SPOTLIGHT # 3 : Annie at The Playhouse Theatre in Somerset West

BY ERIKA

Annie, the musical based on the comic strip Little Orphan Annie is currently being performed at The Playhouse Theatre in Swalle Street, Somerset West. 

Local director Darryl Spijkers who just last month had a huge success with To Kill A Mockingbird also at the Playhouse, tackled this evergreen production with two casts. A brave man indeed.

For an evening of singing, dancing and shedding a few tears, book your tickets now! They are going like hot cakes.

The show runs until 28 June and tickets range from R70 to R110 (R5 from every ticket sold will be donated to The Sunflower fund) sold via  Computicket.

PORTRAITS OF GENIUS & ENVY: Amadeus in Somerset West

BY MARTIN

Splendour and spite, pomp and paucity, genius and envy!

We experienced it all last night in 18th century Vienna while doing a portrait shoot of musical genius Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the envious Antonio Salieri. 

Well, actually we just drove down the road to the Playhouse Theatre in Somerset West to document the dress rehearsal of Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus directed by Philippe Prengiers.  

But we did meet and photographed the actors who bring these complex characters to life.

The award-winning play runs from 3 to 12 April and tickets can be booked at Computicket.

For more information go to The Playhouse website or the Facebook page .

Viennese court composer Antonio Salieri played by Richard Higgs, tells the story of how his path crossed that of ...

... the gifted but vulgar and frivolous composer Wolfgang Mozart (CJ Opperman) ...

... whose musical genius he envies and plans to destroy so completely ... 

... that Mozart and his family ends up in dire poverty.
To see what happens in the end, 
book your seats today!

STILT WALKING & FIRE EATING

Earlier this year we met the most amazing group of people on a shoot for another client. 

The Psychedelic Theatre performance art company from Stellenbosch brainchild of performance artist and actor Lanel Van der Kolff positively sizzle with energy, colour and creativity. 

They dance and they jiggle; they dress up and they jump up; they twirl and they twist. They hula with hoops and they play with poi.

Stilt walking steampunk actors, Anton and Claire Van Der Vyver of Gordons Bay manage to perform these physical manoeuvres on 1,5 m high poles!

Take a look at these images as well as the previous blog post.

For more information about this fascinating couple, see an article on them in Sept / Oct 2013 edition of the digital magazine Land n Sand.

MEER OF MIN 'n MEERMIN (More or less a mermaid) MVNP Studio Shoot, Strand / Somerset West

Meer of Min 'n Meermin / More or less a Mermaid 

Photographer: Martin Van Niekerk

Model: Ester

Hair stylist / Stylist: Rene Erwee

MUA: Candice Harker

Earlier this year I did a shoot for Ester who wanted to enter the Sarie Voorbladgesig van die Jaar competition. It was her first time in front of the camera but she showed such poise. So when hair stylist, Rene Erwee of Salon Elan mentioned doing a shoot depicting a mermaid, I immediately thought of Ester. Of course it helped that she has beautiful long hair. 

But how to go about transforming her into a mermaid?

For a long time now I have been thinking of incorporating different art media such as drawings and paper cut-outs into my photographs. Previously Rene and I had played around with using paper garments and we were very happy with the outcome. So we decided to take the idea further. Not only were we going to use paper to sculpt the fish tail, we wanted to create an entire paper ‘world’ for the mermaid.

Although the size of my studio is adequate for standard shoots, creating a life size seascape scene in there is impossible.

Downscaling, that was the solution. I decided to build a small scale stage.

As a student at art school I had often used the Noddy and Big Ears toy theatre I had been given as a child, as inspiration for works of art. I could resurrect that idea in the studio this time.

I decided to start with Ester in the studio and then creating the backdrop and photographing that. The two images then had to be merged using computer editing programmes.

It was no easy feat but in the end I am very happy with the outcome.

This post tells the story of the Meer of Min ‘n Meermin shoot.

Rene and I cutting a piece of backdrop paper to use as the mermaid's fish tail

Multi talented: Rene helps sculpt the mermaid fish tail in between styling Ester's hair for the shoot 

Mermaid with hair curlers: Ester's transformation and marathon sitting session has begun

And still she sits patiently ...

Rene was also responsible for creating the mermaid's seaweed and shell 'jewellery'.  

Ready to roll 

Designer Ronel Van Heerden of NineNinetyNine dropped in for coffee and ended up doing some art directing.

With the shoot over, it s time to construct the backdrop. 

All set up.

The theatre has been constructed, lights have been set up and Ester's 'stand-in' sitting on the rock has been positioned.