Children’s Theatre (Johannesburg → Durban → Cape Town, spanning decades)

Aubrey Ellis’s work in children’s theatre spans considerably more of his career than a single era. His earliest documented children’s role was as the shamrock-faced Leprechaun in The Enchanted Prince at the Library Theatre, Johannesburg — part of his Johannesburg-era stage work, produced by Michael Bird. [Flag: undated; geographically distinct from the Cape Town cluster below, so kept separate rather than merged into the 1990s run.] A second Johannesburg-period piece, Adventures of a Merry Madcap! by Janice Honeyman, produced by “The Company” at the Market Theatre, remains on file pending its cast details.

In July 1980, as part of the Durban Arts programme, Aubrey played Willy Wonka in Sally Stewart’s production of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at the Bauman Hall — her first major production, reviewed in the Daily News, which noted that Ellis had already appeared in earlier children’s theatre productions by this point.

His longest-running children’s theatre association was with The Story Spinning Theatre Company, led by writer-director Rick Everett with composer-lyricist Pippa Duffy, based primarily at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town through the 1990s. Documented productions include:

• Pinocchio (as Gepetto) — likely originating around September–October 1991 at the Baxter, going on to chalk up 50 performances by August 1995, a milestone marked in the Cape Times/Argus with a cast photo including Rick Everett, Tracy Poole, Chireen Ferreira, Liana Collet, Toby Frost, and Elton John Duffy.
• Mother Goose’s Christmas Party (as Simple Simon, opposite Bridget Wells’s Little Bo-Peep) — Baxter Theatre, running to 24 December 1991, confirmed via the Southern Argus.
• Old King Cole (title role) — toured Peninsula schools and played the Waterfront Theatre, confirmed to July 1994 via a caricature in The Argus Tonight.
• Snow White and Rose Red (as the bear) — Baxter Theatre, alongside Joey Wishnia as the dwarf.
• Beauty and the Beast (as the Beast) — Baxter Theatre, praised in review for capturing “the sad loneliness confined beneath” the character.
• The Merry Old Man in the Moon (as Moondog) — Baxter Concert Hall, to 20 July (year undated but stylistically consistent with the mid-90s run).
• The Otter, The Quagga & The Wildebeest — opened at the Baxter 29 August 1995, immediately following Pinocchio‘s run.