Pub Date : 2022-01-02DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2022.2107948
Robert Mshengu Kavanagh
The camera, the film, the television and globalization have finished the work the Realists, the Naturalists and Konstantin Stanislavski began. Whereas, for millennia, African art was ideologically non-Realist, realism – one might say, Western realism – has swept the board. I say ‘ideologically’, perhaps the better word is ‘aesthetically’. There were artists who believed that capturing a likeness was worth it, but these were relatively few and far between. The idea of art – hence ‘ideologically’ – for most artists was not to copy. Verisimilitude was not a goal. What was the point? Art was art and reality was reality – two different things. For the artist, the imagination rather than observation was paramount. African artists sought to express the symbolic, the spiritual, the decorative or the usefulness of their subjects. Theatre artists over the ages and in different parts of the world have sought the truth but there are many kinds of truth and therefore many ways in which theatre artists have expressed it. There can’t be many artists who do not strive to be truthful – though religion, politics and capitalism have their fair share of those who don’t – and these have shown that realism has no monopoly of the truth. Africans are now so acculturated that many no longer understand artistic non-real expression and when confronted by it either show no interest or search for ways to reconcile it with their realist expectations. Nevertheless, in the present time, it is the theatre, along with sculpture and visual art, that is still rooted in the origins of African art. African non-realism thrives in the theatres of Africa and nowhere more than in South Africa. Though this is so, i.e., that indigenous theatre in South Africa, to a large extent, creates its spectacles in the spirit of African realism, the universities, it would seem, still tend to teach most aspects of performance according to the gospels of European and North American realism. This phenomenon might not be entirely restricted to South Africa, though, owing to the hegemony of Western culture in South Africa, it is probably a lot more entrenched there than elsewhere. There are those who, in the spirit of decolonizing the university syllabus, are giving this anomaly serious attention. In the interests of theatre, their efforts deserve to be supported.
{"title":"Realism, non-realism and the African performer","authors":"Robert Mshengu Kavanagh","doi":"10.1080/10137548.2022.2107948","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10137548.2022.2107948","url":null,"abstract":"The camera, the film, the television and globalization have finished the work the Realists, the Naturalists and Konstantin Stanislavski began. Whereas, for millennia, African art was ideologically non-Realist, realism – one might say, Western realism – has swept the board. I say ‘ideologically’, perhaps the better word is ‘aesthetically’. There were artists who believed that capturing a likeness was worth it, but these were relatively few and far between. The idea of art – hence ‘ideologically’ – for most artists was not to copy. Verisimilitude was not a goal. What was the point? Art was art and reality was reality – two different things. For the artist, the imagination rather than observation was paramount. African artists sought to express the symbolic, the spiritual, the decorative or the usefulness of their subjects. Theatre artists over the ages and in different parts of the world have sought the truth but there are many kinds of truth and therefore many ways in which theatre artists have expressed it. There can’t be many artists who do not strive to be truthful – though religion, politics and capitalism have their fair share of those who don’t – and these have shown that realism has no monopoly of the truth. Africans are now so acculturated that many no longer understand artistic non-real expression and when confronted by it either show no interest or search for ways to reconcile it with their realist expectations. Nevertheless, in the present time, it is the theatre, along with sculpture and visual art, that is still rooted in the origins of African art. African non-realism thrives in the theatres of Africa and nowhere more than in South Africa. Though this is so, i.e., that indigenous theatre in South Africa, to a large extent, creates its spectacles in the spirit of African realism, the universities, it would seem, still tend to teach most aspects of performance according to the gospels of European and North American realism. This phenomenon might not be entirely restricted to South Africa, though, owing to the hegemony of Western culture in South Africa, it is probably a lot more entrenched there than elsewhere. There are those who, in the spirit of decolonizing the university syllabus, are giving this anomaly serious attention. In the interests of theatre, their efforts deserve to be supported.","PeriodicalId":42236,"journal":{"name":"South African Theatre Journal","volume":"35 1","pages":"36 - 44"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42167691","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2022.2063938
Helena Baard
Verbatim-physical theatre presents the possibility for women’s stories, not only to be told, but to be heard, interacted and engaged with. This article explores the combination of physical- and verbatim theatre for feminist protest theatre in South Africa. It argues that verbatim-physical theatre as feminist protest theatre presents a mode of storytelling that is challenging and oppositional through embodied and dynamic performances. It further makes the case that South African theatre is built on a long tradition of story-telling, is imbued with inherent physicality and has always been a strong means for political consciousness-raising and education. It is this nature of South African theatre that makes the combination of verbatim- and physical theatre so effective for feminist protest theatre. The article also analyses the creation and staging of What I was Told, a verbatim-physical theatre production telling the stories of women, the stories told to us and the stories that still need to be told.
{"title":"What I was Told: verbatim-physical theatre as feminist protest theatre in South Africa","authors":"Helena Baard","doi":"10.1080/10137548.2022.2063938","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10137548.2022.2063938","url":null,"abstract":"Verbatim-physical theatre presents the possibility for women’s stories, not only to be told, but to be heard, interacted and engaged with. This article explores the combination of physical- and verbatim theatre for feminist protest theatre in South Africa. It argues that verbatim-physical theatre as feminist protest theatre presents a mode of storytelling that is challenging and oppositional through embodied and dynamic performances. It further makes the case that South African theatre is built on a long tradition of story-telling, is imbued with inherent physicality and has always been a strong means for political consciousness-raising and education. It is this nature of South African theatre that makes the combination of verbatim- and physical theatre so effective for feminist protest theatre. The article also analyses the creation and staging of What I was Told, a verbatim-physical theatre production telling the stories of women, the stories told to us and the stories that still need to be told.","PeriodicalId":42236,"journal":{"name":"South African Theatre Journal","volume":"34 1","pages":"178 - 193"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46916383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2022.2062042
H. McCallum
It is often stated that art reflects reality. Therefore, it should not be a surprise that in times of extreme conflict and oppression, theatre practitioners explore themes such as violence, legacy and emancipation during and after such situations. As with any verbatim theatre production, the play is based on real stories and events. Within the South African context, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has enabled a large number of enlightening narratives to enter local, national and international discourses. This has also provided many opportunities for the further exploration of both the individual stories, and themes arising, through the medium of verbatim theatre. This paper reflects on a number of different examples of verbatim theatre productions in a post-apartheid South Africa, including productions such as Ubu and the Truth Commission (1997), He Left Quietly (2002) and Truth in Translation (2006). While these theatre productions utilize real stories to explore topical and contentious themes, each production explores the different narratives by employing a variety of dramaturgical techniques.
{"title":"Theatre and witnessing: an investigation into verbatim ‘theatre as reconciliation’ in post-apartheid South Africa","authors":"H. McCallum","doi":"10.1080/10137548.2022.2062042","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10137548.2022.2062042","url":null,"abstract":"It is often stated that art reflects reality. Therefore, it should not be a surprise that in times of extreme conflict and oppression, theatre practitioners explore themes such as violence, legacy and emancipation during and after such situations. As with any verbatim theatre production, the play is based on real stories and events. Within the South African context, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has enabled a large number of enlightening narratives to enter local, national and international discourses. This has also provided many opportunities for the further exploration of both the individual stories, and themes arising, through the medium of verbatim theatre. This paper reflects on a number of different examples of verbatim theatre productions in a post-apartheid South Africa, including productions such as Ubu and the Truth Commission (1997), He Left Quietly (2002) and Truth in Translation (2006). While these theatre productions utilize real stories to explore topical and contentious themes, each production explores the different narratives by employing a variety of dramaturgical techniques.","PeriodicalId":42236,"journal":{"name":"South African Theatre Journal","volume":"34 1","pages":"166 - 177"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45526426","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2022.2072381
Mienke Fouche, Janine Lewis, L. A. Orlandi
Performers are exposed to embodied characterization techniques embedded within their training that makes the transference of these concepts comfortable to integrate into external performance modes such as puppetry. So too do performing objects require a nuanced approach towards their performances being equated to characters’ expressions. However, technicians are expected to programme such mechanical performing objects with equivalent anthropomorphised agency, often without insight into embodied characterization. This paper explores the development and early validation of a pragmatic tool to assess and apply agency to performing objects. The degree of agency tool employs Affect theory to understand the process of anthropomorphisation. The degree of agency tool is designed to measure the degree of agency expressed by an operated performing object to avoid soulless mechanical performance. We argue that the tool includes an exploration of affect, emotion, anthropomorphisation, and non-verbal communication. As an outcome, the design research process reveals that these topics form the groundwork for the development of the degree of agency tool.
{"title":"Performing emotions through technology: towards a degree of agency tool (DoAT) for assessing and applying agency to operated performing objects","authors":"Mienke Fouche, Janine Lewis, L. A. Orlandi","doi":"10.1080/10137548.2022.2072381","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10137548.2022.2072381","url":null,"abstract":"Performers are exposed to embodied characterization techniques embedded within their training that makes the transference of these concepts comfortable to integrate into external performance modes such as puppetry. So too do performing objects require a nuanced approach towards their performances being equated to characters’ expressions. However, technicians are expected to programme such mechanical performing objects with equivalent anthropomorphised agency, often without insight into embodied characterization. This paper explores the development and early validation of a pragmatic tool to assess and apply agency to performing objects. The degree of agency tool employs Affect theory to understand the process of anthropomorphisation. The degree of agency tool is designed to measure the degree of agency expressed by an operated performing object to avoid soulless mechanical performance. We argue that the tool includes an exploration of affect, emotion, anthropomorphisation, and non-verbal communication. As an outcome, the design research process reveals that these topics form the groundwork for the development of the degree of agency tool.","PeriodicalId":42236,"journal":{"name":"South African Theatre Journal","volume":"34 1","pages":"131 - 149"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42556891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-09-02DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2022.2053339
L. Seekoe, C. Uwah
There is a negative approach and perception of the black South African accent in Drama Departments of higher education institutions in South Africa. The purpose was to discover the experiences of being an actor-in-training at a Drama Department at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance (AFDA). The research method was a qualitative design, and the sampling method was purposive. The inclusion criteria considered participants who could speak at least one South African language other than English. In other words, the researcher selected black South African natives from the Nguni language groups (isiZulu, isiXhosa, Siswati, isiNdebele) and Bantu language groups (Sesotho, Northern Sotho or Sepedi, Setswana). The exclusion criteria considered anyone registered at UCT or AFDA or already graduated with a degree certificate from those institutions. The researcher analysed the data using the Tesch analysis method. The study has communicated the effects of a voice-training syllabus that ignores authentic black South African vocal abilities. The participants’ experiences have shown a lack of interest in honing and encouraging black South African accents in the voice-training syllabus at Drama Departments in South African universities. It was concluded that there is more emphasis and attention given to British and American accents in the voice-training syllabus in South African universities and that black actors-in-training are encouraged to perform in these accents. The participants expressed that they do not feel prepared to perform characters with black South African accents because of this training.
{"title":"Negative attitudes and perceptions of black South African accents in higher education institutions of the Western Cape Province","authors":"L. Seekoe, C. Uwah","doi":"10.1080/10137548.2022.2053339","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10137548.2022.2053339","url":null,"abstract":"There is a negative approach and perception of the black South African accent in Drama Departments of higher education institutions in South Africa. The purpose was to discover the experiences of being an actor-in-training at a Drama Department at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and The South African School of Motion Picture Medium and Live Performance (AFDA). The research method was a qualitative design, and the sampling method was purposive. The inclusion criteria considered participants who could speak at least one South African language other than English. In other words, the researcher selected black South African natives from the Nguni language groups (isiZulu, isiXhosa, Siswati, isiNdebele) and Bantu language groups (Sesotho, Northern Sotho or Sepedi, Setswana). The exclusion criteria considered anyone registered at UCT or AFDA or already graduated with a degree certificate from those institutions. The researcher analysed the data using the Tesch analysis method. The study has communicated the effects of a voice-training syllabus that ignores authentic black South African vocal abilities. The participants’ experiences have shown a lack of interest in honing and encouraging black South African accents in the voice-training syllabus at Drama Departments in South African universities. It was concluded that there is more emphasis and attention given to British and American accents in the voice-training syllabus in South African universities and that black actors-in-training are encouraged to perform in these accents. The participants expressed that they do not feel prepared to perform characters with black South African accents because of this training.","PeriodicalId":42236,"journal":{"name":"South African Theatre Journal","volume":"34 1","pages":"150 - 165"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47391218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-04DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2022.2057356
Máire Slater
The rhetorical function of the music in Ubu and the Truth Commission is explored through an analysis of the songs and accompanying soundscape to reveal a problematization of the concept of reconciliation. This is achieved by emphasizing the colonial history of South Africa and undermining the explicit messages Pa Ubu delivers in his songs through instrumentation, the use of music identified with the protest movement, and through harmonic and melodic function. Particular attention is paid to the juxtaposition of instruments and sounds of the West with those of Africa or the global South, and the defamiliarization of the idea of ‘home’ and the recognition of Pa Ubu’s position of influence and power through the harmonic function of the dominant pitch and tonality.
{"title":"The rhetoric of reconciliation in the music of Ubu and the Truth Commission","authors":"Máire Slater","doi":"10.1080/10137548.2022.2057356","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10137548.2022.2057356","url":null,"abstract":"The rhetorical function of the music in Ubu and the Truth Commission is explored through an analysis of the songs and accompanying soundscape to reveal a problematization of the concept of reconciliation. This is achieved by emphasizing the colonial history of South Africa and undermining the explicit messages Pa Ubu delivers in his songs through instrumentation, the use of music identified with the protest movement, and through harmonic and melodic function. Particular attention is paid to the juxtaposition of instruments and sounds of the West with those of Africa or the global South, and the defamiliarization of the idea of ‘home’ and the recognition of Pa Ubu’s position of influence and power through the harmonic function of the dominant pitch and tonality.","PeriodicalId":42236,"journal":{"name":"South African Theatre Journal","volume":"34 1","pages":"113 - 122"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49613656","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-04DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2022.2050519
Kamogelo Molobye
Dance in South Africa is as complex as the diversity of cultures in her country. It reflects the nuances of socio-cultural mores that shape the ever-changing South African nation. The wealth of cultures and identities in South Africa pose an exciting challenge for many artists, particularly those located in the dance faculties, to define and articulate what is contemporary about South African dance and what is African about contemporary dance. The challenge towards normative and codified rigidities in dance practice and discourse functions as an unconventional entry by the Vuyani Dance Company (VDC) to embrace innovative and hybrid forms and modes of embodied representations through dance. The publication of Looking Back to Move Forward (2019) divulges the many ways the dance theatre of Gregory Maqoma – founder of Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) and VDC – innovates fresh movement vocabularies. It chronicles the practice of locating the self as a point of departure to excavating and performing embodied narratives about personal experiences that converge with societal histories. The meeting place between the private and the communal serves as the driving force of Maqoma’s success in making dance theatre. The book sheds light on Maqoma’s practice of embracing nostalgia and imagination to create future thinking narratives while inspiring lasting legacies. Looking Back to Move Forward (2019) performs two functions. Firstly, it cements the understanding that contemporary African dance is complex and transformative. The nature ofMaqoma’s method of creating dance theatre is celebrated in the book as it invites readers to journey through 20 years of a successful Black conceived and owned dance company in South Africa. In this layered, the distinct refusal to rigidities in dance practice has prompted a need to innovate Black orientated contemporary African dance. As evidenced in the book, the company achieved this by appreciating the multiplicious nature of Maqoma’s choreography that applies influences from the South, East, and West to formulate individual and interpersonal narratives of collective experiences. Furthermore, the book sheds light on Maqoma’s practice of examining the position of blackness in contemporary dance within the postcolonial African context. Finally, it provides frames of reference that reorientate contemporary African dance away from troubling labels such as ‘primitive’ or the homogenizing ‘ritual’ or ‘authentically African’ markers.
{"title":"Looking back to move forward: celebrating 20 years of an innovative contemporary African dance company","authors":"Kamogelo Molobye","doi":"10.1080/10137548.2022.2050519","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10137548.2022.2050519","url":null,"abstract":"Dance in South Africa is as complex as the diversity of cultures in her country. It reflects the nuances of socio-cultural mores that shape the ever-changing South African nation. The wealth of cultures and identities in South Africa pose an exciting challenge for many artists, particularly those located in the dance faculties, to define and articulate what is contemporary about South African dance and what is African about contemporary dance. The challenge towards normative and codified rigidities in dance practice and discourse functions as an unconventional entry by the Vuyani Dance Company (VDC) to embrace innovative and hybrid forms and modes of embodied representations through dance. The publication of Looking Back to Move Forward (2019) divulges the many ways the dance theatre of Gregory Maqoma – founder of Vuyani Dance Theatre (VDT) and VDC – innovates fresh movement vocabularies. It chronicles the practice of locating the self as a point of departure to excavating and performing embodied narratives about personal experiences that converge with societal histories. The meeting place between the private and the communal serves as the driving force of Maqoma’s success in making dance theatre. The book sheds light on Maqoma’s practice of embracing nostalgia and imagination to create future thinking narratives while inspiring lasting legacies. Looking Back to Move Forward (2019) performs two functions. Firstly, it cements the understanding that contemporary African dance is complex and transformative. The nature ofMaqoma’s method of creating dance theatre is celebrated in the book as it invites readers to journey through 20 years of a successful Black conceived and owned dance company in South Africa. In this layered, the distinct refusal to rigidities in dance practice has prompted a need to innovate Black orientated contemporary African dance. As evidenced in the book, the company achieved this by appreciating the multiplicious nature of Maqoma’s choreography that applies influences from the South, East, and West to formulate individual and interpersonal narratives of collective experiences. Furthermore, the book sheds light on Maqoma’s practice of examining the position of blackness in contemporary dance within the postcolonial African context. Finally, it provides frames of reference that reorientate contemporary African dance away from troubling labels such as ‘primitive’ or the homogenizing ‘ritual’ or ‘authentically African’ markers.","PeriodicalId":42236,"journal":{"name":"South African Theatre Journal","volume":"34 1","pages":"123 - 126"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2021-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45083635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-04DOI: 10.1080/10137548.2021.2018356
Vidhya Sana
Performing excess is a trope of comedy that dates back to the earliest times – with jokers and clowns being the most popular example of how comedy allows individuals to abandon restrictions of decorum and social graces. In a society where increasing democratic freedom allows for expressions of identity to be performed more openly, it is interesting to note how excess has been linked to the consumption of material goods, wealth and the caricatured performance of culture. Comedy, true to its nature, allows for these expressions of excessive consumption to appear even more pronounced than they do in other cultural products. In the South African Indian community, excess is used in an attempt to emphasize belonging in a market-driven capitalist economy and is also used to lampoon stereotypes of the rapacious Indian. Two main issues arise from depictions in South African Indian comedy. First, the South African Indian community has been associated with the stereotype of greed and rapaciousness, and the comedians (most prominently Karou Charou and Peru and Bala) are often criticized for allowing the use of stereotypical tropes to capitalize on the lampooning of the South African Indian community. Second, the exaggerated stereotypes reflect the state of comedy in post-Apartheid South Africa, with a heavy reliance on stereotypes and excessive displays of conspicuous consumption. The comedy in post-Apartheid South Africa, particularly from minority communities, has often been ‘low brow’, with an emphasis on excess, exaggeration of stereotypes and self-deprecatory humour. This excessiveness is prevalent in some South African Indian comedy, which relies heavily on stereotypes, such as that of bling township culture and excessive alcohol consumption, to provoke humour. This paper explores excess as an expression of consumption: how is consumption linked to comedy and how does this reflect the identity of South African Indians?
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