Liezl de Kock is an actor, director, theatre-maker and lecturer. She performed the lead role of Janet in the Ovation Award-winning and double Fleur du Cap Theatre Award winner Pictures of You, which was the highest-grossing theatre production on the fringe at the 2009 National Arts Festival. Liezl was also nominated for a Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for her role in Rob Murray’s Womb Tide. She performed with Andrew Buckland in Crazy in Love, which received an Ovation Award and the Amsterdam Fringe Fest award for Best International Production. Her performance in Crazy in Love received a Naledi Theatre Award nomination. Her final Master’s production, Piet se Optelgoed won a Silver Ovation Award at the National Arts Festival and was nominated for Best International Production at the Amsterdam Fringe Festival. Earlier this year, she was nominated for a Naledi Theatre Award for her role as Sussie in Reza de Wet’s African Gothic directed by Alby Michaels. She is currently reprising her role in Athol Fugard’s Statements After an Arrest Under The Immorality Act at The Fugard Theatre following its debut run earlier this year at the 2019 Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees.
Tag: Theatre-maker
Guest Post: The Chronicles of an Independent Theatre-Maker
In 2018 during our interview with theatre-maker Dara Beth, we spoke about the return engagement of her play, Nasty Womxn. Now, 18 months later, Nasty Womxn is back for its third return engagement, this time featuring a new cast, a reworked script and coinciding with Dara’s latest theatrical offering, The Chronicles of Athena, Babes. Tasked with staging two independently produced works which almost run concurrently, we ask Dara to share her thoughts around this creative process. Continue reading
A Conversation with Yvette Hardie
Yvette Hardie is a theatre director, producer, educator and advocate, focusing on theatre for young audiences. She initiated the launch of ASSITEJ SA in 2007 and leads the organisation as Director. She is currently serving her third term as President of the international ASSITEJ, which networks across 100 countries. In 2017, she was responsible for hosting the 19th ASSITEJ World Congress & Performing Arts Festival, Cradle of Creativity, for the first time in Africa. She produced the award-winning Colonnades Theatre Lab production, Truth in Translation, seen by 55 000 people worldwide. For her own company, FreeVoice Productions, she produces national and international tours of Sindiwe Magona’s Mother to Mother. Her directing credits include Suzanne Lebeau’s The Ogreling and Mike van Graan’s Is it because I’m Jack? She is valued for her work in Arts Education, having written national curricula and textbooks for Dramatic/Creative Arts. Recently, she was awarded the Mickey Miner Award for Lifetime Achievement from IPAY for her contribution to theatre for young audiences locally and globally.
A Conversation with Lee-Ann van Rooi
Lee-Ann van Rooi is an actor, educator, producer and director. This year marks Lee-Ann’s silver jubilee in the South African professional entertainment industry. With numerous awards, nominations and credits stretching over the various mediums of Film, TV, Stage and Radio, both locally and internationally, this UCT graduate’s interests and skills are wide-ranging, innovative and resourceful. A keen storyteller, puppeteer, teacher, mentor, writer, producer and director, she is particularly interested in growing and creatively educating audiences and the entertainment industry in a responsible and fair way. Lee-Ann has recently been nominated for two awards at this year’s upcoming Fiëstas Awards. She is nominated as Best Actress for her work in Ingrid Winterbach’s Ons is almal Freaks Hier and for Best Supporting Actress for her work in Chase Rhys’ Kinnes. She is currently gearing up to star as The Duchess of York in Richard III which will begin performances at Maynardville open-air theatre in February.
A Conversation with Puleng Lange-Stewart
Puleng Lange-Stewart is a writer, playwright, filmmaker, director, designer and illustrator. In 2016, she was one of three shortlisted writers in the national PEN student writing competition. Her writing has appeared in the 2017 African Literature curriculum at UCT. Her first independent short film, written and directed with Jannous Aukema, Until the Silence Comes, was selected for the 2017 Cape Town International Film Festival and was nominated for an audience award at the Shnit International Short Film Festival. Her primary focus is in interdisciplinary performance and multimedia integration. As a queer, feminist, artist and mother of colour, she hopes to find ways to explore and question the practices and hierarchies that continue to erode human dignity and self-determinacy for so many within the context of South Africa and Africa as a whole. Her work is deeply embedded in a decolonial framework which hopes to elevate and recentre African bodies and voices as a response to its violent historical negation. During the 2018 Open Book Festival, Puleng will appear on a panel entitled Moving Pictures and Borders. Continue reading
A Conversation with Regina Malan
Regina Malan is a performer, producer and director. After previously performing in operas such as Le Nozze di Figaro and Dido and Aeneas, last year she starred in her first three plays, namely Macbeth, Design for Living and Jane Eyre, as well as her first two musicals, The Full Monty and Shadows in Red Light. Her other credits include Public City, Because it’s okay, Not Just Musicals and Othello: A Women’s Story which she also co-directed. In 2017 she co-founded Mish Mash Media Productions, a multi-media production company giving voice to LGBTQ projects in Cape Town. Following a successful run earlier this year, Othello will be performed at the Baxter Theatre for a limited run in September. We sat down to chat about her career and Mish Mash Media’s next show, 5 Lesbians Eating A Quiche. Continue reading
A Conversation with Kathleen Stephens
Kathleen Stephens is a theatre-maker and performer. In 2016 she debuted her acting career in People Beneath our Feet at the National Arts Festival. Other credits include Wessel Pretorius’ I Love You Sally Field, Dara Beth’s Nasty Womxn, and Jon Keevy’s Single Minded and The Underground Library. Most recently, Kathleen has been seen in Like Hamlet directed by Kanya Viljoen, Wessel Pretorius’ Fotostaatmasjien and in the first all-female South African production of The Taming of the Shrew directed by Tara Notcutt. She is currently gearing up to star in the Fugard Theatre’s return season of Shakespeare in Love. Continue reading
A Conversation with Margot Wood
Margot Wood is an actress, director, theatre-maker and producer. She is the founder of Anex Theatre Productions, a company which has been running for over a decade. Most recently, Cape Town audiences saw Margot star in Wynne Bredenkamp’s critically acclaimed production, At The Edge of the Light, which will run at the 2018 National Arts Festival. Following a run at the Drama Factory earlier this year, her latest directorial project, Dario Fo’s A Woman Alone and Other Female Parts comes to the Alexander Bar for a limited run. Continue reading
A Conversation with Faniswa Yisa
Faniswa Yisa is an actress, theatre-maker and director who has performed in 19 countries and whose work has spanned almost two decades. She is currently starring in the TV drama series Ingoma and was recently awarded a 2018 Best Actress Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for her performance in Nadia Davids’ critically acclaimed play, What Remains. We sat down to chat about her career, her Fleur du Cap win and staying true to herself. Continue reading
A Conversation with Lamees Albertus and Widaad Albertus
Sisters Lamees and Widaad Albertus have become a force to be reckoned within the theatre industry. Currently working at The Fugard Theatre, Lamees holds the position of Theatre Manager and Associate Producer while Widaad not only holds the title of Wardrobe Supervisor and Production Assistant, but is currently also juggling the task of working as lead Costume Designer on several of the Fugard Theatre’s most anticipated upcoming shows including The Demon Bride and Significant Other. While most of their work tends to happen behind the scenes and away from the spotlight, Lamees recently had her work recognised by being featured in the Mail & Guardian’s 2017 Book of South African Women: On the Shoulders of Giants.
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