Kiri Pink Nob
Kiri Pink Nob Arts (2014-)
Kiri Pink Nob Arts (Pty) Ltd, also Kiri Pink Nob, often abbreviated KPN, is a black-owned live arts production house based in Johannesburg. It produces straight plays, sketch comedy, poetry-in-performance productions and slams, stand-up comedy, and variety bill performance events.
Contents
Founding and aims
The company was formally incorporated in March 2014, owned and run by the writer, director and performer Jefferson Tshabalala ("J.Bobs"), together with a co-owner*. Its work predates the registration: under the KPN name, Tshabalala had been staging the KPN Live Art Sessions since January 2011, multi-day events in Newtown, Johannesburg, mixing theatre sketches, comedy, poetry and live music. The stated aim of the sessions was to present original and innovative performance and to build a platform for a developing contemporary performance community.
History
Through the 2010s KPN built a body of sketch comedy, hip-hop theatre and poetry-in-performance work, including the political protest farce Secret Ballot, written and directed by Tshabalala, and the township-arts project Kiri Goes Kasi. In 2019 the company produced Ekasi Lam’ (an "ode to kwaito"), a kwaito anti-musical written and directed by Tshabalala, which premiered at the National Arts Festival and was performed at The Centre for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg. KPN has also run the TEWOP poetry initiative. In November 2019 its founder, Tshabalala, was named the 2020 Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre.
Sources
'Show Review – Kiri Pink Nob (KPN) Live Art Session', Sunday Times, 13 January 2011.
'Theatre is taking townships by storm', IOL, 30 August 2018.
'Meet the 2020 Standard Bank Young Artists', Bizcommunity, 6 November 2019.
'August 2019 | For Once | Ekasi Lam’', The Centre for the Less Good Idea.
https://www.a4arts.org/projects/recEVXQXCx8vrDpf4-jefferson-bobs-tshabalala
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