The Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa

Partnerships

Shakespeare Schools Festival (South Africa)

The Shakespeare Schools Festival (SA) aims to help school learners to improve their language and social skills through the performing arts – and performing Shakespeare in particular. The inaugural South African Festival was staged in 2007 and it has been held annually since then. Festival founder Kseniya Filinova-Bruton, Managing Director Blythe Stuart Linger and their team, under the auspices of non-profit organisation Educape, have grown the Shakespeare Schools Festival into a nationwide (and, indeed, an international) phenomenon, with approximately 100 participating schools!

For more on the Shakespeare Schools Festival (SA), and to find out how you can become involved, check out their website or follow them on Facebook and Twitter. You can also subscribe to the Festival’s YouTube channel. 

The Shakespeare Schools Festival and the Shakespeare Society of Southern Africa have teamed up to produce translations of condensed versions of numerous plays for performance by high school learners in isiZulu, isiXhosa and Afrikaans. Click on the blue text below to email SSF-SA and request a copy!

• U-Juliyasi Kesari (isiZulu)

• U-Othello (isiZulu) 

• U-Mekhibhethi (isiZulu)

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (isiZulu)

• Wothela (isiZulu)

• The Tempest (isiXhosa)

• uRomeo noJuliet (isiXhosa / English)

• A Midsummer Night’s Dream (isiXhosa / English)

• Macbeth (isiXhosa / English)

• Macbeth (Afrikaans)

• Die Storm / The Tempest (Afrikaans / English)

• Die Vrolike Vroue van Windsor (Afrikaans)

The Tsikinya-Chaka Centre (TCC)

Among other initiatives, SSOSA and the TCC have partnered to develop Shakespeare ZA’s digital collection of translations of Shakespeare’s plays into South African languages, supported by the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS).

The two organisations also co-hosted the conference “Shakespeare Towards an End” in May 2023.

EasyEquities / CN&CO / BASA

The Shakespeare Society has benefited greatly from the support of its corporate partners CN&CO, EasyEquities and Business and Arts South Africa (BASA) over the past four years - making it possible for SSOSA to run workshops for teachers and theatre makers, to present screenings and other public events as part of its 2019 and 2023 conference programmes, and to support performance projects like #lockdownshakespeare and Speak Me A Speech.