PLAYHOUSE COMMUNITY ARTS FESTIVAL

Playhouse Company to host community arts festival in May.

The Playhouse Company proudly hosts a Community Arts Festival in the Playhouse Loft from May 6 to 23, 2010. The festival is geared to offer a platform for artists and arts practitioners to stage their performance works in a professional environment.

Three productions, entitled Just Don’t, Getting Tested and Jesus What a Disgrace will be featured in the festival. Each work focuses on serious social issues, and combines elements of dance, music and drama.

“In staging this exciting Community Arts Festival, we are happy to fulfil a vital part of our mandate,” says Playhouse Company Chief Executive and Artistic Director, Linda Bukhosini. “This includes fostering developmental work within our arts community. To this end, we have engaged a team of professional mentors, specialists in the fields of stage craft, script writing, music, dance and choreography, to teach and guide the community artists we are working with, helping them to take their productions to the next level.”

The dynamic team engaged comprises Edmund Mhlongo (Project Director), Gcina Mhlophe (Script Writing Mentor), Faca Kulu (Music Mentor), Zinhle Gumede and Musa Hlatshwayo (Dance/Choreography Mentors), Thabo Mnguni (Drama Mentor) and Bheki Mbili (Company Manager).

Getting Tested, an Umgubho Trading production, is scripted by Joy Mphewana and is co-directed by Mphewana and Sandile Menze. It depicts four dancers who meet every day for rehearsals as they prepare to perform a show. Their talk revolves around men and Ntoh takes on the burden of keeping them quiet. Havoc arises when they realize that as much as they’ve been working together they don’t know each other well. After a huge row, they realize they have all come across similar tests in life. The production is performed by Nokuthula Zulu, Gcina Shange, Nana Bhona and Thandeka Mdlalose.

Conceived by Lucky Simayela, Mlungisi Mkhize and Vumani Khumalo, and directed by Simayela, Just Don’t is an Ekhaya Multi Arts Centre project based on real life experiences. The drama carries a cautionary tale. A group of prisoners follow the journey of Jesu, a young boy from a well-off family, who commits a petty crime stealing a cellphone as a birthday gift for his girlfriend. He lands in jail where he is raped by prison gangsters. Fighting for his life, he ends up paralyzed and HIV positive. The cast includes Ngcebo Cele, Sbongiseni Chamane, Vumani Khumalo, Phumlani Ngubani, Thandanani Qwabe, Mlungiso Mkhize and Lucky Simayela.

Co-directed by Musawenkosi Shabalala, Bongumusa Shabalala and Xolani Silindana, Jesus What a Disgrace is set in a mortuary. Dead people tell how they ended up there as corpses, or how they died. The narrative is carried by a mortuary employee who has worked with the dead for 25 years, preparing their bodies for their families. He ends up having bad dreams and not sleeping at night. The story is told through powerful images, monologues and music. The cast features Snelisiwe Radebe, Nomusa Mzobe, Zodwa Shange, Zinhle Mzobe, Nomkhosi Mkhwananzi, Thamsanqa Silindana, Thabani Gwala and Nomvulelo Myeza.

Admission to the Playhouse’s Community Arts Festival is free. Performances of Getting Tested are May 6 and 7 at 14h00 and at May 8 at 12h00 and 15h00. Jesus What A Disgrace will be performed on May 13 and 14 at 14h00 and on May 15 at 12h00 and 15h00. Performances of Just Don’t are on May 20 and 21at 14h00 and on May 22 at 12h00 and 15h00.

For more information or to book, call Silindile Phewa on 031 369 9456 or e-mail marketingexecutive@playhousecompany.com.