Janni Younge: Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year 2010
Wow! How flippen awesome is this? Janni Younge, our mask and puppet designer for Pictures of You and QUACK! has just been awarded the highly prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year Award for Theatre! That’s an amazing honour for her, and we are delighted at her recognition as a major rising star in the industry, as much as we are stoked to have collaborated with her over the last few years.
We first met Janni in 2003 when we were working for Community Arts Project (CAP) and she was recently back from her training in France. Even then her obvious talent and passion for visual theatre and puppetry were evident. In 2004 she designed and built us shadow puppets for our show Imbew’embi: The Bad Seed which we then developed further with her in 2005 as a professional show. We watched her start rising through the creation of her own company Sogo Theatre and works like Elise’s Adventures in Congoland and Violet Rose Bite, as well as the initiation of the enormously popular Out the Box Festival, and designing for and working with Handspring Puppet Company, Magnet Theatre, and the Baxter’s production of The Tempest, among others.
We would have to wait until 2008 before we could book her to work with us again on Pictures of You and then came (and the developed version still upcoming) of QUACK! It has always been a pleasure and a privilege.
Congratulations Janni – this is an enormous achievement for you and an inspiration for visual theatre makers everywhere. May the following year be a bumper one for you and you achieve everything you so richly deserve.
Beeg love from The Conspiracy and all of us at FTH:K!
For the press release of all winners, click here.
