Alida van Deventer - Revision history

Darryl at 15:56, 28 December 2025

2025-12-28T15:56:44Z

Darryl at 15:56, 28 December 2025

2025-12-28T15:56:28Z

Darryl: /* Career */

2025-12-28T15:48:38Z

Career

Darryl: Created page with "''Alida van Deventer''' (19**-). Puppeteer. == Biography == Born Alida von Maltitz. She is married to Jaap van Deventer and has raised four children. === Training === ===..."

2025-12-28T15:47:59Z

Created page with "''Alida van Deventer''' (19**-). Puppeteer. == Biography == Born Alida von Maltitz. She is married to Jaap van Deventer and has raised four children. === Training === ===..."

New page

''Alida van Deventer''' (19**-). Puppeteer.

== Biography ==

Born Alida von Maltitz. She is married to Jaap van Deventer and has raised four children.

=== Training ===

=== Career ===

Probably one of the longest active puppeteers in South Africa, Alida von Maltitz has been a serious puppeteer since the age of twelve. After studying music at Rhodes University, she attended the UNIMA festival in Munich, worked for John Wright, of the Little Angel Theatre, in London and for the Salzburger Marionettentheater (Salzburg Marionette Theatre) on their tour to South Africa.

She has devised a basic one-year course, which gives students experience in making and performing puppets, as well as longer courses for more advanced work. She teaches in her home studio. She set up the curriculum for the puppetry section of the National Eisteddfod Academy, which takes place in September each year in all the main centres of the country. This stimulates the arts by giving children the opportunity to perform their own stories.

Alida von Maltitz travels to keep up with puppetry developments in other countries and has performed at international festivals.

==Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance==
As principal puppeteer of the [[Johannesburg Civic Theatre]], she introduced many newcomers to the art. She developed her own way of working, inventing new puppetry devices, including controls for a variety of string puppets. She left the theatre in 1972 and founded the Johannesburg branch of the [[Union Internationale de la Marionnette]] ([[UNIMA]]).

With the arrival of television in South Africa in 1976, her puppet, ''[[Haas Das]]'', was featured in a weekly programme by the same name, which became an immediate hit. ''[[Haas Das]]'' read the news for children in an entertaining way which included educational inserts. The concept and scripts were by [[Louise Smit]].

Alida von Maltitz also established a puppet theatre at home, performing Bible stories and children’s entertainment using a variety of marionettes (string puppets) and shadow puppetry, and produced such shows as ''[[The Three Little Pigs]]'', ''[[Jonah and the Whale]]'' (using shadows), and other pieces for marionettes accompanied by classical music.

== Awards, etc ==

== Sources ==

https://wepa.unima.org/en/alida-von-maltitz/

http://untangledmarionettes.com/about-the-author.html

== Return to ==

Return to [[ESAT Personalities V]]

Return to [[South_African_Theatre/Personalities|South African Theatre Personalities]]

Return to [[The ESAT Entries]]

Return to [[Main Page]]

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← Older revision		Revision as of 15:56, 28 December 2025
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 === Career ===
-Probably one of the longest active puppeteers in South Africa, Alida von Maltitz has been a serious puppeteer since the age of twelve. After studying music at Rhodes University, she attended the UNIMA festival in Munich, worked for John Wright, of the Little Angel Theatre, in London and for the Salzburger Marionettentheater (Salzburg Marionette Theatre) on their tour to South Africa.
+Probably one of the longest active puppeteers in South Africa, Alida von Maltitz has been a serious puppeteer since the age of twelve. After studying music at [[Rhodes University]], she attended the UNIMA festival in Munich, worked for John Wright, of the Little Angel Theatre, in London and for the Salzburger Marionettentheater (Salzburg Marionette Theatre) on their tour to South Africa.
 She has devised a basic one-year course, which gives students experience in making and performing puppets, as well as longer courses for more advanced work. She teaches in her home studio. She set up the curriculum for the puppetry section of the National Eisteddfod Academy, which takes place in September each year in all the main centres of the country. This stimulates the arts by giving children the opportunity to perform their own stories.