PUT YOUR CHILDREN ON THE STAGE
From Shakespeare to Roald Dahl and plenty in between, Joburg’s theatre buffs are hatching tomorrow’s stage stars.
They may not learn to act, but it will do wonders for their confidence
IN the December production of James and
the Giant Peach, a young boy with a shouty voice put on quite a show. Sam Hertz, 10, is as animated as a room full of emojis.
Hertz’s British accent is peculiar for a child from Linksfield, Johannesburg. He explains: “I know, my accent is weird, I picked it up when we visited the West End.” Emphasis on the “d”.
The King David Primary School pupil is an old hand at the National Children’s Theatre in Johannesburg. Hertz has, since the age of three, played an ugly duckling, Benjamin Bunny and Oliver (the production was nominated for a Naledi theatre award). After his triumph as a James, next month he will be a George, in Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine.
“I just love to act, I can be myself and someone else at the same time. For in-stance, a boy in Eng-land. Who can get a-ma-zing beans. And have an adven-ture. In a gi-ant peach,” the little thespian says.
He is a Nactie, a product of the non-profit theatre’s weekend workshops which train 120 students a year, one in four of them on bursaries. Not only is it a hatchery for the industry, it also gives children a break from screens and malls by producing talent and putting on shows for other children to watch.
“I’ve made so many friends. I like to surround myself with interesting people; oh I do hope I can become an interesting person too,” says Hertz, who sounds like a Dahl book. “AND I love Roald Daaahl, I’ve read all the books.”
Theatre CEO, Moira Katz personally does not fancy Dahl, but: “Parents must recognise the show, so they can bring their children to watch.” Bums on seats is a worldwide challenge.
Katz and artistic director Francois Theron would like to do more Gcina Mhlope, Africa stories, Shakespeare.
“Children’s theatre is also about exposure to great literature, storytelling. But this is a business. If we have to get them in by doing
Oliver, Annie, Dr Seuss, we do,” she concedes with a smile.
At around R600 000 per production, they need three full houses a day to defray expenses.
The sums, which don’t always add up, do not take away from the experience Katz wants to create for children, by children.
The theatre is based at a heritage house in Parktown, leased from the city.
The wooden floors, heavy red velvet curtains and an oldfashioned box office conjure up the magic of the stage. The walls are decorated with posters of past productions, portraits of stars (like Hertz), a 2011 cheque for R50 000 (ironically from a television company), and dazzling costumes.
Audiences dress up for the outing. Children aren’t allowed to eat inside. The atmosphere instils discipline, but remains casual enough that the kids can sit crosslegged on mats in front of the stage or run to a parent’s lap if the smoke, script and soundtrack get too dramatic.
“It is an occasion,” says Katz. “Not like going to the movies. I love the look on their little faces when they enjoy a show. The laughter, the interaction with the characters. Afterward they want to meet the actors. It is so special.”
AT the Peoples Theatre in Loveday Street, directors Keith Smith and Jill Girard have spent 26 years putting on children’s theatre shows.
Girard has a Naledi bestproduction-for-children award for
Shrek, the Musical on her desk. They, too, have to balance the unicycle of recognisable shows, quality stories and talent. And that old thorn in the side of the arts, finances.
“Tickets sold at the box office pay for the next production. But we agree that our way forward is to produce theatre for children with the best we can afford,” says Girard.
“We want children coming to a