FTH:K’S SHORTCUTS

FTH:K kicks off schools tour with new production

Award-winning visual theatre company FTH:K kicks off its national schools tour with a new show and a new trainee joining the team. The company integrates Deaf and hearing performers and creates innovative non-verbal productions, as well as running the Tell-Tale Signs education programme which prepares Deaf students for a career in the professional theatre industry, starting at school level and progressing to potential full-time employment with the company. The initiative provides training, skills transfer and job creation.

The 2011 tour will visit schools in KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Western Cape in May and August, reaching more than 1,000 learners and presenting a new work, Shortcuts, as well as a series of post-performance discussions and workshops. This year, new trainee Sinethemba Mgebisa will join Marlon Snyders, Christopher Beukes and Tomri Steyn on stage, who all took part in the popular Tales From The Trash tour last year.

“As a Cape Town-based company, it is important for us to engage with other members of the Deaf community across the country,” says Company Director Tanya Surtees. “The national schools’ tour is an ideal platform to share ideas, receive feedback about our work and to reconnect with the friends we have made over the years.”

Shortcuts is a collection of short stories featuring scenarios from everyday life and told using a range of masks – from the full face mask to the smallest mask of all - the red nose. Without saying a word, the performers take the audience from the pleasure of laughter to the heartbreak of love.

“Bringing the Deaf and hearing communities together through a shared experience, the show covers a large range of emotions using eight different characters to express them,” says Jayne Batzofin who devised, directed and designed the show. “From an exam hall where nerves and stress prevail, to an upmarket restaurant where a man is about to propose to his partner, Shortcuts presents themes to which a universal audience will relate.”

In August this year, Marlon, Christo, Tomri and Sinethemba will be joining other FTH:K members on a trip to Washington DC, to embark on a two-year international exchange programme between Deaf and hearing communities in South Africa and the USA. The Artsbridge International Exchange will promote inclusive visual theatre featuring Deaf and hearing performers and will comprise workshops, discussion forums, sharing of performance techniques and the creation of a work to be presented at festivals in South Africa and America.

“It certainly is an exciting year for FTH:K,” says Education Coordinator Simangele Mabena. “We are proud at what Marlon, Christo, Tomri and Sinethemba have achieved and in November this year, they will be presenting another new work, devised mostly by them, at the Intimate Theatre in Cape Town.”

The national schools’ tour is made possible thanks to generous funding from Africalia, National Lotteries Distribution Trust Fund and the National Arts Council.

*FTH:K is a multi-award-winning visual theatre and education company that aims to revolutionise the South African Theatre industry through the development of Deaf and hearing performer-creators. Visit www.fthk.co.za or join FTH:K on Facebook. For further information about FTH:K’s theatre education programmes, contact Education Coordinator Simangele Mabena on 021 448 2838.