(Sipho Zakwe: Actor “The Chameleon” – Runner
up, Best Emerging Production; Estelle
Sinkins: representing the Suliman Family, donors of the Suliman Selection Prize;
Musho! festival director Emma Durden; Mikey Frederick von Bardeleben & Sandi
Dlanala: “Bru”: Winner Audience Favourite Award; Gcina Mhlophe: “My Travelling
Bag”: Winner, PANSA Special Mention Award, and Wiseman Mncube: Writer / Director of “The Chameleon”
In the middle is Josh Martin: Director: “Bru”
and in front from “The Dress” – The Audience Favourite Award Emerging Theatre
category are Cebo Mdadane &
Makhosazana Mkhize with Doctor Kheswa, the play’s director. Pic by Rodney
Prynne)
The tenth annual
PANSA Musho! Festival of
One and Two person theatre held at the Catalina Theatre in Durban’s Wilson
Wharf from January 14 to 19, was a glorious celebration of exciting intimate
theatre.
“We are delighted
that Musho! has made it
to ten years ! It's great when something in Durban sticks - and
the support we have had over the past 10 years from both actors and audiences
has been fantastic. We were also very excited to have old friends back at the
festival this year. Inviting back past winners is our way of acknowledging the
success that they had both at Musho!
and further afield. It also gives us a chance to reflect on the festival’s
growth over its first decade,” says festival director Emma Durden.
“It is also
heartening to see that the Musho!
audiences have been steadily increasing over the years – with the most popular
productions playing to capacity houses again this year. It is a testimony to
the quality of the productions, and to the ever-growing audiences who are
excited about seeing new work and actively participate in the process of
developing new theatre by giving feedback and reviews,” continued Durden.
An important
component of the Musho!
Festival is the awards given to deserving productions at the end of the
festival. Awards fell into two categories: emerging productions and main
festival works.
The main festival
saw the audience favourite go to the closing show of the festival: Bru
– a high-energy physical-theatre comedy written by performed by Sandi
Dlangala and Mikey Frederick von Bardeleben, and directed by Josh Martin.
The runner up was
Iain Ewok Robinson with his astonishing spoken word show, Back to Blue Monday –
referencing the PANSA initiative to showcase new work – in which he presented
his early works. Conceived and performed by Iain Ewok Robinson, with visual
artistry by Karen Melissa Logan.
The PANSA Special
Mention Award went to the Opening Night production, master story teller, Gcina
Mhlophe’s wonderful and hugely personal My Travelling Bag. In this show,
Gcina reflects on her own remarkable life story.
In the Emerging
Theatre category – The Audience Favourite Award went to The Dress – which
looked at a daughter repeating her mother’s secret past ... wearing the same
pink dress, and which showcased two remarkable performances by Cebo Mdadane and
Makhosazana Mkhize in a piece written by Mlungisi Ngidi and directed by Doctor
Kheswa and Khulekani Mtshali from Lashona Arts and Creations.
The Suliman Family
Selection – an award given by Durban family, the Sulimans, based on the shows they
have seen over the festival – went to the charming children’s production The
Great Big Enormous Turnip directed by Peter Court and Bryan Hiles
and performed by Bryan Hiles and Daisy Spencer.
The festival prizes
are sponsored by Going Places SA; Lindi Drummond from LTJ Travel; Themi
Venturas Productions and some anonymous donors.
The festival ended
on January 19 at the Catalina Theatre with 50 theatre-makers attending a
master-class led by experienced theatre practitioner, Gisele Turner, and Yvette
Hardie from Assitej SA with artistic input from Deaf performer and Musho! poster boy, Sibo
Masondo.
Continue to visit
the Musho! website (www.mushofestival.co.za) for more info, reviews of 2015 productions
and details.
The Musho! Festival 2015 is
presented by PANSA – the Performing Arts Network of South Africa - with support
from the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, eThekwini Municipality; the
KZN Department of Arts and Culture; Business and Arts SA; Twist Theatre
Development Projects; The Daily News and the Catalina Theatre.
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