ASSITEJ SA partners with the Soweto Theatre for the Naledi Showcase

This showcase will allow Johannesburg family audiences the rare experience to enjoy some of the very best and most cutting edge theatre for young people, in one weekend for extremely reasonable ticket prices.

The purpose of the ASSITEJ SA Naledi Showcase is to enable the judges from the Naledi Awards panel to assess work for young people from the Gauteng/Johannesburg area which would ordinarily be played outside of traditional theatres, and more predominantly in schools or at festivals.

This showcase will host four productions for assessment. They are Complexions by Mbali Malinga, Animal Farm by Shakesperience, Macbeth by Nkosinathi Gaar and Colours of the rainbow with Frog and Princess by Pink Rabbit Productions and Briony Horwitz. Audiences will also be entertained by skilled storytellers Zanele Ndlovu and Sizwe Vilakazi who will perform in-between productions inside the theatre.

Horwitz’s interactive production is aimed at 3 to 6-year-olds and was developed as part of the Inspiring a Generation Programme, run by ASSITEJ SA in collaboration with the Theatre Arts Admin Collective in Cape Town. The programme trains a select group of theatre makers each year to specialise in the field of theatre for young people and has also seen the successful production of other plays for young people such as the award winning Get Kraken by Jon Keevy, which is now featured as a setwork and has been translated into at least one other language thus far.

Nkosinathi Gaar, whose spoken-word production, H.O.T.T was featured at the previous Naledi Award showcase, now presents an abridged version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. A Brett Goldin Bursary winner, Gaar uses his training with the Royal Shakespeare Company and experience with The Handspring Puppet Company to put a fresh take on the famed Scottish play. Gaar himself takes the role of Macduff and the title role is played by TUT graduate, Thapelo Sebogodi who recently toured to France with Paul Grootboom’s Relativity: Township Stories. Macbeth has been touring Gauteng high schools since 2012.

The only one-person play on this showcase bill, Complexion by Malinga is a coming of age play about a young girl growing up in the township. Malinga takes on 15 different characters across 36 scenes, using physical theatre, mime and gesture to carry her narrative. The production was conceptualised in Malinga’s final year at Wits University.

The satirical Animal Farm is based on the novel by George Orwell. This has been adapted for the stage by multiple award-winning writer, designer and director Neil Coppen, who posits that while the themes, characters and ideas behind Orwell's text – first published in 1945 - remain unchanged, the production tells the story with a uniquely South African slant to ensure it has relevance and topicality for contemporary audiences. According to the show’s producer Lali Dangazele, Animal Farm is a prescribed setwork by the Department of Basic Education. She adds that the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) requires that ‘every learner should be exposed to live performances wherever possible by professionals, community practitioners or by other learners’.

The showcase will also feature two development production pieces. ASSITEJ SA mentors groups to specialise in theatre for young audiences and they will perform as part of the showcase, but will not contend for the Naledi Children’s Theatre Award.

ASSITEJ SA Theatre4Youth co-ordinator, Lulama Masimini has worked with DALA Arts from Diepkloof, Soweto and Brown Coin from the North West and Free State to develop their works Sweet Bad Dream and Bucket respectively.

Sweet Bad Dream is a coming of age production suitable for high school learners. It deals with the struggles of teenagers in townships schools. Despite its weighty subject material, this production takes a light-hearted approach and is told through the medium of physical theatre. The other production, Bucket, focusses on service delivery and corruption and is primarily aimed at voicing the concerns of young people in South Africa.

As part of developing industry conversations around theatre for young people, ASSITEJ will also host two forum discussions during the showcase. The first will unpack the role of adaptations of literary texts in theatre for young audiences, while the discussion on Sunday will explore the choice of themes chosen by development groups DALA Arts and Brown Coin, and ask the question, “What do teen audiences want to see plays about?”

The productions presented in June were Pitterpat the Crazee Caterpillar by Lynn Joffe, MAfrika by Nicola Jackman, H.O.T.T by Nkosinathi Gaar and Foursight by Kate Liqorish. As part of ASSITEJ SA’s continued commitment to developing theatre for young audiences, the showcase also featured a development production, Coconut Suitcase by Lebo Mokoena.

The showcase is open to the public and will take place in the Yellow Theatre at Soweto Theatre. The outcome of the judges’ decision will be announced at the Naledi Awards in 2015.

Tickets to the public are: R40 for adults and R20 for anyone under 20. Tickets can be booked through Computicket or at the Soweto Theatre. Block bookings of 10 or more are at R10 per person. When booking for more than one show at a time, the price per play reduces to R15 per person.