30 years of great stage productions
WITS THEATRE IS HEADING IN A NEW DIRECTION
OPENED in 1983 the Wits Theatre, said to have cost R5-million to construct, has entertained and dazzled audiences since.
The theatre’s newly appointed Director Gita Pather intends to transform the space into more than just a student theatre.
While celebrating its 30th birthday, the theatre is also hosting the 10th annual 969 festival, which brings some productions from the National Arts Theatre in Grahamstown to Johannesburg. The theatre is also an incubator of young South African talent.
“I am astonished by the creativity of young theatre makers who are really doing it for themselves: writing, producing and staging their own unique work. They don’t rest on their laurels waiting for some producer to stage their work. Their innovation, drive and ability to galvanise their own audiences using social media is commendable, ” Pather says.
With 28 years of experience behind her, Pather says she fuses education and theatre together.
“Some of the projects that I have produced that are strongly developmental in their very concept and ethos, include pioneering the use of Transnet trucks as mobile theatres, and The South African Women’s Arts Festival,” Pather says.
Among the young talents making an appearance during the festivities is young director and playwright Phillip Dikotla. Dikotla will be bringing his critically acclaimed play titled to the Wits stage as part of the 969 festival.
The first production out of Cape Town to scoop the 2013 Zabalaza award, the play is based on the racially motivated shooting at Skier- lik, which shook the country after 17year-old Johan Nel went on a shooting spree, killing four people – including a toddler – in 2008.
“The play asks questions that people don’t ask about the ordinary people of Skierlik,” says Dikotlo.
He says the play has revealed to him that most people from this rural town in North West are still traumatised after the shooting.
Wits dramatic arts graduate and director Khayelihle Dom Gumede is another young talent to watch out for. Gumede, who has had his fair share of theatrical exploits, including the well-received , is also co-directing Mwenya Kabwe’s production as part of the celebrations.
Gumede says the production is a fitting expression of the university’s theatre as a melting pot of cultural diversity and ideas.
A theatrical collage of music, dance and poetry, explores themes of intercontinental travel, identity and language.
“One of the pleasures on doing this work at the Wits Theatre is that it is a multicultural space of thinking, where new ideas are formed,” Gumede says.
Afrocartography is showing at the Wits Theatre until July 27