Photo Credit: Paul Kolnik/Lincoln Center Theater
As many of you have might have seen last night at the Tony Awards, War Horse was nominated for 5 Tony’s and won in all 5 categories:
- Best Play
- Best Direction of a Play
- Best Scenic Design of a Play
- Best Lighting Design of a Play
- Best Sound Design of a Play
War Horse also was awarded a special Tony, specifically for Handspring Puppet Company
Congratulations goes out to the cast and crew of an amazing production. Sunday morning NYTimes featured a great article interviewing Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones of Handspring Puppet Company who created the amazing horse puppets. The article can be found online here: http://therail.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/q-and-a-with-the-puppeteers-of-war-horse/
Also, a direct quote from a note on HandSpring Puppet Company’s Facebook Page:
People ask why they have such an emotional response to this play about a horse made of cane and aluminium.
After thousands of years of our dependence on the horse, the First World War ushered in the modern era and we lost forever the horse in our lives. It is that story that Tom Morris so fortuitously recognized in Micheal Morpurgo’s ‘Warhorse’ and its possibly that immeasurable sense of loss that makes this play about horses so emotional.
The people at Handspring who have made this award to us possible, are the team who build the horses in Cape Town led by Thys Stander and the incredible puppeteers here in New York, who, under the guidance of Mervyn Millar, perform this feat night after night.
We feel so lucky to have been part of such a fantastic creative team and that Nick Starr and the National Theatre put so much trust in what must have seemed a crazy idea at the time.
Thank you Broadway League and American Theatre Wing for honouring puppetry with this special award.
You are all part of this wonderful achievement. Many congratulations, many thanks and much love to you all.