Dr. Tancsik is a professional puppeteer, stage director and theatre practitioner for more than 30 years. She started her theatre career in 1978 at the Munich Marionette Theatre and worked for the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Theater am Gärtnerplatz as assistant director and dramaturg for several opera productions.

She emigrated to South Africa in 1998 and started off in Johannesburg as a drama lecturer at the Market Theatre and as an artistic director for SABC educational TV (Rapid Phase). She moved to Durban and in 2000 founded her own puppet company Tekweni Puppetplays which specializes in educational plays for children and in all puppet techniques such as shadows, marionettes, rod- and hand puppets.

She lectured many years for the UKZN Opera Studio and Choral Academy ‘German for singers’ and stage craft and is since June 2012 appointed as a senior lecturer at the DUT Drama Department.

She has a Masters and a PhD in theatre history from Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and is an experienced researcher in the field of German/Austrian and South African music history. She also holds a diploma for social work (specializing in art therapy) and a diploma in Yoga and Ayurveda.

Pamela Tancsik has written more than 10 plays for children at the age 2 to 14 in English and a number of plays for children in German which were performed in Germany, Austria and all over South Africa.

Pamela Tancsik @ JIMF 2015

30 January 2015, Puppet Theatre