(Greg
Homann. Pic: Timmy Henny)
The National Arts Festival has named an
unprecedented eight young South Africans winners of the prestigious Standard
Bank Young Artist Award, bringing to 125 the total number honoured since
Standard Bank began sponsoring the Awards three decades ago.
The Award is made annually to young South
African artists who are either on the threshold of national acclaim, or whose
artistic excellence has enabled them to make international breakthroughs.
“Celebrating excellence, innovation and a refined technical skill and artistry
rests at the heart of the Standard Bank Young Artist Awards. Each of this
year’s winners represent the vibrancy and sophistication with which South
Africa’s artistic and cultural legacy continues to be enriched” said Festival
Artistic Director, Ismail Mahomed.
Multi-talented
theatre director and academic Greg Homann has been named by the National Arts
Festival as the 2014 Standard Bank Young Artist Award Winner for Theatre.
Greg
Homann has directed an impressive array of work in varying styles and forms
that include drama, comedy, musical theatre, musical revue, contemporary
world-drama and new South African plays. Homann graduated from Wits with a BA
in Dramatic Art and has an MA in Text and Performance Studies with distinction
from The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and King’s College London.
Mike van
Graan’s Brothers in Blood was
produced by The Market Theatre (2009) and Artscape (2012 & 2013) under
Homann's direction and enjoyed seasons at theatres and festivals nationally. In
2011 Homann conceived, directed and designed a five-man version of Gilbert
& Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance
for The Theatre on the Square in association with the State Theatre. In 2012,
he directed the world-premiere of Ariel Dorfman's play Delirium, produced by The Market Theatre and funded by the Ford
Foundation in New York.
His
professional theatre productions have been nominated for 34 awards and have won
9 Naledi Awards including for Best Cutting Edge Production (The Pirates of Penzance and Delirium), a Standard Bank Ovation Award
(One-Woman Farce), and a Silver
Standard Bank Ovation Award (Brothers in
Blood).
In 2002,
while still a student at Wits, Homann directed the new South African musical Sauer
Street. In 2004, he co-produced Phyllis Nagy’s adaptation of Patricia
Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley.
He has directed the South African adaptation of Lord of the Flies at The Market Theatre; the new South African
comedy Chatter; the highly lauded dark
comedy, Pterodactyls; the box-office
hit, Tomfoolery at The Theatre on the
Square; and Imagine which he created
for illusionist Ilan Smith at the Joburg Theatre.
For The
Wits School of Arts – where Homann lectured in South African theatre and taught
directing, acting, and writing for seven and a half years – he directed A Clockwork Orange, The Crucible,
Translations, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern are Dead, Paul Slabolepszy’s Saturday Night at the Palace, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In May 2012, his production of the
musical revue, Forbidden Broadway,
was presented with students from the University of Johannesburg (UJ). While at
Wits he headed up the Writing and Directing programmes in the division of
Dramatic Arts; where he taught courses in South African theatre, directing,
comedy in performance, representational performance, and playwriting. On behalf
of The Wits School of Arts, Homann managed the Tisch (New York University)
Study Abroad Programme and was the portfolio holder for publicity and marketing
for that school for two years.
As an
actor, Homann has been seen in Pieter Toerien’s production of Around the World in 80 Days playing 18
different characters for which he was nominated for Best Break-through
Performance. In 2007 he performed in It’s
a Dad Thing at the Montecasino Theatre and the Theatre on the Bay in Cape
Town. He also works as a voiceover artist.
“I think
it is the need to learn and connect that keeps me motivated. In a rehearsal
room we become part of a family for a short time, and the text or project
always results in an opportunity to learn something about ourselves or our
world. I love that. I am also driven by a desire to prove that my choice to
create a career in the arts is a viable one and that preconceived ideas of
being an arts practitioner (poor, struggling, a dreamer, ungrounded, etc.) are
simply not true.” says Homann.
As an
academic, his primary area of research is in contemporary South African theatre
with an emphasis on post-apartheid plays. He is the editor of a collection of
plays entitled At This Stage: Plays from
post-apartheid South Africa (Wits University Press, 2009) which includes
two of his essays on contemporary South African theatre. He is currently
working on two international book publications that focus on South African
theatre, drama and playwriting.
“I am
astutely aware of the fraught, complicated, contradictory place we live; which
at the same time is full of so much possibility, success, and hope; and also
how I wish to contribute to the social and political conversations that
confront and challenge us,” elaborates Homann. “I work hard, but very little I
do for a living I wouldn’t do for love and no money.
“As a
child I remember saying that I wanted to be a clown when I grew up. Although
this has not become my career, my interest in comedy and performance is still
what informs most of my work,” he explains. “I have always believed that
theatre should challenge and entertain, and that these need not ever be
separated. I wish to make people think while being emotionally engaged, whether
that is through tears or laughter, or ideally both.
“The
first year of high school was extremely difficult for me, but thanks to some
wonderful teachers at Parktown Boys’, I found a community in the
extracurricular Drama offering, which allowed me space to grow. Their passion
for theatre nurtured my own interest in acting, art, and theatre.” Likewise,
when he reconsidered his career path after an initial venture into
architecture, and somewhat surprisingly found himself in the Drama Department
at the University of the Witwatersrand, Homann explains that he was mentored
and taught by “some brilliant theatre specialists and practitioners”, each of
whom inspired and challenged him in different ways.
“When I
look at the amazing list of past winners, it is clear that Standard Bank has
given South Africa an amazing gift by supporting and growing the profile of
artists over the last 30 years. It is an honour to be coupled with such a
celebrated group of individuals who have and continue to contribute to how we
think of South Africa and ourselves as people,” says the 34 year old. “This has
forced me into a new way of thinking - this is a moment of challenge and not a
moment of comfort. I have come to understand that being an artist is a title
that is earned through practicing your craft and through taking risks. I have
spent a large part of the past ten years serving what other people wish to say,
but this Award has made me think about what I wish to say about the world that
we live in.
Although
his first visit to the National Arts Festival was in the mid-90s as a schoolboy
with his dad and stepmother, and he has since created two original works that
have played at the Festival (one of which premiered to sold-out-houses at the
Setkani/Encounter Festival in Brno in the Czech Republic in 2009), and
presented on its stages as an actor, director and producer; he recalls that,
“Perhaps oddly, my most memorable visit to Grahamstown was in 2002 as a student
experiencing the joy of just seeing a mix of wonderful (and awful) work –
loving the festivity and the diversity of what the National Arts Festival so
brilliantly offers.”
In 2012
Homann directed two productions at the National Arts Festival. He is currently
the Head of School of Live Performance at AFDA in Johannesburg. He joined AFDA
in January of this year and is currently working towards growing and
strengthening that higher education institution in the areas of stage acting,
screen acting, and musical performance.
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