Wits Arts and Literature Experience festival offers a dramatic line-up
March 29, 2010 – Expect world-class theatre from the main theatre programme, alongside an extensive line-up of cutting-edge, topical and interdisciplinary productions from the Young Directors’ Season, at the 2010 Wits Arts and Literature Experience (WALE).
WALE’s main theatre programme boasts three prestigious plays, staged at the Wits Theatre.
William Shakespeare’s Othello is directed by renowned director, actor and playwright Dr John Kani and designed by award-winner Sarah Roberts. The cast comprises Wits School of Arts students and professional actors.
According to Kani, Othello’s themes are as relevant in South Africa today as they were in England 400 years ago, when the play was written. “[Othello] gives us the opportunity to examine how much our attitudes have changed (or not) when it comes to race, colour and sex,” says Kani.
“I have enjoyed watching the students applying what they have learnt to their understanding and execution of the characters they are playing as dictated by the text. I am indeed amazed by what the students see as the central theme of Othello – that is jealousy, suspicion, hatred, true love, truth, lies, woman abuse and finally racism, in that order.”
A Theatre in Education Programme based on the Othello text is being offered to schools in conjunction with the production.
Othello runs from April 9 to 24.
Songs for a New World, a contemporary musical presented by the Wits School of Arts, is directed by award-winning actress, director and playwright Gina Shmukler, with music and lyrics by Tony Award-winner Jason Robert Brown. Shmukler most recently played Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady and directed and co-wrote Brer Rabbit for the Market Theatre, adding to her already impressive international body of work.
Songs for a New World “is about love, loss, hope and the fragility of what we think to be certain”, says Shmukler. “It’s about one moment. It’s about hitting the wall and having to make a choice, or take a stand, or turn around and go back.”
Songs for a New World runs from April 14 to 24.
Prejudice and Pride, emerging from Wits University’s collaboration with the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University (NYU), is directed by Wits drama lecturer and theatre practitioner Greg Homann. It brings together participants from both Wits and NYU through NYU’s Study Abroad programme.
Prejudice and Pride opens on April 21 and runs until May 1.
The Young Directors’ Season runs alongside the main theatre programme and includes works by invited directors from Wits School of Arts.
Unshelved is an autobiographical performance, created and choreographed by Wits movement lecturer Alfred Elikem Kunutsor, who says the piece expresses “the musicality of the body by stripping away all limitations imposed on it over time”.
A performance piece titled Lookis directed by Tarryn E Lee, who says the piece examines “the subsoil of life through ritual and that which lies beneath the surface of coexistence”.
Not-to-be-missed Tsela is a collaborative piece that emerged out of its creators’ re-imagining Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. It was conceptualised and is directed by Wits Drama staff and director Kabi Thulo.
Miss Margarida’s Way, directed by Wits Drama’s Jessica Lejowa, was written by Roberto Athyde during the politically unstable 1970s in Brazil. The message is poignant in South Africa’s current political climate
Folk Memoir Orators Triple Bill, directed by Jefferson Tshabalala, features three new original plays (Ekasi Lam, Umkhonto we Ntsizwa and Amakwerekwere).Through each play, Folk Memoir Orators explores themes such as “romanticised intricacies of ghetto residential life, boy soldiers in armed liberation struggles and xenophobia,” says Tshabalala.
In keeping with WALE’s commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration comes Neutrally Overexposed, which merges photography with theatre. This piece is the creation of Wits graduates Lindy Scott and Pamela Murray, who say Neutrally Overexposed “illustrates the relationship and tension between a given subject, the tool and the photographer”.
The Trial of the Senior Citizen emerged from an MA research project by Bhekilizwe Ndlovu. It explores human rights issues, with particular emphasis on gay rights, through a kaleidoscopic approach to oppression and discrimination.
Finally, the Drama for Life Playback Theatre Company will also be part of WALE’s theatre programme. Director Kathy Barolsky invites WALE audiences to experience “a unique interactive, accessible space [in which] to listen, witness and share stories through the form of Playback Theatre”.
- For programming details and ticketing information, visit http://www.wale.co.za.
- Bookings for Othello, Songs for a New World and Prejudice and Pride can be made through http://www.strictlytickets.com.
- Tickets cost R60 (full price) and R35 (discount price for pensioners, Wits staff and students).
- Schools’ bookings for Othello and the Theatre in Education Programme can be made with Cathy Pisanti on +27 (0)11 717 1376.
- For media and publicity-related queries, photographs, interviews or media accreditation please, contact JT Communications Solutions’ Rami Nhlapo on +27 (0)11 788 7631/2 or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).