Handspring Puppet Company

It was established in 1981 by Adrian Kohler, Basil Jones, Jon Weinberg, and Jill Joubert,[2] and is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

[4] Some notable productions include: Esther van Ryswyk directed Episodes of an Easter Rising (1985), a play based on David Lytton's radio special of the same name.

With initial funding from the John F. Kennedy Centre in Washington, D.C, Tall Horse was also supported by Anglo Gold Ashanti, a mining company with interests in both Mali and South Africa.

[9] Kohler and Jones worked with directors Marianne Elliott and Tom Morris and choreographer Toby Sedgwick[10] to design and construct life-sized horse puppets, each controlled by three actors.

[17] The company collaborated with Neil Bartlett and Rae Smith on Or You Could Kiss Me, which opened at London's National Theatre on 5 October 2010, for a six-week season.

2011 Outer Critics Circle Awards Outer Critics Circle Special Achievement Award for "Puppet Design, Fabrication and Direction for War Horse"[21][22] 2012 – Honorary Doctorate of Literature Kohler and Jones both received an honorary doctorate in literature from the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

War Horse, a play seen by nearly eight million people, features horse puppets designed and created by Handspring Puppet Company and operated by three actors each.
The maquette for the horse Joey from the National Theatre production. The puppets were made by the Handspring Puppet Company. This scale model was a gift to writer Sir Michael Morpurgo , author of War Horse.