Theatremaker, actor and director Nwabisa Plaatjie was recently named as the recipient of Theatre Arts Admin Collective’s Emerging Theatre Director’s Bursary as well as the first recipient of Baxter Theatre’s PlayLab residency program where she will produce her new play Inceba Yobomi/The Grace of Life. In 2016, she debuted two new productions at Magnet Theatre; AHA! and 23 years, a month and 7 days, both of which travelled to Germany following a successful run in Cape Town. Continue reading
Birrie le Roux is an award-winning costume and production designer. In 2016 she was awarded a Fleur du Cap award for her costumes for Orpheus in Africa. During the last year she has designed costumes for theatrical hits such as District Six- Kanala, Clybourne Park, West Side Story and Funny Girl to name a few. One cannot argue that Birrie’s costumes take on the role of an additional character on stage, they serve the plot, give context and always somehow manage to take your breath away. We sat down to chat about her full-circle journey back to her first love, theatre. Continue reading
Buhle Ngaba prefers to simply define herself as a storyteller. She is an award-winning actress, theatre-maker, author of The Girl Without a Sound and founder of KaMatla NPO and Maru Factory. Currently Buhle is starring in Nadia Davids’ What Remains which begins performances in Cape Town following a sold out run at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. We sat down to chat about her career and the lessons she’s learned along the way. Continue reading
Less than a year ago, Esther Nasser was named CEO of Joburg Ballet. As a choreographer, Nasser has created an extensive repertoire of new works to both commissioned and existing music and soundtracks, winning several awards for choreography. Nasser became involved in transformation in dance and theatre before South Africa achieved democracy in 1994 and remains actively involved in the process. She has established community and outreach projects, winning the Gauteng Achievement Community/Outreach Award in 1999. Nasser has also taught and lectured at leading SA universities and technikons, and has choreographed and directed extensively for television. Continue reading
Nadia Davids is a writer, theatre-maker and scholar. Her plays, At Her Feet and Cissie, have garnered various theatre awards and nominations and has been staged internationally. Her play What Remains will be performed during The National Arts Festival before returning to Cape Town for a limited run. Her debut novel An Imperfect Blessing was long-listed for the Sunday Times Fiction Award and shortlisted for the UJ Prize and the Pan-African Etisalat Prize for Literature. She holds a PhD from the University of Cape Town and, as an A.W. Mellon Fellow, has been a visiting scholar/artist at the University of California Berkley and at New York University. She lectured at Queen Mary University of London between 2009-2016 and is a recipient of a Philip Leverhulme Prize. Continue reading
Thando Mangcu is an actress, director and theatre-maker. She burst onto the theatre scene in 2016 co-creating, co-directing and performing in The Fall, which went on to win the Encore Award at this year’s Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards. She has also just been named as the newest recipient of the highly coveted Theatre Arts Admin Collective’s Emerging Director’s Bursary. The Fall is currently making it’s return to the Baxter before jetting off to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
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Actress and artist, Jemma Kahn returns to the Alexander Bar with In Bocca al lupo, her latest Kamishibai endeavor. Following the breakout success that was Epicene Butcher and We Didn’t Come To Hell For The Croissants, Jemma has become a pioneer of not only the Kamishibai style in South Africa but for boldly creating her own boundary-pushing work. Continue reading
Theatre legends Diane Wilson, Kate Normington and Michele Maxwell have joined forces to star in The Fugard Theatre’s production of Funny Girl. With over a century’s worth of experience between the three of them, they have graced South African stages playing all the iconic roles that theatre has to offer, all while collecting every top accolade along the way. What is interesting to note is the bond that has formed between these three women during the run of the show, leading us to believe that the “sisterhood of the poker ladies” will continue to live on far beyond this production.
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Theatremaker Tara Notcutt is a director, writer and producer. Her debut production, …miskien took the theatre industry by storm and won her a Fleur du Cap Award for Best New Director, cementing her as a prolific theatremaker. Since then she has helmed multiple award-winning shows including The Three Little Pig, The Gruffalo, Mafeking Road, After Dark in the Groot Marico, just to name a few. We sat down at Alexander Bar to chat about her career, the success surrounding her debut production and finding ways to fall back in love with her career. Continue reading
Jennie Reznek is multihyphenate. She is a performer, theatremaker, director, choreographer, lecturer, co-founder, trustee and director of Magnet Theatre. She has also worked as an aerialist and clown in the circus. We sat down with her at the Magnet Theatre offices to discuss her career, the challenges of founding a theatre company and the moments that have inspired her. Continue reading
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