MUSICAL DIRECTOR (2018)

Alexander Fokken’s extensive experience, both local and international, his professionalism, and his intense passion for music have led him to become one of the most sought- after conductors in South Africa. Since returning from the USA in 2005, Alexander has been involved in many different areas of classical music in South Africa, and he currently holds a number of posts. He is currently the Music Director and Conductor of the University of Cape Town String Ensemble and Symphonic Band (2009 to present), and is Resident Conductor of the University of Cape Town Symphony Orchestra (2006 to present). In 2011, he was appointed Artistic Director and CEO of the Free State Symphony Orchestra as well as Conductor of the Free State Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has been Music Director of the Symphony Choir of Cape Town since 2005 and holds the positions of General Music Director of the Swakopmund Musikwoche in Namibia (since 2010) and Musical Advisor to the Namibian National Symphony Orchestra (since 2013). Alexander is committed to the education of young musicians and youth orchestras such as the Fargo Moorhead Area Youth Symphony in the USA (2001-2003), Aberdeen University/Civic Symphony (1999-2005) and Cape Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (2006-2012). Have all risen to new levels of performance under his guidance. Alexander is an acclaimed conductor and guest conductor, both in South Africa, Namibia, France, the UK and the USA. He conducted Treemonisha in La Turbie, France and in 2016 made his debut at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank, London as well as The Welsh Millennium Centre (Cardif), The Bois Gais Theatre ( Dublin, Ireland ), the Mayflower Theatre (Southampton, UK ), The Hippodrome Theatre ( Birmingham, UK ) and The Lowry Theatre ( Salford, UK ) conducting the production of The Mandela Trilogy.

ANIMATION DESIGN (2017 - 2018)

Albino Creations is a graphics company that specialises in animation, illustration and design.

Werner Burger, a co-founder of Albino Creations, specialises in animation, illustration and design. Over the past decade he has been involved with projects ranging from print design, motion design, 3D illustration and animation to web design and mobile gaming. He is involved in two musical projects, namely A Skyline on Fire and Sterrewag. As motion graphic designers, Albino Creations recently worked on the title sequence for Phil101 on kykNET, projection design for the kykNET Fiësta awards, as well as animation on campaigns for FNB, Vuzu AMP, General Electric and Kwesé.

LIGHTING DESIGNER (2017 - 2018)

Joshua is one of the most respected independent lighting designers in South Africa. With nearly two decades’ experience in the industry, he has designed lighting for some of the biggest events and televisions shows in the country. These include reality series such as Project Fame, Idols South Africa and The Voice, award ceremonies such as the South African Music Awards, kykNET Fiësta awards and Namibia Annual Music Awards, as well as competitions and large-scale events such as Miss South Africa, Starlight Classics and Afrikaans is Groot. He recently redesigned the lighting for Supersport’s broadcast studios and oversees the lighting in many of the country’s top live television studios - his clients include the SABC, kykNET, M-Net and Mzansi. For his lighting design for the Fugard Theatre’s production of West Side Story, Joshua received a Fleur Du Cap nomination and won the Broadwayworld.com award for best design. His company, Visual Frontier, was founded in 2011 to create a platform for independent lighting and stage designers and programmers to operate without being tied to any of the major technical companies and organisations.

ANIMATION DESIGN (2017 - 2018)

Albino Creations is a graphics company that specialises in animation, illustration and design.

Co-founder Louis Minnaar is a director, animator, designer, illustrator, musician and all-round visual artist. He has created music videos for many of South Africa’s top musical acts, including Jack Parow, aKING, Van Coke Kartel and Flash Republic. Louis is also a member of the South African Music Award-winning Afrikaans electro-rap band Bittereinder.

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Alistair Kilbee is managing director at Gearhouse Splitbeam and is well known in the industry. He has worked on countless productions, focusing on all technical and production aspects. Alistair was the resident lighting designer at Caesar’s Casino South Africa for seven years, designing lighting for PJ Powers – A Tribute to Janis Joplin, A Night with Johnny Clegg, Nataniël’s Walking with Wizards and Harry Sideropoulos’s My Favourite Swing. The past fifteen years he has focused on technical directing, working on Fame the Musical, The Merry Widow, Chicago, Rent, We Will Rock You, Beauty and the Beast, High School Musical, Cats, Mamma Mia!, Dream Girls, Dirty Dancing, Jersey Boys, The Sound of Music, West Side Story, Emotional Creature, Singin’ in the Rain and Priscilla Queen of the Desert. He has toured globally and continues to work extensively in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Japan, New Zealand, Korea, the UAE and Australia. Alistair is thrilled to be involved in this new, all South African production of Calling Us Home.

MUSICAL DIRECTOR (2016)

Stefan is a well-known concert pianist, musical director, conductor and arranger who made his solo debut as pianist at the age of 16. Apart from receiving a BMus degree in performance at the University of Cape Town, he studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, England. He has performed with all the leading orchestras in South Africa as soloist and orchestral instrumentalist. Other classical credits include directing Divine Divas and Cape Town Opera’s African Angels. Stefan also has an impressive musical theatre résumé, which started when he conducted the first South African production of Cats, touring to nine different countries. Other productions that followed include Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins, Orpheus in Africa, the Kickstart production of Cabaret and the Fugard Theatre’s production of The Rocky Horror Show, for which he won a Naledi award in 2015. He conducted Cape Town Opera’s UK tour of Show Boat and the London Palladium touring production of The Sound of Music. Recent engagements include conducting the prestigious Nederburg Picnic Pops, the origina musical Tiger Bay and Gauteng Opera’s L’elisir d’amore.

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR (2018)

Shelley is a choreographer, director, singer, actress and dancer who has worked in many diferent areas of the South African theatre industry for over 15 years. Her performance credits include: The Sound of Music; My Fair Lady; Thoroughly Modern Millie; The Boys in the Photograph; Mamma Mia; We Will Rock You; Show Boat and Cabaret amongst many others. Shelley directed Chef, Rattle and Roll; Pop Quiz; The Purr Factory and Maybe Baby It’s You and served as resident director on Janice Honeyman’s Show Boat; Matthew Wild’s Cabaret and West Side Story, David Kramer’s Orpheus in Africa and District 6: Kanala, and most recently the new international musical Tiger Bay. She has choreographed various productions for the National Children’s Theatre including The King and I, A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, District 6: Kanala and Sneeuwitjie. Shelley’s other choreographic credits include My Fair Lady; Chef, Rattle and Roll and Liefling – all of which received Naledi Theatre Award nominations, as well as Fiddler on the Roof and The Pirates of Penzance which both won the Naledi Theatre Award for Best Original Choreography.

THEATRE SOUND DESIGN

Mark Malherbe is the technical director for Prosound and has more than 38 years’ experience in the industry. He has been responsible for the sound design of many local and international productions, including the world premieres of Sarafina! and Playland. More recently he worked on Orpheus in Africa, Cabaret, The Fugard Theatre’s production of West Side Story, Singin’ in the Rain, Little Shop of Horrors, Sweeney Todd, Sunset Boulevard, Delirium and the Asian tours of Dirty Dancing and Jersey Boys. Mark has won five Naledi Sound Design Awards for That’ll Be the Day, We Will Rock You, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar and Annie.

ASSISTANT DIRECTOR & CHOREOGRAPHER

Grant is a professional teacher, dancer and choreographer with an extensive background in Ballroom and Latin dance. He joined the Jazzart Theatre Company’s young adult Training and Job Creation Programme under the directorship of Alfred Hinkel and, thereafter, joined the Jazzart Dance Theatre Company. He has been part of the dynamic collaboration with Baxter Theatre Centre and Sweden’s Scenkonst Sormland as a choreographer. In 2014 he launched the Figure Of Eight Dance Collective with Shaun Oelf, which specialises in the development and presentation of innovative dance work. The company has participated in the Afrovibes Festival in Amsterdam, Cape Town Fringe Festival, Infecting the City, Baxter Dance Festival and Dance Umbrella and it recently received the Western Cape Cultural Afair Award for Contribution to the Performing Arts in the division for Arts and Culture. In 2017, Grant took on the role as assistant director for the musical, Calling Us Home, by Shy Music Productions and then became head choreographer for the musical Aunty Merle: The Musical (2017/2018). He has worked together with Alistair Izobell on a variety of performances including Remembering the Lux (2016), Kaapse Jol and Breaking Free (2017).

ASSOCIATE TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Michael founded Emmet Theatre, a company dedicated to producing innovative and inspiring theatrical works, and worked as director, writer and performer. He has worked as stagemanager for various theatres including The Baxter Theatre, The Fugard Theatre, Madame Zingara and Showtime Management, with productions including: The Truth in Translation Project; the RSC / Baxter Theatre production of The Tempest, Athol Fugard’s The Blue Iris and Jersey Boys: The Story of Franki Vallie and The Four Seasons. In 2014 Michael joined the company Splitbeam as part of their technical management operations through which he serviced local festivals, such as the ASSITEJ – Cradle of Creativity Festival, and international tours of various productions including Singin’ in the Rain, The Sound of Music and Evita.

ASSISTANT MUSICAL DIRECTOR

Chad is a 10X10 conducting scholarship recipient from The Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival and has studied under the leadership of maestros Daniel Raiskin and Arjan Tien conductor in Germany and at The University of Tilburg in the Netherlands. In the United States , he learnt from revered maestros Yannick Nezet-Seguin and Victor Yampolsky ! He has been involved in projects such as ‘Madness: Songs of Hope and Despair’ (The Baxter Theatre 2017) and is currently the chorus master of the NAC Cape Town choir and conducts the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra!

CHOREOGRAPHER

Shaun Oelf is a professional dancer, choreographer and teacher. He started dancing in 2006 and his credits include: Bolero (2008), Guardian of the flames (2008), Cargo (2009), Party god (2009), Cantico (2012), Flower Of Shembe (2013) in collaboration with the musician Neo Muyanga, You Are Beautiful (2013), I Hit The Ground Running (2013), Struck Silence (2014), Infecting the City’s Couched (2014), We Left (2015), Architecture Of Tears (2014 and 2015 in Cape Town and Sweden), Fishes Of Hope (2014 and 2015 at multiple South African festivals, Austria and Germany, Most Honest Man (2015), Firebird (2016 in Cape Town, Grahams Town National Arts Festival and the USA), Adagio for a Hacked Life (2016) and West Side Story (2018). In 2014, he and Grant Van Ster launched the Cape Town based Figure of Eight Dance Collective (FO8) which specializes in the development and presentation of innovative, exciting, thought provoking and aesthetically pleasing South African contemporary and theatre dance. FO8 won the dance category at the 2016 Cultural Afair Awards. Oelf was also part of What Remains (2017) which won numerous awards at the 2018 Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards.

SET & PRODUCTION DESIGN

Nadine graduated cum laude from Tshwane University of Technology and is a highly experienced set designer who has worked on projects in television, film and theatre. Her company, Scene Visual Productions, is a multidisciplinary creative company that focuses on set design, building and coordinating, as well as scenic painting. Nadine’s production portfolio includes set design for the 2016 and 2017 kykNET Fiësta awards, Add- Life Productions, Aspoestertjie Pantomime and Droomkind. She also did the set design for the opera Cosi fan tutte for Gauteng Opera. She has recently done scenic painting for the Fugard Theatre’s production of West Side Story and Pieter Toerien’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Nadine has worked in diferent roles on Egoli, High School Musical, Winnie the Opera, Mamma Mia, Ester die Musical, Liefling die Musical and Waansin. In 2018 she and husband Louis Minnaar were nominated for a Naledi award for best theatre set design for Calling Us Home.

SOUND PROGRAMMING & SOUNDSCAPE DESIGN

Matt has more than 16 years’ experience in the recording and audio industry. During this time, he worked with many exceptional artists and media productions. He has successfully engineered for television, documentaries and feature films, locally and in Vancouver, Canada. His credits include the documentary Alison, the series Tinsel, Rugby Motors and Strike Back, as well as the feature film Inxeba (The Wound) and the short film It’s Complicated.

WARDROBE CO-COORDINATOR

Graca has been working as a stylist for 18 years! Her experience ranges from working in a boutique in Johannesburg to working with international wardrobe designer Jo Katsaras in the film industry. Graca along with Diana Cilliers from Theatre and Film Costume Workshop has facilitated multiple wardrobe/costume workshops.

WARDROBE COORDINATOR

Juanita has worked in the fashion industry for more than 30 years. She has extensive experience in international fashion weeks, as well as theatre and live musical productions. She has worked across the globe, from Delhi and Moscow to Berlin, Paris, London, New York, Cape Town, Ghana and Nigeria, to name a few. Juanita has worked with some of the country’s leading artists, actors, art directors, dancers, designers, photographers and models and is known as a talented conceptualiser, curator, creator and co-ordinator of aesthetics.

HEAD OF WARDROBE & THEATRE WARDROBE DESIGN COLLABORATOR

Sue Daniels has been part of the theatre industry for over 20 years. She has worked on Phantom of the Opera, Ultimate Broadway, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, and Annie, among others. Sue spends her time touring with productions.