 Ovation Award and was nominated for 2010 Handspring Puppet Company Award for Best Design; Dirt, with James Cairns and written by my husband and creative cohort, the international award winning author, Nick Warren. Dirt has recently returned from Australia where it was invited to the 2013 Fringe World Festival and was nominated for an Artrage Award. Dirt has recently been invited for a run at Theatre on the Square from the 28 May – 9 June. Sunday Morning with the critically acclaimed James Cuningham and written by Nick Warren.  Sunday Morning has been nominated for a number awards and detailed above.

Currently I am working on a number of new projects – Making Mandela, for which I received a writing grant from the National Arts Council. The Snow Goose with James Cairns and Taryn Bennett and produced by Kalk Bay Theatre Productions.  And finally A Day in the Desert with German clown and concert harpist Barbara Draeger.  Both The Snow Goose and A Day in the Desert will premiere at the 2013 National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.

In between all of my many commercial theatre endeavors, I also inject a real passion and professional rigor into the often abused and mediocre world of corporate theatre and video production. I do this by calling on my experience – as well as the many contacts and colleagues – that I have acquired as a result of my tenure in the professional industry.

In 2012 I broke some ground with two specific projects, Out of the Blue for Standard Bank and The Responsible Trader Roadshow for SAB – both of which I was creative head, writer and director.  The event production company Mann Made Media, who I regularly freelance for, submitted these two projects as part of their 2012 Loeries Submissions.  The Responsible Trader  Roadshow was nominated for an Ubuntu Loerie award.

What obstacles did you have to overcome to get where you are today?

The largest obstacle facing our industry is the lack of theatre audiences.  South Africans don’t really go to the theatre.  To overcome this I tour a number of plays extensively to schools and festivals – taking theatre to the audience – thus keeping these shows technically simple and theatrically vibrant.

On the corporate theatre front I treat this work as I would my own plays – A corporate audience like any audience deserves respect and it is not often that one gets to entertain at times 1000 ‘s of people.  And I think that this ethos keeps me regularly commissioned by various clients.

In our industry it is very hard to only do one thing – If you are only an actor or only a director the scope of work available to you is lessened.  I have honed my expertise in various areas of directing, writing, producing… and sometimes performing.

Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

Still making great theatre with artistic integrity to full audiences… that and a few more rands in the bank!

Who would you say has been your greatest role model and why?

I have had a number of wonderful teachers in my life and I am inspired by all of them for different reasons.

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

Well my work is so all-consuming that in my spare time I am generally making theatre masks – which takes time and is therapeutic.  Other than that I am still threatening to start yoga!

What advice do you have for other aspiring business people?

If you love it… Do it…  Then share it.

Twitter – @jeninecollocott

Email – jenine.collocott@gmail.com

Web – http://www.jeene-in-the-wings.blogspot.com/

Remembering our Wedding

Today three years ago this was us... Newly weds walking under the massive weeping willow that lay witness to our vows.  Three years and so much has happened from then till now.  How lucky we are xx

DIRT goes to Theatre on the Square

Very exciting news... we are going to be at Theatre on the Square with DIRT from the 28 May to 8 June.  We have recently revisited it for its fabulous run at the Fringe World Festival in Perth (where it was nominated for an Artrage Award) and now we hit Joburg... right before the National Arts Festival It's all happening.  Come see.

DIRT

'Three estranged friends get back together for the funeral of a fourth.  Their friend might be dead, but their friendship is still kicking.'

The performance of the festival. ~ Western Australian, World Fringe, Perth
Thrilling lines, ringing ironies, hilarious gags... it changed my life. ~ Zane henry, The Argus
One of the funniest actors in the country. ~ Sunday Times
I thought I was having an asthma attack I was laughing so hard. ~ Megan's Head
Nothing short of a triumph. ~ Peter Tromp, Another 48 Hours
It is phenomenal!!  ~ yoursoapbox.co.za
A masterclass in solo stagecraft. ~ Karen Rutter, Cape Times
...in 'n klas van sy eie. ~ Deborah Steinmair, Die Burger
Cairns is almost so good at what he does it's almost ridiculous. ~ artsblog.co.za

Having gone their separate ways, the poker club are back together to bury their mutual friend. On a journey from Johannesburt to Cape Town the trio trade insinuations, insults, and injuries as they try to dig up the past and bury the present.  Grant is nervous about giving the eulogy for a man he admired greatly but could never live up to.  Sam is still angry about the last time they saw each other and can't see the point in having male friends anyway.  Wayne is sad that their friend is dead but can't help thinking that this is his best change to finally get rid of the dog with the embarrassing habit.  Driving high-speed through some painful, poignant and often hilarious territory, they arrive at the graveside with some serious injuries and some surprising insights about the nature of male friendship.

Theatre is mask

A few weeks ago I received an email from Matteo Destro requesting a testimonial for the new Helikos Website about the MaMa's (Mask & Material) course which is to run in tandem with the theatre course at the school.  I was only to happy to do this.  As the school is simply wonderful.  Here are my thoughts on Mask and Material in theatre....

There was a moment during my studies at Helikos that I realized what ‘Mask & Material’ mean in theatre – this idea that theatre is mask and mask is theatre. Like a fast moving train it hit me smack bang in the face.  It has changed how I see theatre and how I work irreversibly.

Mould of The Snow Goose Hunter... based on character work
with James Cairns

‘Mask’ in theatre extends far beyond physically wearing a mask on stage – and can be taken into all aspects of script writing, staging, costume, performance, lighting, props, voice, music and so on.  In my understanding ‘mask’ is essentially the idea that there is a distance between the theatre maker and the work.  In this distance there is room to play.  And in this play there is a whole world of poetic potential.  Bringing to life, and to the stage, this idea that there is ‘a whole universe inside a single drop of rain.’  And in so doing ones work becomes so much more.  More theatrical.  More poignant.  More funny.  More engaging.  More complex.  More simple.  More.

When I first heard the idea that ‘all theatre should be masked.’  It was a very abstract concept until we began the MaMa’s (Mask & Material) process at Helikos.  I will try to describe it briefly. 

Mould for the second hunter in The Snow Goose based on character work
with Taryn Bennett

When you are physically moulding a mask out of clay a form starts to appear.  If you allow that form to take you on a journey, you will make a mask that you were perhaps not aware you were going to make.  And similarly so it is with theatre.  When you start on the rehearsal floor… be it with physical masks or not… be it with a written script or only the beginnings of an idea… The work sometimes presents an unexpected ‘volume,’ meaning, an unexpected turn that takes you on an unexpected journey.  And it is here that real poetry can be found and brought to the light of the stage… If you are brave enough go deeper into this ‘unexpected volume,’ and if you are able to see it! 

It was in the MaMa’s classes at Helikos with Matteo Destro and Giovanni Fusetti that this horizontal poetic landscape was opened up for me in a very practical, real and honest way.  So much so that I now think it impossible to make theatre, and in fact any kind of art, without asking these seemingly questions:  What is the material?  What is the mask?  And how far can I go? 

If you have ever for a moment silently asked of your work ‘could there be more?’ The answer is yes.  And it is studying ‘Mask & Material’ with Matteo Destro and Giovanni Fusetti. 

Matteo and I on my last day at Helikos and in Florence

If theatre is to not only survive but to thrive, I believe it is through the ancient tools and understanding of ‘Mask & Material’ that it shall do so. 

Go and see for yourself.