Adrian Kohler said last month that he had no idea what a Tony was.
But he and Basil Jones were on stage on Sunday to receive Broadway's highest accolade for their artistic contribution to the critically acclaimed play.
Kohler told the 65th Tony Awards gallery in his acceptance speech: "We've been lucky to have the comradeship of a fantastic creative team in the making of the play, and the support of the National Theatre [in London] and Nick Starr [National Theatre executive producer], who, I think, thought this was a bit of a crazy idea in the beginning."
War Horse tells the story of a boy whose beloved horse is requisitioned by a cavalry regiment during the First World War. The horse survives the horrors of the war but is left with no owner amid the rubble and debris.
The boy decides to search for his horse and bring him home.
The play - based on English author and poet Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse - won five Tonys, including for best play.
Jones followed Kohler, saying: "I know we wouldn't have got this special award if it hadn't been for the team of dedicated puppeteers in Cape Town, who are working now on building new horses . To The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing, thank you very much - [the trophy] is going straight home to our factory."
In their Cape Town warehouse, tucked away in an industrial park, 12 people worked to deliver nine horses, two crows, six soldiers, two swallows and a goose - all of which took 10 months to build.
The puppets are engineered to perform without puppeteers. The UK's Daily Telegraph reported that some of the puppets "have lasted for 1000 performances".
Kohler said South Africans will have to wait "two to three years" to see the play on home soil.
Famed South African playwright Athol Fugard, who has never won a Tony but has received Tony nominations for four of his plays, was honoured as a lifetime achiever at Sunday's ceremony.
The biggest winner on the night was The Book of Mormon, with nine Tonys, including one for best musical. Written by the creators of TV cartoon South Park, the production is about two naive missionaries who arrive in Uganda and find hardship, warlords and poor villagers infected with HIV who think having sex with babies a good way to rid themselves of the virus.
THE TIMES
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