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Jozi township theatre to enter a new golden age
This August and September, Joburg will pulse with cutting-edge community plays as the Arts Alive Alternative Spaces 2010 Festival travels around the city, riding the crest of a township theatre revival.
After auditions were held throughout the metro’s six regions, attracting an impressive 90 groups, five groups per region have been selected to take part in their respective regional festivals between August 13 and September 19 2010.
The best play from each region will then be performed at the main Arts Alive Alternative Spaces 2010 Festival, taking place on September 24 and 25 at Museum Africa in Newtown.
This community theatre festival has been spearheaded by the Southern African Theatre Initiative (SATI), which is aiming to revitalise the tradition of grassroots “township theatre” made famous by the likes of the late Gibson Kente.
True to the spirit of Kente, who seldom had formal theatre venues at his disposal when starting out, Joburg’s community theatre groups will be presenting their works in halls, schools and arts centres – transforming them into proper theatre spaces. They also have the benefit of workshops to learn professional theatre crafts and values, and SATI will provide the technical equipment and resources to enable these groups to do justice to their creative visions.
The plays that are competing in each region to go through to the “best of the best” festival over the Heritage Day weekend will address a variety of social problems that are close to each community’s heart.
Region F (inner-city) kicks off its regional festival from 13 to 15 August at the Hillbrow Theatre, followed by Region C (Roodepoort/Braamfischer), whose theatre festival will take place at the Braamfischer Multipurpose Centre from 20 to 22 August. The Region A (Diepsloot/Ivory Park) community plays can be seen at the Ivory Park North Community Hall from 27 to 29 August.
Thusong Youth Centre is the venue for the Region E (Alexandra/Sandton) event, from 3 to 5 September, followed by the Region D (Greater Soweto) festival at Uncle Tom’s from 10 to 12 September. The regional heats wrap up in Region G (Orange Farm/Eldorado Park) from 17 to 19 September at the Orange Farm Multi-purpose centre.
The Arts Alive Alternative Spaces 2010 Festival on 24 and 25 September will feature the six top plays from the regions, as well as guest productions Awaiting Trial by Velaphi Mthimkulu and Perfect Cure by Paul Noko.
All performances are free. To find out more or to book tickets, phone SATI at 011-838-8932 or email info@sati.org.za
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