Out The Box Festival

Out The Box Festival

UNIMA (The International Union of Puppetry South Africa) South Africa's annual Out The Box Festival of Puppetry and Visual Performance is a 9-day multidisciplinary event which celebrates innovation, diversity and sustainability. The festival provides a platform for performing and visual artists to collaborate, to push boundaries and to blur the lines of their disciplines in order to create provocative and groundbreaking work. 2011 was the 6th edition of Out The Box and as promised was the largest festival of puppetry and visual theatre in Africa, and attracted artists from all over the world.

The 2011 festival took place in Cape Town at the Little Theatre Complex in Gardens, the Labia Cinema, Iziko National Gallery, Iziko South African Museum, Fire & Ice Hotel, Magnet Theatre and Theatre Arts Admin Collective. Each year the focus of Out The Box is visual performance - performance that creates diverse imagery, using puppetry, objects, video, art, dynamic multimedia, poetry and physicality. Visual performance encourages experimentation and the integration of artistic mediums. Building on the success of its previous years, audience enthusiasm and the outstanding local and international artists, Out The Box is leading the way in this cutting edge art form, building bridges between artistic and cultural communities and stimulating a love of diversity in the arts.

The Out The Box festival is a multicultural event that creates opportunities for cultural and artistic interaction. Out The Box is the only South African arts festival which dedicates equal space in its programming to work for children and young people. It provides arts education and exposure to hundreds of learners annually and provides opportunities for families to develop a love of the arts together.

Some of the 2011 Festival Features were as follows: Iqonga! (platform for short experimental pieces by professional and emerging artists).
Moving Things film festival (stop motion animation and puppetry films).
Active Puppets (puppetry training and social development).
Thinking Out the Box Conference and Public Talks.
Workshops in film, theatre and puppetry.
Exhibition of puppet creations by children.
POPART Showcase in collaboration with Libellule, Greenpop and St George's Primary.

The new innovation which was introduced in 2011 was the Arts for a Sustainable Earth Platform, which engaged with artists and key stakeholders to raise awareness around climate change and inspire new behaviours for sustainable living. The plays presented inspired us to think differently about our relationship with the planet and with one another. The platform was situated in Observatory at Magnet Theatre, the Theatre Arts Admin Collective and the Village Green, as well as at various sites around the vibey suburb.

Out the Box is a growing festival, changing year by year, evolving, and you are invited to become part of that evolution, to experience art, to relax and to simply enjoy.

For more information on the festival and future dates please contact:
Tel: +27-21-4625811
Or email:admin@unimasouthafrica.org