Selborne take centre stage
THE Selborne College Dramatic Society recently took part in the national ATKV Tienertoneel play competition in Port Elizabeth, winning the Eastern Cape title with their play, Rondo.
The society performed three plays, namely Solderstebolder, written specially for Selborne College by Wim Vorster; Boetie, Lees vir My, an adaption of Down Came the Rain by Burgess Clark, and Rondo, the new play written by the dramatic society director, Jo Stemmet. Rondo deals with the atrocities done to children and how modern society has become desensitised to these issues.
“In essence, the play deals with how modern society has become indirectly responsible for these atrocities, because of our silence on these matters,” Stemmet said.
The competition required the plays to be performed in Afrikaans which was a huge challenge for the Selborne Dramatic society.
The plays were also adjudicated according to very strict national criteria by qualified adjudicators such as well-known actor Albert Maritz, Ira Blanckenberg and head of drama at Pretoria University Professor Marie-Heleen Coetzee.
“Afrikaans is a second, third and even fourth language for some of them, but they really rose to the occasion and did very well,” Stemmet said.
In total, the Selborne College Dramatic Society brought back no less than four bronze, six silver and 39 gold awards.