Playwright – Sarafina Magazine

A Conversation with Olivia Fischer

Olivia Fischer is an award-winning playwright, director and producer. After graduating with her degree in theatre and performance, specialising in theatre-making from the University of Cape Town, Olivia premiered Still at the Hollywood Fringe Festival in Los Angeles, CA. Still was awarded five Hollywood Fringe awards including Tvolution’s Best International Show and the Conversation Creation award. In 2018, Olivia opened a production company called LIV Studios, a company that aims to develop female-identifying playwrights and theatre-makers. Olivia is a published writer: her autobiographical monologue Coming For You was recently published in the Market Laboratory’s anthology Between the Pillar and the Post: an anthology of South African monologues and scenes. Her other theatre credits include writing and directing an adaptation of Sindiwe Magona’s The Cruel King Lives! called Thandiwe: The Loved One and directed Duncan MacMillan’s Lungs. Her main focus as she continues to grow as a theatre-maker is telling stories of womxn: their resilience, their strength but above all, their undeniable capacity to love.

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July 24, 2019July 24, 2019 by Sarafina Magazine Categories: Art, Arts, Cape Town, Conversation, Culture, Director, Interview, Now Playing, Photography, Playwright, Producer, Production, Sarafina, Sarafina Magazine, South Africa, Theater, Theatre, Theatre Arts Admin Collective, Theatremaker, Uncategorized, Woman, Women, Womxn, writerTags: Between the Pillar and the Post: an anthology of South African monologues and scenes, Cape Town, Coming For You, Director, Hollywood Fringe Festival, Interview, LIV Studios, Lungs, Olivia Fischer, Playwright, Producer, Sarafina Magazine, South Africa, Still, Thandiwe: The Loved One, The Cruel King Lives!, Theater, Theatre, Theatre Arts Admin Collective, Theatremaker, UCT, Womxn, writer Leave a comment

A Conversation with Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni

Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni is a South African playwright, theatre director and performer. With a Bachelor of the Arts in Political Science, Philosophy and Dramatic Arts from Rhodes University and a Bachelor of the Arts (Hons) in Directing for Stage, Writing for Film and Avant-garde Film from the University of Cape Town, she attempts to make provocative work that deals with themes of violence, sexuality, race and history within a contemporary South African setting. As a playwright and director, her debut play, Sainthood has received a Standard Bank Ovation Award and a Fleur du Cap nomination and is the subject of her TEDxYouth Cape Town Talk, ‘Another Conversation for the Dinner Table?’. Following a successful run at the National Arts Festival and at Theatre Arts Admin Collective, Sainthood makes its way to the Baxter Theatre for a limited engagement.

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February 6, 2019February 6, 2019 by Sarafina Magazine Categories: Actor, Actress, Advice, Artist, Arts, Baxter, Cape Town, Choreographer, Conversation, Culture, Director, Interview, Now Playing, Performer, Photography, Playwright, Production, Sarafina, Sarafina Magazine, South Africa, The Baxter, Theater, Theatre, Theatre Arts Admin Collective, Theatre Awards, Theatremaker, Uncategorized, Woman, Women, Womxn, writerTags: Actor, Actress, Advice, Baxter Theatre, Cape Town, Chanel Katz, Conversation, Director, Grahamstown, Interview, National Arts Festival, Ovation Award, Performer, Photography, Playwright, Rhodes, Sainthood, Sarafina Magazine, South Africa, Theater, Theatre, Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni, UCT, Women, writer 4 Comments

A Conversation with Gina Shmukler

Gina Shmukler has been in the entertainment industry since she was six years old. In her career, her theatre work as an actress, director and producer, has garnered ten theatre nominations and four awards across different genres ranging from Mamma Mia and Chess, to Master Class and Silk Ties. In 2013, after completing her Master’s Degree in Drama at the University of Witwatersrand, Gina was the proud recipient of the Dr Sibongile Khumalo Creative Research Award. Her select directorial credits include; The Line, Lost in the Stars, Songs for a New World, The Market Theatre’s Brer Rabbit, Beautiful Creatures, Love: A Musical Revue, The Last Five Years and The Whole Megillah. Having taken a performance hiatus, Gina returned to the stage in 2017 in Mike van Graan’s Helen of Troyeville. At the end of 2018, she returned to her musical theatre roots by stepping into Aunty Merle the Musical, which makes its way to Joburg Theatre following three sold-out engagements in Cape Town.

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January 16, 2019January 16, 2019 by Sarafina Magazine Categories: Actor, Actress, Advice, Artist, Arts, Baxter, Candice van Litsenborgh, Cape Town, Conversation, Culture, Dancer, Director, Interview, Joburg, Johannesburg, Musical, Now Playing, Performer, Photography, Playwright, Producer, Production, Sarafina, Sarafina Magazine, South Africa, The Baxter, Theater, Theatre, Theatremaker, Uncategorized, Woman, Women, Womxn, writerTags: Actor, Actress, Advice, Aunty Merle, Candice van Litsenborgh, Canned Rice, Cape Town, Conversation, Dialect Coach, Director, Emotional Creature, Film, Gina Shmukler, Helen of Troyeville, Joburg Theatre, Johannesburg, Lara Foot, Lecturer, Mamma Mia, Marc Lottering, Performer, Photography, Playwright, Producer, Singer, South Africa, Television, The Baxter, The Line, Theater, Theatre, TV, Wits, Women 4 Comments

A Conversation with Genna Gardini

Genna Gardini is a writer and teacher. She is the author of Matric Rage, which was published in 2014 by uHlanga Press. In 2012, she was awarded the DALRO New Coin Poetry prize and was chosen as one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young South Africans for 2013. She is also the co-founder of Horses’ Heads Productions and has had several of her plays produced at the National Arts Festival including WinterSweet and Scrape, both of which went on to win Standard Bank Ovation Awards. In addition, she also works as the poetry editor of Prufrock Magazine, a journal in which her own work has featured.
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March 28, 2018March 28, 2018 by Sarafina Magazine Categories: Advice, Arts, Cape Town, Conversation, Culture, Interview, Photography, Playwright, Poet, Sarafina, Sarafina Magazine, South Africa, Theater, Theatre, Theatremaker, Uncategorized, Woman, Women, Womxn, writerTags: Advice, Cape Town, Chris de Beer, Conversation, Dalro New Coin Poetry Prize, Editor, Genna Gardini, Matric Rage, National Arts Festival, Photography, Playwright, Poet, Poetry, Prufrock, Scrape, South Africa, Teacher, The Swell, Theater, Theatre, Uhlanga, WinterSweet, Women, writer Leave a comment

A Conversation with Rehane Abrahams

Rehane Abrahams is an award-winning performer and theatre-maker. She is currently performing in Amee Lekas’ debut production, Die Dans van die Watermeid, at the Baxter Theatre. As a performer, her work has successfully spanned a multitude of genres and mediums. She is also the co-founder of The MotherTongue Project which is a collective of women artists, activists, academics and practitioners committed to personal and social transformation through participatory theatre and integrated arts methodologies. Continue reading →

November 15, 2017June 5, 2018 by Sarafina Magazine Categories: Actor, Actress, Advice, Arts, Baxter, Cape Town, Conversation, Culture, Dancer, Interview, Now Playing, Performer, Photography, Playwright, Production, Sarafina, Sarafina Magazine, South Africa, The Baxter, Theater, Theatre, Theatremaker, Uncategorized, Woman, Women, writerTags: Actor, Actress, Advice, Baxter Theatre, Cape Town, Chris de Beer, Conversation, Dancer, Die dans van die watermeid, Photography, Playwright, Rehane Abrahams, South Africa, The Mother Tongue Project, Theater, Theatre, Theatremaker, Women 5 Comments

A Conversation with Mari Borstlap

Marí Borstlap is a theatre director, writer and designer. Following a successful run at the Vrystaat Arts Festival earlier this year, her most recent directorial endeavour, Winterboom, begins performances at Aardklop on October 3rd. We sat down to chat about the show and her perception on the current climate for female theatremakers.

To read this conversation in Afrikaans please click here. Continue reading →

September 27, 2017September 27, 2017 by Sarafina Magazine Categories: Art, Arts, Cape Town, Conversation, Designer, Director, Interview, Photography, Playwright, Production, Sarafina, Sarafina Magazine, South Africa, Theater, Theatre, Theatremaker, Uncategorized, Woman, Women, writerTags: aardklop, Advice, Afrikaans, Chris de Beer, Conversation, Designer, Director, Kristalvlakte, Mari Borstlap, Opinion, Performance, Photography, Playwright, Production, South Africa, Stellenbosch, Theater, Theatre, Winterboom, Women, writer 1 Comment

A Conversation with Nadia Davids

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 →

June 21, 2017January 27, 2019 by Sarafina Magazine Categories: Actor, Arts, Cape Town, Conversation, Culture, Director, Interview, Kim Vieira, Photography, Playwright, Sarafina, Sarafina Magazine, South AfricaTags: An Imperfect Blessing, At Her Feet, Cissie, Nadia Davids, Novelist, Photography, Playwright, Sophie Kirsch, Theater, Theatre, writer 9 Comments

Guest Post: Being a woman in the world of Viljoen

Actress and author, Emily Child is currently starring in The Eulogists at The Fugard Theatre, a play that reunites her once more with playwright Louis Viljoen. In 2015 Emily took home a Fleur du Cap award for her performance in Viljoen’s The Pervert Laura. Each Viljoen production that Emily tackles feels like a true collaboration between playwright/director and performer. While many can voice their opinions on Louis Viljoen’s writing, there is no one who understands it better than Emily Child. Continue reading →

June 6, 2017September 12, 2018 by Sarafina Magazine Categories: Actor, Actress, Advice, Art, Arts, Cape Town, Conversation, Essay, Now Playing, Production, Sarafina, Sarafina Magazine, The Fugard, Theater, Theatre, Uncategorized, Woman, Women, writerTags: Actor, Actress, Cape Town, Conversation, Emily Child, Essay, Guest Post, Louis Viljoen, Op Ed, Opinion, Playwright, The Emissary, The Eulogists, The Fugard, The Kingmakers, The Pervert Laura, Theater, Theatre, Women Leave a comment

A Conversation with Tara Notcutt

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 →

May 16, 2017May 16, 2017 by Sarafina Magazine Categories: Actor, Actress, Advice, Arts, Cape Town, Conversation, Director, Interview, Photography, Playwright, Sarafina, Sarafina Magazine, South Africa, The Alexander Bar, Theater, Theatre, Theatremaker, Uncategorized, Woman, Women, writerTags: Bash, Conversation, Director, Fleur du Cap, Miskien, Photography, Playwright, Tara Notcutt, The Pink Couch, Theater, Theatermaker, Theatre, Three Little Pigs, Women 12 Comments

A Conversation with Amy Jephta

Amy Jephta is a playwright, columnist, screenwriter and director. Recently, her play Kristalvlakte was nominated for a Fleur du Cap Award for Best New Script. A self-proclaimed word nerd, Amy has written several full-length plays, many of which have been published. We sat down at the Book Lounge to discuss her exciting year ahead and the current climate for female playwrights. Continue reading →

March 14, 2017August 26, 2018 by Sarafina Magazine Categories: Advice, Art, Arts, Conversation, Culture, Director, Fleur du Cap, Playwright, Uncategorized, Woman, Women, writerTags: Amy Jephta, Arts, Book Lounge, Conversation, Director, Fleur du Cap, inspirational, inspiring, Kristalvlakte, Playwright, South Africa, writer 12 Comments

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