national Arts Festival Banner

Monday, October 16, 2017

KZN ARTS SHOWCASE WRAPS UP



The KZN Arts Showcase has seen an array of drama, dance, live music and poetry staging at the Playhouse. The free Showcase wraps up this weekend.

The Playhouse Company’s inaugural KZN Arts Showcase has seen the first two weekends of October at the Loft Theatre bustling with local theatrical activity.

The KZN Arts Showcase opened on October 6 with an array of drama and dance productions, as well as live music and poetry staging at the Playhouse.

The Showcase wraps up this weekend with the final leg of offerings staging in The Loft Theatre from October 20 to 21.

Peace Magents stages on October 20 at 11h00 and October 21 at 14h00. This is the story of ex-convicts who are serving their time at Durban Westville correctional facility. They tell their different stories on the life they were living before they were arrested. They are about to be released and are looking forward to making a difference.

Human Race takes place on October 20 at 15h30 and October 21 at 15h15. This theatre piece is a “show within a show”. Three childhood best friends are running a final dress rehearsal. The show is about three gentlemen - president, pastor and low life citizen – who are trying to figure out where they are. They fall into the human race, race of power and equity. Will they make it on their race to the gates of heaven?

Cell Block Double is a two-hander new South African play about two women who are incarcerated in prison together. The production stages on October 20 at 16h45 and October 21 at 16h30. The characters take us through a journey of their lives and the circumstances that have lead them to be in prison. Most importantly, however, the audience experience their love/hate relationship and how they become each other’s strength in the journey of rehabilitation. This is a heart-warming look at the power of humanity and how two women, caught in violence and destruction, find redemption through friendship.

Ulwembu - which stages on October 20 and 21 at 19h30 - is a poignant, informative, honest and incisive theatre production about drug addiction. Over the course of 2015, a dynamic team of story-tellers, playwrights, theatre-makers, academics and researchers set about exploring the Whoonga (low-grade heroin) crisis currently plaguing KZN communities. The result is a powerful theatre production entitled Ulwembu (isiZulu for Spider web) created by award-winning playwright and director Neil Coppen, top local actress Mpume Mthombeni, KwaMashu-based community theatre group, The Big Brotherhood, and educational sociologist Dylan McGarry.

On October 20 audiences can stop by the Playhouse’s Coffee Shop Foyer to enjoy a FREE Sundowner Concert featuring Dawn King and the Selaphi Sisters. While on October 21– at the same venue – a FREE poetry showcase will stage, featuring local poets Nkosi Mnguni, Lerator Sokhulu, Tulile Siguca and Thubelihle Mthembu.

Also on October 20 (from 12h00 to 15h00) a FREE Master Class on Marketing and Publicity will be held at the Playhouse Grand Foyer. This is the final Master Class hosted within the KZN Arts Showcase activities with the intention being to assist emerging artists in various fields that could help them. In the case of the Master Class on Marketing and Publicity, the intention is to equip artists with advice from the experts on how they can market and publicise their events.

All productions, Sundowner Concerts and Poetry, as well are Master Classes are FREE entry. For theatre productions staging in the Loft Theatre and the Master Class booking is essential via salescoordinator@playhousecompany.com

The inaugural KZN Arts Showcase has seen an array of drama, dance and more showcased at the Playhouse Loft Theatre every weekend in October.

A total of 10 productions are being staged during this showcase which was created to celebrate authentic local works. This showcase has been co-curated by The Playhouse Company with K-CAP, Umsindo Theatre Projects, The University of KZN Drama Department and an independent panel, who recommended productions based on pre-set criteria. This included nominations of the best productions from their respective programmes, festivals or competitions.

For the full festival schedule visit www.playhousecompany.com