Talented actor cracks scholarship to US but needs funding
WISE heads usually say failure is the best teacher, because it makes one hungrier and also sharpens ambition.
That was the case with Citizen Mbatha, a film student at the Tshwane University of Technology who was awarded a scholarship by the New York Film Academy to study in Los Angeles.
Originally from Vryheid in KwaZulu-Natal, Mbatha says even getting into TUT was not easy. “Even TUT rejected me at first. But I’m a very strong person,” he says.
The 21-year-old was persuasive enough to get himself into the university in 2013 to study drama.
That year, he came to Johannesburg to audition for the same New York Film Academy scholarship at the Just You Artist and Model Agency, but again his first attempt was unsuccessful.
“I didn ’ t really take it badly, now that I think of it, I don ’ t think I was ready. ”
He says being shown the door propelled him to sink his teeth into his studies and master his craft.
Now in his third year, the opportunity to audition for a scholarship came last month and he told himself he would try once again, but this time he felt he was ready.
“For last month ’ s audition I was asked to prepare two monologues that are contradictory – this could be a drama and a comedy,” he says.
The two plays he chose to perform in front of the panel of judges were Arthur Miller ’ s 1949 Death of A
Salesman and The Glass Menagerie by playwright Tennessee Williams.
He says the director who was present when he auditioned in 2013 was there again last month. “He remembered me. He even said my acting had improved. I walked out of the audition feeling confident because I had been preparing.”
The good news of his selection for LA came via e-mail on May 26.
Mbatha only leaves for the US in May next year, but there ’ s another huge hurdle in front of him.
“I have to raise funds to pay for the rest of my tuition and accommodation next year in LA because my scholarship is partial, it doesn't cover everything.”
He says the scholarship offered him $7 000 towards his year ’ s studies and he still needs to raise a further $12 000 (about R148 000).