Two celebrities among 522 Arts graduates
The Theunis Bester Hall at the Pretoria Campus was painted red on Friday, May 4, when 522 graduates from the Faculty of the Arts obtained qualifications during two Autumn graduation ceremonies.
Among the newly qualified were two celebrities, Hendri Myburgh, Groot FM 90.5 presenter, and Adrian Steyn, who portrays the role of Ruben in the popular KYKnet soapie Binnelanders.
Myburgh, who also completed his undergraduate studies at TUT, obtained a master’s degree in drama, and Adrian obtained a BTech in drama. The title of Hendri’s dissertation is The Effective Use of Vocal Performance Tools to Generate a Distinctive Vocal Brand. It was supervised by the department of drama and film’s Professor Bett Pacey and Karina Lemmer.
Hendri told eTutor that the saying that “if you can dream it, you can do it” by Walt Disney inspired him throughout his studies.
“TUT has strengthened my passion for the arts and has empowered me to become active within a competitive entertainment industry,” he said.
He added that working in the arts requires effort and a lot of one’s personal time. “While the rest of society will be enjoying public holidays, for example, you will be busy memorising scripts or partaking in rehearsals for a new stage production, not to mention the opinions of others. One should not be discouraged by some of the remarks and opinions one will have to encounter. People will always be entitled to their opinions; however, for some reason, society seems to think that it is more acceptable to have an opinion about the arts.
“This is something that I had to endure from a very early stage of my career and, although challenging, I keep on reminding myself that it was a passion before it became a career, thus [it is] definitely most fulfilling,” he explained.
Hendri said time management was the single biggest challenge to complete his master’s degree. “I would never have imagined the immense planning and time it consumes. One of my major challenges was to ensure that I had enough time: time to read up on new topics, process information and apply it effectively to reflect the true nature of my study. Luckily, looking back, the words of a drama lecturer came to mind: ‘proper planning prevents poor performance’.”
The Faculty of the Arts conferred 11 master’s degrees during the Autumn graduation ceremonies. Tsholofelo Matome, a lecturer at the department of visual communication (graphic design and multimedia), made the faculty proud by obtaining her master’s degree cum laude, with her dissertation entitled Exploring Cultural Commodification to Promote Setswana Culture. It was supervised by Professor Rudi de Lange and Herman Botes from the department of visual communication.