Centre for Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies

Title

Theatre is Dead! Long live Theatre!

Department

Dance and Theatre

Keywords

Digital performance See all items with this value

Verbatim Theatre See all items with this value

Production Type

Fourth Year Student Production See all items with this value

Description

Theatre is Dead! Long Live Theatre! is a documentary theatre project by members of the 2021 graduating class at the Centre for Theatre Dance and Performance Studies at the University of Cape Town. This project, envisioned as a museum experience, responds to the National Arts Crisis and all the artists who took to their mediums to protest the major “funding irregularities” at the National Arts Council that have left artists in every discipline across the country without promised funding. Artists whose precarious livelihoods have already been severely impacted by the Covid 19 pandemic. Between what has been found to be “improper, corrupt, fruitless and wasteful expenditure” at the National Arts Council and a devastating global pandemic, it has been said that disciplines like theatre and performance are dead, having been dying for quite a while now, with smaller and smaller audiences and reduced funding possibilities. Those of us who make, frequent and support the theatre in all its guises know that this is fundamentally untrue.

This has also been proven through the remarkable interviews conducted by the students for this theatre project. Interviews with ordinary people about their complex and profound relationships with the performing arts. These (extra)ordinary people who gave so graciously of their time included a professional ballet dancer with an illustrious career behind her, a dog walker, a South African artist living outside the country, a local comedian, a matriculant, a tattoo artist, an IT specialist, a professional chef, and a 94-year-old veteran fighter pilot.

This museum-making project has delved into the archives of The Little Theatre on Hiddingh Campus, a so-called traditional theatre building, in which very many non-traditional events have been created, including this project. This work sits in a meeting of the archive and the contemporary, between the ‘dead’ and the very much alive, between the museum and the performance space.

Among the opportunities of this time is to ask ourselves what other surprising things exist where theatre and the digital meet. To ask ourselves if a virtual self-guided museum tour experience contradicts the essence of theatre, or if it in fact creates alternative avenues of access to performance work. The website that accompanies the live work is an experiment in a new merged space between an online experience and a live performance project.

In the spirit of the rare artistic solidarity demonstrated by the NAC protests, and by no small feat of timetabling gymnastics, this project has taken students out of their zones of comfort in their final year of study, and connected those studying dance, acting, theatre making and scenography together in this large collaborative creative endeavor.

Year Created

2021

Opening Date

12 August 2021

Closing Date

13 August 2021

Start Time

14h00

18h00

Performance Venue

The Little Theatre

P4 Acting Studio

Surrounding areas on Hiddingh Campus

Geographic Location of Performance

Cape Town

Producer

CTDPS

Director

Mwenya Kabwe

Assistant Director

Jacqueline Kehilwe Manyaapelo

Morné Steyn

Jenni-lee Crewe

Nicola Pilkington

Dramaturg

Alex Middlebrook

Bailey Davidson

Daniella Alves

Freddy Nyezi

Garrick Pagel

Grace Matetoa

Jeff Brooker

Juliette Innes

Kayla Dunne

Matthew Dos Santos

Neo Mbamba

Smamkele Mentyisi

Zama Mkhize

Text By

Devised in collaboration with the 4th Year Actors, Dancers, Theatre Makers and Scenographers.

Cast

Abigail Avidon See all items with this value

Adam Fagan See all items with this value

Amy Greener See all items with this value

Bethany McLachlan-Evans See all items with this value

Bianca Lakey See all items with this value

Caitlyn da Aparecida See all items with this value

Cwenga Koyana See all items with this value

Dean Goldblum See all items with this value

James Stoffberg See all items with this value

Katherine Jones See all items with this value

Lernice Parker See all items with this value

Lisa Tredoux See all items with this value

Lyle October See all items with this value

Mpumelelo Phanginxiwa See all items with this value

Nana Bulabula See all items with this value

Nahum Hughes See all items with this value

Nomakhosi Meveni See all items with this value

Oratile Ndimande See all items with this value

Stian Oosthuizen See all items with this value

Sidne Barnet See all items with this value

Taylor-rose Bisset See all items with this value

Timothy Stadler See all items with this value

Vocal Coach