2006 HAS BEEN A YEAR OF CHANGE. In January, when I brought in two young cohorts, the company changed its name from Penny Charteris Associates to Penny Charteris and Partners. Unfortunately the relationship was not to last and in September 2006, in a major move, an amalgamation took place between ourselves and an established, mainly Afrikaans company, Thespians. Since then we have gone from strength to strength. Our combined team consists of myself, Elize Labuschagne, Sulette Thompson and Marius Meyer (the three directors of Thespians) aided by Funeka Mpela, Leigh Mkhondo and Linsy Pistorius. Although the two companies have merged and work together as a unit, each company, to an extent, keeps its own identity. Thespians handles its company of exceedingly talented and experienced artists whilst we oversee our small core of well established, high profile actors, to which we have recently added half a dozen talented youngsters.

As always, 2006 has been busy. Our actors have been heavily involved with television, both local and international, theatre, film, voice-overs and the usual corporates, launches and television commercials.

The “Soaps” continue to draw in their audiences. Over the last year we have had Zane Meas and Antoinette Louw as major leads in the Afrikaans Soap , SEWENDE LAAN. Keketso Semoko has continued as Ma Agnes in ISIDINGO - South Africa’s hit gold mining series - together with Jack Devnarain as Rajesh and Karin Van der Laag as Maggie. BACKSTAGE starred David Dukas as the villain and Tselani Tambo as the superbitch, aided by Sello Motloung and Jonathan Taylor; whilst Ashley Dowds, Leeanda Reddy, Renate Stuurman and Nicky Rebelo have been titillating the nation in SCANDAL. Paul du Toit and Anel Alexander have been kept busy in the Afrikaans hospital series BINNERLANDERS. Mark Graham continues to direct GENERATIONS whilst Rantebeng Makapan made his television debut in the lead role of Thomas.

Leeanda Reddy	Zane Meas

On the series side, HOME AFFAIRS had a long and successful shoot starring Nthati Moshesh, Makgano Mamabolo, Vatiswa Ndara and Brenda Ngxoli, with the youthful attractive Vatiswa walking away with the SAFTA Award for best supporting actress for her role as a drunken sixty-five year old. THE LAB and ZERO TOLERANCE were two top English speaking series, the former starring Graham Hopkins and the latter Terence Bridgett and Nthati Moshesh. HARD COPY, taking place in newspaper offices, has run to a third series with Martin le Maitre continuing his role as Ivan Ferris. Hykie Berg has been doubling up, presenting the popular magazine programme OM DIE WERELD and playing a lead in the series ONE WAY.

Rantebeng Makapan	Nthati Moshesh

One of the latest series to be shot is also the largest. JOZI H is a co-production between South Africa and Canada. Set in a hospital, it has given Louise Barnes, Renata Stuurman and Terence Bridget ample experience in medical procedures, Terence as Dr Leonard September and Louise as Jocelyn de Rossi. Being such a large production, numerous of our actors have made guest appearances.

Another co-production, this time between South Africa and Britain, is WILD AT HEART in which Patrick Lyster and Anthony Bishop have had substantial roles. Anthony carries on into 2007 in the massive series JACOB’S CROSS playing opposite our partner Thespians’ wonderful actor Hlomla Dandala.

Other major series shot over the year have included SOUL CITY with James Ngcobo and Nomava Kibare; HILLSIDE with Bonnie Henna, Anel Alexander and Anthony Bishop; TCHA TCHA with Brenda Ngxoli, and two of our juniors have played their first on-screen leads, Lali Dangazele in WHEN WE WERE BLACK and James MacEwan in ANGEL SONG.

Lali Dangazele	Patrick Lyster

Although television has been frenetic our actors have still had time to work on the stage. GRAHAM HOPKINS played leads in both YING TONG – the story of the Goons – and AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, in the latter joined by JOHAN BAIRD giving a superb performance as the beautiful young princess.

A Barnyard tour of GREASE has kept Tanya Baleson, Natasha Staples and James MacEwan busy and WE WILL ROCK YOU has taken Carlo Macfarlane and Sibusiso Radebe to Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Kate Normington had an enormous personal success in BOMBSHELLS, Martin le Maitre and Russel Savadier exchanged blows in David Mamet’s ROMANCE and Mpho Osei Tutu and Thami Mngqolo toured Britain in THE ISLAND. Pamela Nomvete gave a superb performance in GOING TO ST IVES, one of the best plays of the year, and Jonathan Taylor and Philip Godawa continued to tour the Far East in PHANTOM OF THE OPERA .

Sibusiso Radebe	Natasha Staples

A major hit was a revival of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR with Cito, lead singer of the well known band Wonderboom playing the title role. We were all thrilled when Candida Mosoma, only a year out of drama school, won the role of Mary Magdalene. She has now moved on to star in Sun City’s production of LET THERE BE ROCK. Other successful stage productions featuring our actors have been the enchanting SHIRLEY GOODNESS AND MERCY with Zane Meas; Athol Fugard’s NONGOGO with Lindelani Buthelezi and AINT MISBEHAVING with Lindane Nkosi and Earl Gregory. Aubrey Poo brings 2006 to an end as he plays the genie of the lamp in Janice Honeyman’s annual pantomime ALADDIN.

The film side has been a little quieter, however we had Karin van der Laag traveling down to the Cape for THE THREE INVESTIGATORS, Nathalie Boltt filmed in both South Africa and London on THE FLOOD, Anthony Bishop enjoyed himself in the German film FORESTRY IN AFRICA, Patrick Lyster, Martin le Maitre and Jennifer Steyn visited Robben island for the film about Mandela, GOODBYE BAFANA and Jonathan Taylor and Makgano Mamabolo were involved in another German feature entitled TRAUM HOTEL. Drama documentaries, rather than features, found Patrick Lyster lost in the Fish River Canyon, Namibia, for the adventure “doccy” GRAND CANYON whilst Jonathan Taylor spent ten days up to his neck in water dodging the attack of a superimposed hippo in TERROR ON THE ZAMBEZI. . On an enormous scale, the massive Roland Emmerich film (director of Independence Day; Godzilla; The Day After Tomorrow etc), 10 000 BC took Toni Caprari off to Namibia for several weeks..

Bonnie Henna

Finally, Bonnie Henna, having completed shooting the Philip Noyce feature CATCH A FIRE, has been touring Canada and the United States with her co-stars, Tim Robbins and Derek Luke, promoting the film.