Theatre Arts Admin Collective | Megan's Head

Walk this Way

On June 7, 2013

In Cape Town, deeply personal, G'town, inspiration, just funny stuff, me on stage, theatre stuff, world of work

So Liz Mills and I rehearse Drive With Me at the amazing Theatre Arts Admin Collective (I have no ideaÂ how Caroline Calburn manages that totally crazy schedule) and for the last week we have been spending each morning in the Minor Hall. It is a beautiful space, with a huge vaulted ceiling and gorgeous light through massive church windows. It is also relatively private.

Except for the man. There is a man who works for the church (the premises are on the Methodist Church in Obz) and every odd day or so he opens an internal door, shambles through, unlocks a weird storeroom, goes out the main door of the venue leaving it open, comes back, fetches the vacuum, opens another door, limps through noisily with a cup of tea. This would all be ok, if not a little irritatingÂ IFÂ he ever acknowledged us. But he doesn’t. It is literally as if we do not exist. It would be funny if it wasn’t so utterly creepy.

Now Drive With Me is a little odd (if not creepy) and having this man entirely ignore me, and us, is the strangest feeling in the whole world.

Swooping Swoop

By megan

On December 10, 2012

In Cape Town, show reviews

I have to confess, the last thing I felt like doing was dragging my adult self to a children’s show at 11am this morning, but I am so chuffed with myself that I did. I missed Swoop the first time it was on, but today I got to see its first performance at the Theatre Arts Admin Collective in Obz, and I am so bladdy excited that there is a clever, fun, originalÂ piece of live theatre for kids this holiday.

Swoop, based on a story by Hilda Cronje, worked on by Karen Jeynes and directed by Pieter Bosch Botha is an action packed, multimedia, environmental piece that will delight and entertain even the most jaded of 6 to 12 year olds. And it is local. And it is local.

Swoop tells the story of a young boy, Sam, who moves with his mom from Cape Town to Durban and how he befriends Jabu, who sparks an interest in him for swallows. This leads to all sorts of things happening; at home, at school and even at the airport! It is action packed, modern, age old, hilarious and even moving (I did. I shed a tear) with songs, and dancing, and puppetry and a brilliant table that can do and become everything.Â Talented youngÂ performers Iman Isaacs, Harrison Makubalo, Shaun Acker and Shaun Gabriel Smith make a beautiful meal of it all. I loved them equally and very much.

So here is my challenge. Dear parents of Cape Town, break the mould. Get off the beaten track. Take your kids to something different, in a different space. Swooping great story, brilliantly told and 100% enjoyable.

Villa Sofia stealing my heart

By megan

On November 30, 2012

In Cape Town, inspiration, show reviews

It’s really exciting for me that 3 of the most interesting works I have seen this year have been plays presented as part of the Theatre Arts Admin Collective and GIPCA’s Emerging Director’s Bursary. Thando Dhoni’s Eutopia, Dom Gumede’s Crepuscule and now Villa Sofia by Lidija Marelic. It’s been a treat seeing such diverse, yet detailed, passionate and committed work of a very, very high standard. Bravo.

Villa Sofia starts off at a massive advantage. Lidija put together Cape Town’s best to devise this work. Susan Danford, Terry Norton and Adrian Galley carry the life of this play and make it brilliant and moving. It is an odd story, that takes a while to access; what I actually know about the Serbs and Croats (the setting and subject matter of the play) is terribly limited, but by half-way in the characters have drawn you into the story and it is a tragic journey then, to the end.

But that’s not all. I loved the set. I loved the music. I loved the lighting, costumes, styling. The text needs another phase of writing, I think. I imagine a dramaturg working with Lidija to take the text to the next level. In the meantime, go and see the deft young hand of the director and the brilliant cast who live their characters so truly.

I want to make an appeal to The Theatre Arts Admin Collective to find a way to do two week runs of these works. A minimum of two weeks is needed before the Fleur du Cap judges can consider a production, and all three of these deserve being considered.

Crepuscule – how theatre can be

By megan

On October 11, 2012

In Cape Town, Jozi, show reviews

Last night I took a theatre hungry friend with me to see the second night of Crepuscule, the latest offering by The Theatre Arts Admin Collective and GIPCA’s emerging director’s bursary.Â Khayelihle Dom Gumede adapted this Can Themba story for the stage and then directed it. Set in Sophiatown in the 50’s, it tells the story of love across the colour line, and the trouble it caused.

I was totally heartsore that there were so few of us there. And I felt how impossibly difficult it must have been for the cast to plough on through with just us few as an audience. I was also totally blessed that they did. This play deserves a proper audience. A huge audience, and a long run. Where is everybody?

I was so moved, inspired and in love with this piece that I want to do this writing about it differently too.

Dear Dom, I don’t really know you, but have seen you around and I know some of the small difficulties (and even some of the big ones) you had getting your beautiful show up and running here. I am blown away by your work. I love your adaptation of the story; a process that is excruciatingly difficult, because there has to be deference to the writing and writer. You have captured this very successfully. I love how the script moves from the pure, high poetry of love to the more mundane language of politics and pain. I love your direction, which shows an inspired vision and a very light touch. I love your design and all the period work, and I love your attention to detail, in the layers of performance you brought out of the performers. One of my favourite little moments is when Malcolm is given a small, white sized beer instead of a quart in the shebeen. Oh, and I loved the tiny curtains. And I loved the transitions from stylised to naturalism, and I loved the singing, and I loved the intimacy, just to name a few of the many things I loved. Bravo Dom.

Dear Anele Sithulweni, you I know (and love). What an amazing performance. Anele you stole my heart. Confident, articulate, sexy, raging, true to the style of the time, and totally completely in it and present. This is your best work to date. Please find a way to do this play more, and all over, so people can see how brilliant you are.

Miekke-Dene le Roux, I have seen you in The Mechanicals, but here you take things to another level. Wow. I was so moved by your performance, characterisation, lightness, ease, deep connection, delicious physicalisation and total immersion in Janet. You are absolutely perfect. I loved you and your work.

Dear Kgomotso Matsunyane andÂ Luvuyo Mabuto, you are both totally new to me and I was so excited by you two. I loved your performances. Kgomotso you are so easy and at home on the stage, and you are a powerhouse of energy and emotion. Delicious. Luvuyo, you are just totally exciting and magnetic, and I couldn’t take my eyes off you. Bravo.

Glen Biederman-Pam, you were such an eye-opener last night. I have seen you before as a lead, and it’s quite a transition into ensemble and cameo work, but you were amazing. The intensity and maturity of your performance was so moving. This is the best thing I have seen you do. I am thrilled by your work here.

Nobuthle Ketelo. How proud am I to see you in this, my old student? You were gorgeous, generous, present, and your voice!

Crepuscule is an epic, moving, thrilling, inspiring piece of theatre. Members of the cast who are from Cape Town, and all of us who have seen this piece, let’s beg, force, cajole, encourage, nag and drag people to see this. I know they won’t be sorry.

Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act

By megan

On November 3, 2011

In Cape Town, political, show reviews

In a church, with the audience facing the door, piles of books, boxes and library stuff, a weird partitioned off room, and a blanket on the floor. The light so dim you can just make it all out. And the talking and touching starts. Intimate, sometimes rambling, mostly beautiful and completely revealing. Until the nightmare begins.

Kim Kerfoot was awarded a young director’s bursary by The Theatre Arts Admin Collective (and GIPCA and Distell) and he chose this Fugard play with the impossibly long title to do. He directs Bo Petersen,Â Malefane Mosuhli and Jeroen Kranenburg, with design by Guy de Lancey.

The version of this play is possibly as good as any version could be. The performances are great, the direction excellent, the design simple and effective. And, for me, this is Athol Fugard’s writing at its absolute best; where his characters are incarnations, most human people in untenable circumstances, who have to fight against, negotiate, try and often fail to understand a system that makes no sense of anything.

Written at the time that there actually was an Immorality Act (even the words, let alone the concept are mind boggling) the play is completely bizarre in its circumstance. It’s like watching a play about concentration camps. How was that humanly possible? How could it be? And ultimately, that is its extraordinary success. We know it was like that, and, against the odds, two people, for whatever reasons of their own, found each other in that craziness.

I have no idea why, but watching this performance made me think about the relationship between the script, the director and the cast. It is such an intricate, complicated and strange relationship, and not everybody is friends all the time. There is constant ‘push-me-pull-you’. There is constant negotiation, constant compromise. There is honouring, questioning, trusting, boundary pushing. It is an amazing thing. And Kim Kerfoot has done an amazing job.

Capturing Sanity

By megan

On August 2, 2011

In Cape Town, inspiration, show reviews

There is only this week left to see the GIPCA and Baxter Theatre’s emerging director’s bursary award production at The Theatre Arts Admin Collective. Of the four full productions that we saw this weekend I was the most impressed and satisfied with this one.

Capturing Sanity is devised work, directed by young Jozi director Pusetso Thibedi and his cast Thando Doni, Nieke Lombard and Richard Mkhuseli Tafane. It’s about three people who are in an institution, searching for sanity and what will make them ‘normal’ and functioning again.

Thibedi has done great things with this talented, committed and enthusiastic cast. It is obvious that they all trust each other and were able to push boundaries together. This means that there are many poignant, emotional, raw and touchingly funny moments that are shared with an audience, and the play drew me in. It was also delicious to see such accomplished performances from fresh performers.

Effective use of the very few lights in the Methodist Hall, good staging (except for the endless dragging around of the steps), simple design elements and costume all pulled the piece together in a very satisfying, unifying whole.

This production took a little too long to get started, but once it got going I was completely there with it, and I really, really enjoyed it.

Now here’s the deal. It is on every night this week at 1930. There is an extra matinee performance on Saturday. The tickets are so cheap you will not notice that you have paid. Please, make an effort to see this work. There is good talent. It’s a good story. It is young and fresh and interesting. And it will keep you thinking. To make a booking, please contact the Theatre Arts Admin Collective on 021Â 447 3683 or emailÂ

Megan's Head

A place where Megan gets off her head.

Tag: Theatre Arts Admin Collective (Page 2 of 3)

Walk this Way

Swooping Swoop

Villa Sofia stealing my heart

Crepuscule – how theatre can be

Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act

Capturing Sanity

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