About
Mission
Making theatre that makes a mark.
Calaringe Productions is committed to producing work that places actors at the forefront, as conveyors, with interrogatory text in their charge. We value engaging content and collaborative art-making that enriches artists and audiences alike.
Where it began
Calaringe Productions is a private company, founded in 2019 by the Crafford-Lazarus family. The name Calaringe comes from blending the names of the founding members, sisters:
Calista, Larissa and Inge.
All three trained in classical ballet and piano from a young age, before branching out into dance teaching, acting and theatre-making. Read more about them as individual artists below.
Inge
Producer, Founding Director
Inge is an actor and theatre-maker. She has been active in the South African industry since 2017 (credits include Curse of the Starving Class and My Children! My Africa!) She founded Calaringe Productions to produce a new play, Tweespoor, which she adapted from Helena Gunter's prose text. Her performance as Tilla earned her a best emerging artist nomination at the Toyota SU Woordfees. She holds a BFA with honors in theatre from New York University. She is also trained to teach yoga. She cooks and paints and talks to roses. Her chocolate brownies are off the charts.
"I act because I feel a responsibility to speak. I speak for mostly imaginary people who, if they lived in the real world, would not get up on a platform and speak for themselves – and if they did, would not have an audience full of strangers who all agreed to be there and listen. I am interested in making theatre that communicates something about people, for people, through people - that we may know ourselves only ever more."
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Who is who?
Larissa
Founding Member
Larissa grew up in Pretoria, appearing on stage playing piano concertos and dancing principal roles in classical ballets with the Youth Dance Company of Tshwane.
She spent five years living in Manhattan where she obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre from NYU Tisch. She relocated to London and graduated with distinction from LAMDA’s MFA Acting program in 2023.
She was seen in Jim Steinman’s anarchic rock musical The Dream Engine upon graduating from NYU and she made her feature film debut as Diane in the 2021 horror comedy Slumber Party Massacre. Most recently, she played Z in Wolfie at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond. She also makes a legendary tiramisu.
Calista
Founding Member
Calista is a dancer, choreographer and ballet teacher. She trained with Paula Olivier, Vicki-Ann Bischoff and Debra Gush, and was a senior company member of the Youth Dance Company of Tshwane for several seasons. Here she danced Clara in The Nutcracker and the lead in La Boutique Fantasque.
She has numerous accolades from competitions such as the Dance World Cup (SA), Common Wealth Dance Champs, DanceStar World Tour, Move – National Dance Competition and the SA Dance School Championships, where she competed as a soloist in classical ballet, neo-classical, lyrical, contemporary, ballet repertoire and jazz sections. She was awarded first place at the World Lyrical Dance Federation World Championships in 2017.
She passed her RAD Advanced II examination with distinction and she earned her Certificate in Ballet Teaching Studies from the RAD in 2021. She takes pride in training the dancers of tomorrow.
She's a empath and a lover of fantasy fiction.
Her fudge is better than yours - ask any of her students.
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