Jemma Kahn draws on personal history for rich and rewarding sketches
It’s the perfect way to go if you are creating your own work, which is, as it is for most stage creatives, all about making a living. Jemma Kahn — winner of the 2018 Standard Bank Young Artist for Theatre award — had to turn somewhere new while maintaining the structure that has made her solo series such a rich and rewarding enterprise. This is where Kahn cleverly brought in playwright Tertius Kapp. Even — and especially — when telling such a personal story, it is good to have an outside eye, and arguably someone who is not involved with what is being shared on stage. "After every kamishibai show I say ‘not again’ or rather ‘not again immediately’ but then an idea comes to mind that niggles me," she says. "The idea of the multiple boxes came first and then I thought, ‘if there are four, it could be about family — one story, four perspectives’." Kamishibai is a form of Japanese storytelling that combines the use of hand-drawn visuals with the narration of a live presenter. Kahn, who ...
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