Janni Younge

Janni Younge (?-) is an award-winning puppet creator, puppet designer, producer and director.

Biography

Training

Younge began her career as a sculptor studying for an honours degree in Fine Art and majoring in sculpture. She then went on to complete a DMA (Doctor of Musical Arts) in Charleville-Mézières, France from the [École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette] (ESNAM, National School for Higher Education in Puppetry Arts), where she studied from 1999 to 2002, and then completed an MA (Masters) in Theatre at the University of Cape Town (2007).

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

Younge’s first theatre company, Sogo Visual Theatre, produced several original works, which have been performed widely in South Africa and abroad. All of her major works combine multiple puppetry styles including shadow theatre, marionettes, bunraku-style puppets, and live video with live performance. Janni’s work has been performed widely internationally in North and South America, Africa, Europe, India and the East.

From 2003-2-11, she was the chairperson of UNIMA SA (the South African association of puppetry and visual performance, since 2012 renamed Puppetry South Africa (UNIMA SA)).

She was co-founder in 2005 of the annual Out The Box International Festival of Puppetry and Visual Performance.

Younge became Associate Director of the Handspring Puppet Company in 2011. In her capacity as director, she has been involved with managing the team of craftspeople who produce the War Horse puppets, has assisted in the creation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and directed the re-rehearsal of William Kentridge’s Woyzeck on the Highveld. Janni Younge has designed and directed Handspring’s most recent South African production, Ouroboros.

In 2014, she left Handspring to found her own production company, Janni Younge Productions.

Productions she has designed and worked on include Ubu and the Truth Commission, War Horse, Ouroboros (which toured extensively in South Africa, Europe and India), The Firebird (Die Vuurvoël, that toured in USA to venues including Ravinia and the Hollywood Bowl, and Take Flight (which toured Europe).

She created and directed puppetry for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Tempest.

In 2018, Janni was the Grenada Artist in Residence, UC Davis Spring .

Janni Younge Productions

Awards, etc

In 2010 she was selected as the winner of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Theatre and in 2012 won a Fleur de Cap award for the design of the puppets in Ouroboros. She also won the Nagroda award for direction.