Gary Friedman Productions
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My Early Years

Growing up in South Africa, during the dark days of Apartheid, I started performing with puppets at an early age. I remember my mother coming back from a trip to New York (at the age of twelve) with a ventriloquist doll, Charlie, which prompted my early ventriloquist performances as a teenager. At first performing for children's parties and charity events, it all took off from there. In 1981 my career as a puppeteer was officially professionally launched when I received a French government scholarship to study at the newly opened Institute International de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mézières, France. For the following six years, I floated between South Africa and France engaging in many courses with international puppet masters, which included Jan Dvorak, Henryk Jurkowski, Margareta Niculescu, Michael Meschke, Henk Boerwinkel, Joan Baixas, Josef Krofta and Jim Henson.

It was only a little later that I became involved in political work, which began with 'Puns en Doedie' Puppets Against Apartheid in the streets of South Africa, but there's more on that here!
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