(Caroline
Smart with her Arts & Culture Trust Lifetime Achievement Award for Arts
Advocacy. Image © John Hogg/Arts & Culture Trust)
A recent
interview by the late Clinton Marius, and William Charlton-Perkins, with SA
Arts luminary Caroline Smart
In the wake of this year’s global awards
season, the announcement last month of South Africa’s 2020 Arts and Culture
Trust (ACT) Awards winners, has once again shone a light on the benefits of
nurturing a vibrant arts industry in our society.
We spoke to Durban-based
actor-director-broadcaster-blogger-arts-champion-extraordinaire Caroline Smart,
recipient of a prestigious ACT Lifetime Achievement Award in Arts Advocacy,
about her career, and asked her to share her personal perspectives with artists
working in today’s world.
Q: Caroline, you are known throughout this
country’s arts community, for your generosity of spirit, not least your
capacity for skills-sharing, and your stance of encouragement, while offering
honest assessments in reviewing colleagues’ creativity and performance. What drives you to pursue your passion for
the arts?
A: I think it is through having been
introduced to theatre and ballet and an appreciation of visual arts and fine
craft at an early age through my parents. I enjoyed it all so much. It was such
a fulfilling experience. I would like other people to feel the same way. While
my website, artSMart, does aim to review productions honestly and to point out
problems or failings, the website aims to stay true to the fact that it is a
promotional publication.
Q:
artSMart is about to celebrate 21 years. How did it start, what was the aim,
and where does it stand now?
A: artSMart started on May 24 1999. Before
that, I was producing the D’ARTS Magazine for the Durban Arts Association but
funding for that fell away. A friend of mine, Colin Muller from Durbanet,
suggested that I create my own website as I already had all the contacts and
was well-known in the arts world. So, artSMart was born as a co-production of
Caroline Smart Services and Durbanet. The aim is to cover arts news in all
categories in KwaZulu-Natal and carries press releases as well as reviews on
theatre and film productions as well as books and classical music concerts. The
popular Events List gets updated on a weekly basis. In 2008, Webpro took over
hosting artSMart from Durbanet, continuing to help improve the site and
increase its reach. artSMart added a blog which I can now load myself, putting
out a minimum of four articles a day.
Q:
How did your career in the arts start?
A: My father would say that it was when I
was asked to be a Christmas Fairy at the Limuru Country Club’s Christmas
function (we lived in Kenya)! I was introduced to the importance of props with
the wand that he made me. He cleverly attached a battery-operated light which I
could control on the handle and create lovely flashing lights! I attended
ballet classes until the time came to go en pointe and was a top piano student
at school. More seriously, I started doing theatre work when the family moved
to Pietermaritzburg and I became a member of the Pietermaritzburg Philharmonic
Society and appeared in a number of musicals, operettas, choral works, etc. I
moved to Durban as I wanted to become involved in radio drama and went on to do
many productions for Springbok Radio and the then English Service. I trained at
the Anne Freed Theatre School with wonderful teachers like Kate King (voice
production), Geoffrey Sutherland (theatre) and Andrew Gialerakis (radio
presentation). That’s when I became a professional performer.
Q: In
the broader context of everyday life, how do you see the role of the arts
playing out?
A: The arts are incredibly important. I
hang on to the old adage – “If you’re being creative, you can’t be
destructive”. Also, it encourages the brain to be inventive, to explore new
grounds, be focused and more articulate in your speech and writing as well as
your interaction with other people. I sincerely wish that potential sponsors
could understand that their funding would help create this strength. Especially if the project is aimed at
children or young people.
Q:
What challenges do you see the Arts in SA facing, and do you have any thoughts
on how we can move onward and upward, both as performers and audience?
A: Having been associated with the Arts
& Culture Trust since D’ARTS magazine received ACT’s first award for print
media in 1998 and then having served on the board of trustees, I have extreme
respect for this organisation which remains the premier independent arts
funding and development body in South Africa. We owe ACT a huge thank-you for
the work it does, not least for the public awareness it brings about through
its annual awards initiative. Internationally, the arts need funding. Thank
heavens that ACT is able to support South Africa’s talent – all kudos to ACT’s
sponsors.
Q:
What is your vision for the performing arts in SA?
A: It is vitally important to build diverse
audiences, with communities sharing each other’s cultures, especially through
young people.
Q: As
one of your career highlights, what was the experience like, working with
artists such as Gabriel Byrne and Julie Walters on Richard E Grant’s
biographical film, “Wah Wah”?
A: Certainly working on Richard E Grant’s
film “Wah Wah” was definitely one of
the major highlights of my life. To work closely with Julie Walters, hovering
large and jolly as my character demanded, was fantastic. Richard was a lovely
director, knowing exactly what he wanted. The film was shot in Swaziland and I
got to wear some hectic costumes, especially in the “Camelot” scenes. The cape was so huge that on one evening, when it
was really cold, I was able to shelter two of the little dancers inside it
until the next scene!
Q:
What is the best advice you ever received, and who was it from?
A: Kate King, many years ago: “Your voice
is like an orchestra. You must just learn to play it properly.”
Q: What
advice would you give to youngsters considering careers in the arts?
A: Don’t hang around waiting for
sponsorship – get creative. Find alternate ways of getting paid for what you
do. Eventually build up a CV that will impress funders. Learn to communicate effectively – both in
voice and in print.
Q:
You have built an extraordinary legacy, what would you like people to take from
it?
A: Work, work, work. Trust your talent. Be
willing to give of yourself, generously. What goes around comes around. Exercise
self-discipline and stay healthy. Practice your craft with diligence, drive and
dedication, and you will reap the rewards.
Q:
You have been a driving force in many of the country’s top radio drama
productions. In today’s social media-driven environment of soundbite
communication (Twitter, Instagram, etc), how do you see the traditional radio
drama format surviving?
A: I wish I could say that the future looks
hopeful but I don’t see it happening. I have tried on several occasions to get
independent radio stations to carry radio drama but without success. This is
sad because it is a wonderful medium for the imagination.
Q:
What three things about you are people unlikely to know?
A: I’m acutely myopic – without my lens
implants I wouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a stage on my own! I really don’t
like frogs! I tend to hoard things!
Q
& A by Clinton Marius, and William Charlton-Perkins
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