HOW TO HOLD THE WORLD

ABOUT

FEATURING: JAMES STOFFBERG

GENRE: CHILDRENS THEATRE

CREATED BY: JULIETTE ROSE-INNES

When a young boy is tasked with holding up the world, he faces the scary (but rewarding) prospect of growing up. He learns that being alone doesn’t mean being strong, being helped doesn’t mean being selfish, and bravery is about being open to imagination and friendship. Join us on an exciting adventure full of dancing with the moon, playing with the stars, and very big birds.

In this entertaining one-man children’s show, there is dancing, puppetry, silliness, and lots of falling over! It is fun, imaginative, immersive, visually appealing, and thought-provoking. Above all, the play is about learning how to ask for help. Also, there’s a very cute penguin.

Length: 35 – 40 minutes (with 20 minutes of playing with the set afterwards)

Best audience: children ages 2 – 9, & parents.

Originally workshopped and performed with Timothy Stadler

"How to Hold the World is a delightful piece of theatre for young people with an upbeat and positive message, quirky props, puppetry and scenography ... [a] poignant, upbeat and charming piece of theatre for young people ... filled with hope, and prompts to get the imagination and creative juices flowing."

-         The Cape Robyn (2022)

"He's sooo funnyyy."

-         A child in the audience at The Homecoming Centre (2022)

?Juliette Rose-Innes is a performance maker, writer, director, and UCT Theatre & Performance graduate. In 2017, she was a finalist in the Scribe Scriptwriting Competition, and has previously been published in The Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry Anthology (2018), Good Housekeeping Magazine SA (2017), and English Alive (2016 & 2017). She has been working on How to Hold the World since 2020 – with performances at The Drama Factory, The Cape Town Museum of Childhood, Jungle Theatre’s African Storytelling Festival, various schools, and in collaboration with ASSITEJ. She is excited to be giving it new life with James, the second performer to take on the show. Juliette has also just finished directing sold-out runs of Baked Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and her own production: Not Falling.

James Stoffberg is a 23-year-old, professionally trained, actor and performance artist who has graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre and Performance from UCT. He has always been drawn to expressing himself, leaning towards the arts from an early age. He has played supporting and lead roles in all theatre productions that he has been a part of, including Like Tjips on a Gatsby (2013), UCT's rendition of Kinnes (2019), and Theatre is Dead, Long Live Theatre: A Documentary Theatre Project (2021), as well as a variety of roles in student films, and smaller roles in larger film productions such as the acclaimed feature film Barakat (2020) directed by Amy Jephta. Most recently, he played Duke Orsino in the classic Shakespearean comedy Twelfth Night, produced by Baked Shakespeare, and a leading role in Juliette Rose-Innes’ Not Falling.

As you might be able to tell, James and Juliette work together A LOT.

DIRECTIONS