Dear Friends
I am thrilled to announce our first season of plays for families and children of all ages. We will embark on three separate voyages. The first is a discovery of Terra Firma, the wildness of the imagination and the bonds of Family- in The Portrait the Wind the Chair. The second voyage is a heroine’s journey through the land of fairytale, to the very ends of the earth- in East of the Sun & West of the Moon and in our final voyage, the journey of a small boy across stars and planets teaches us to look more closely at ourselves, as he shares his discoveries with us. His name is the Little Prince.

I hope you will join us at Shaking The Tree for all three plays.  As with Grimm Tales (our inaugural play) in December 2008, the studio walls will become a canvas, allowing themes to be explored through artwork and the studio to be used in a non-traditional way, as far as theatrical productions go. Collaborating with visual and other artists is an important and vital quality of Shaking The Tree. Another exciting piece to the puzzle is that our children’s “Act out a Story” classes will also be exploring the themes of each play in the stories we pick so that by the end of a class session, the children can feel more deeply connected to the play they are coming to watch.

Exciting stuff, isn’t it?
I can’t wait to share it with you.

Samantha Van Der Merwe
Artistic Director