This year, the Department of Drama and
Production at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) will be hosting The
Actor’s Gym on the first Monday afternoon in each month for several months.
The idea is to create a forum where actors
(experienced, novice and the in-betweens) can meet and partner in new or rehashed
projects or art works. The Actor’s Gym will provide a network for creators and
performers alike and those interested in creating or invigorating projects
would attend in order to find performance partners or fellow improvisational
performers or enable new collaborators to conduct readings that may lead to
possible new business ventures.
Actors will pay R10 to join the Actor’s Gym
each month from. For this fee, they would have their project placed on an
agenda housed with the Courtyard Theatre Manager (Mthandazo Mofokeng) and this
R10 would afford the use of The Actor’s Studio - a Drama venue set aside in
order to allow directors to seek out casts, fellow entrepreneurs to initiate
new works, co-collaborators to network and frame new projects, etc.
All money collected will be used to fund
worthy students in need of tuition fees.
The motivation for this new initiative is
to create entrepreneurial opportunities for DUT drama graduates as well as all
other graduates in KZN and to allow a platform for new works of art to
conceptualize and evolve. It is hoped that the eventual regional benefits will
assist in a rejuvenation of the arts in the region and negate pockets of
artists in favour of new collaborations.
The Actor’s Gym runs until May on the first
Monday afternoon from 13h00 from 15h00. All agenda items and the intention to
attend can be emailed to Mthandazo Mofokeng on mthandazom@dut.ac.za or phone 031 373 2532.
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