Our partners include K-CAP, Eager Artists, PANSA, DUT Drama Department, the National Arts Festival, Theatre Groep Siberia, and the Musho Festival.
The Ekhaya Multi-Arts Centre
As the home of K-CAP, (KwaMashu Community Advancement Projects) The Ekhaya Multi-Arts Centre is a unique theatre and creative centre in KwaMashu. It hosts the annual Isigcawu community theatre festival, which will be an additional platform for the new performances that will be developed by the community theatre groups.
At this festival, new plays by community groups, with a maximum of 10 actors, are shown in a competition festival. Workshops may also form part of the festival programme. Edmund Mhlongo from Ekhaya is one of the mentors on the project. For more info see www.kcap.co.za
Eager Artists
This is a professional theatre group in Durban, under the direction of Jerry Pooe. Eager Artists provides an example in combining innovative artistic growth and social/health-related projects. Jerry Pooe from Eager Artists is one of the mentors who is working on the Twist project.
PANSA : Performing Arts Network of South Africa
This national performing artist’s network established in 2001 is a body dedicated to promoting the rights of performing artists and networking in the performing arts field.
In 2009 PANSA worked alongside theatre Group Siberia in co-ordinating a seminar for script writers organised during the National Arts Festival. This seminar will be repeated in 2010 and writers from this workshop will be paired together with the community theatre groups for a project later in the year.
Twist and PANSA will also create a seminar for young writers that will be hosted at the Ekhaya Multi-Arts centre in Durban. PANSA hosts other training workshops throughout the year, and the twist groups will be invited to these workshops.
For more info see www.pansa.org.za
Durban University of Technology Department of Drama Studies
Staff and students of the DUT Department of Drama Studies will be linked with the Twist project in an exchange programme which sees students perform for the community theatre groups, and the groups performing for the students. This will allow for a cross-over of skills and ideas and be a building experience for both groups.
The DUT Department of Drama Studies has a strong performance tradition, and regularly presents productions at the Courtyard Theatre at their Steve Biko campus in Durban.
For more info see www.dut.ac.za
NAF: National Arts Festival in Grahamstown
The National Arts Festival is South Africa’s premier arts festival. An annual event in winter of each year in Grahamstown, the NAF hosts a wide range of theatre, dance, poetry, music and visual arts.
As a part of the Remix Lab project, the Twist community theatre groups will be invited to the 2010 National Arts Festival, to present their own work, to observe and be exposed to the work of professional theatre groups from around the country.
For more info see www.nafest.co.za
Stable Theatre
Stable Theatre is a long-standing downtown theatre venue in Durban, hosting a range of shows and festivals. With a new board and under new management they propose to focus on community theatre groups, festivals and workshops. It is a good downtown meeting place for the project meetings/ presentations and workshops.
Twist will host a community theatre festival in association with The Stable Theatre as part of the project, where groups will again present their work, this time with no restriction to the number of performers allowed.
Theatre Group Siberia
This theatre company is based in Rotterdam. It specialises in youth theatre and educational theatre for multi-cultural audiences. Theatre Group Siberia has a long-running relationship with a range of theatre organisations in South Africa, and will have ongoing contact with the project. Writers and directors from Siberia will work on the Twist Novel-Script project. Some members of the community theatre groups alongside other performers based in KZN will be involved in an exchange programme with Siberia, and will visit Holland to appear in a performance created by Siberia.
For more info see www.theatergroepsiberia.nl
Musho festival Durban
The Musho festival is a showcase of professional one or two-person plays, and the community theatre groups will work with selected professional writers and directors to create plays that use only one or two actors for this festival. The Musho festival is an annual festival in Durban and a platform where the community theatre groups can find the space to grow and develop and to be seen in a professional environment.
The new productions of the groups will be shown at the festival fringe and the groups will attend workshops and seminars that are given by professional theatre makers during the festival.
For more info see www.mushofestival.co.za
