Mandla Mbothwe is a multi-award-winning South African theatre-maker, published playwright, researcher, festival curator, director and art teacher who has been in the industry for over twenty years. Over the years he has created and presented theatre productions of high quality, which have been staged across South Africa and abroad. He has conceptualized and curated multiple commissioned international festivals, awards ceremonies and colloquiums. He has presented papers and public lecturers on art and pedagogy and is a published theatre maker. He successfully heads various institutions and serves others as a lecturer, curator and board member.
Mbothwe is the founder and Artistic Director of Mud&Fire Parables, a creative arts service provider specialising in curating and conceptualising interdisciplinary cultural programs, arts development and job creation. The company’s mission is to contribute to cultural production that is for the community by the community in an effort to reclaim the collective stolen memory. He is co-artistic director of the Magnet Theatre Company and has served as Artistic Director of the Steve Biko Foundation from 2011-2013, and creative manager of Artscape Theatre Centre in 2014-2016. In 2020, Mbothwe directed and co-founded the Malibongwe Women in Theatre Project/Festival as well as an online stop-gender based violence campaign, Body of Evidence.
Mbothwe’s written and directed works include Not a Prison, Kuthethi’thongo, 9437 to Stadt , Isivuno Samaphupho, Ingcwaba Lendoda Lisecankwe Ndlena, Umyezo weZandi, Inxeba Lomphilisi, Voices of Women,Ukutshona ko Mendi..did we Dance (2011/12/13) , Side sibebanye noMendi, Ndabamnye no SS Mendi (2017), Biko’s Quest (2014), G7-Okwe Bokwe (2017/18/19), Biko-Rising (2018/19), Iyazika (2017), Nguvu yaMbegu (2018/19), His Quest (2018). These works excavate and celebrates the narratives and aesthetics of his indigenous spirituality and culture.
