Shakespeare Schools Festival events in September

[PRESS RELEASE]

The third instalment of this year’s Shakespeare Schools Festival (SSFSA) will begin in Johannesburg on September 8, 2021. Thereafter the SSFSA will be presented in Durban, George and Gqeberha (the latter as a combined event with Makhanda).

---

The SSFSA, now in its eleventh year, is Africa’s largest annual Shakespeare youth drama festival. It strengthens the link between the arts and education, uniting and empowering children from across socio-economic spectrum using the transformational power of theatre and specifically the works of Shakespeare to achieve that goal. To date the SSFSA has seen the participation of more than 557 schools, over 10 000 learners and 693 educators across the various provinces in the country. Online and in-person audiences this year have totaled close to 26 000 people.

As a creative outlet the SSFSA is an opportunity for young people, both at school and in amateur drama groups, to tap in to the performing arts, explore their dramatic capabilities and unlock their acting potential in a stress-free and non-competitive situation. Learners also enjoy on-stage coaching and accrue tips from professionals about costuming, lighting and set design while simultaneously gleaning skills beneficial to anyone working within the theatre industry.

For the festival, each school is required to prepare and perform an abridged version of the Shakespeare play of their choice, approximately 30-45 minutes in duration. The organisers encourage individuality and innovation, all the while fostering an atmosphere of camaraderie between schools, learners and educators. Staging a Shakespeare play is undoubtedly a challenge - for both novices and professional actors! - and in light of this the SSFSA provides guidance and resources throughout the preparation process.

The next SSFSA dates are as follows: Johannesburg Theatre from 8 - 11 September; the Playhouse Theatre in Durban from 28 -30 September, the George Theatre in George from 10-12 September and The Little Theatre in Gqeberha (including Makhanda schools) on 18 and 19 September 2021.

For exact dates, ticket info and venues in each city, please visit the festival’s Facebook page or visit www.ssfsa.org.za.

[ENDS]

---

A Dream: Shakespeare beats Covid

The excitement of our blog post last month was followed by disappointment, as Covid put the kibosh on yet another South African Shakespeare production. With the onset of a third wave of Coronavirus infections, the country had to reimpose previously lifted restrictions; this meant that Kickstart’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Durban Botanic Gardens had to be deferred.

---

Of course, this sadness was nothing compared to the sorrow, fear and deprivation experienced by so many people in KwaZulu-Natal following the violence, looting and destruction that ravaged the province earlier this month. It has been a grim time for our country.

There are, however, chinks of light and signs of hope. Community solidarity and a citizen-driven cleanup operation in KZN. The expansion of the vaccine delivery programme. Perhaps South Africa is slowly - very slowly - emerging from this winter of discontent.

If it’s encouragement you’re after, look no further than Perchance to Dream, an inspiring rendition of various Shakespearean scenes by a talented group of young performers from Westville Boys’ and Westville Girls’ High Schools near Durban. This “fantasy collage” of extracts from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, The Tempest, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Twelfth Night was a site-specific production that moved through various spaces on the Westville Boys’ High School grounds.

A recording of the production (which took place from 17-19 June) is now available. You can find out more about the cast and creative team here. As director Steven Stead has affirmed, “We could all do with a little respite and Dream time right now” - so enjoy!

---

A Midsummer Night's Dream in Durban

Covid has contrived to keep Shakespeare off South African stages for much of the past year and more. But there is good news for audiences in KwaZulu-Natal: an outdoor Midsummer Night's Dream in Durban’s (mild) winter!

Kickstart Theatre Productions presents this perennial favourite in the magical, moonlit Amphitheatre in the Durban Botanic Gardens.

It promises to be a “classy, classic, naughty and novel night out”! Bring cushions to sit on and blankets to keep you warm. Book for one of the nine limited-capacity performances through Computicket.

Playing the Knave, Decolonising Shakespeare

Professor Gina Bloom of the University of California, Davis was on sabbatical in Cape Town last year when Covid struck - and lockdowns ensued! One upshot of her extended stay in South Africa was the opportunity to collaborate with theatre maker and educator Lauren Bates.

---

Bloom and Bates have been piloting the implementation of Play the Knave in South African schools. Play the Knave is a mixed reality video game that enables virtual design and performance of scenes from Shakespeare - a wonderful way to get students to play (and play with) Shakespeare. It was designed by Bloom and a group of colleagues at UC Davis to be a portable teaching and learning tool. All a school needs is a TV or projector.

Says Bloom: “Lauren will start bringing the game and our co-developed lessons into Western Cape classrooms for a trial run starting in July and we hope that once we iron out all the kinks, we can start planning to distribute the game kits as loan resources to school districts.”

---

Bloom and Bates presented their work to a seminar at the Shakespeare Association of America's annual meeting in April, and subsequently as part of a series on digital Shakespeares for San Diego State University’s Digital Humanities Initiative.

Watch their presentation to find out more about how this innovative approach is helping to decolonise Shakespeare in South African schools!

---

Remembering Martin Orkin (1942-2021)

Denise Newfield

School of Literature, Language and Media at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)

---

South African Shakespeareans bid farewell to a giant of Shakespeare studies in southern contexts, Martin Orkin, who passed away in Israel in April of this year at the age of 78.

Professor Orkin’s work in activist pedagogy and scholarship was a crystallisation of time, place and history, a response to the complex and intricate play of forces constraining dramaturgy and the teaching of literature. He taught and inspired generations of students during his tenure at Wits University (1975-1998) and subsequently at the University of Haifa.

Not afraid to be controversial and to upset the (white) Shakespeare scholarly community in apartheid South Africa, he performed an engaged scholarship which situated his plays within the deep fissures of society. His cutting-edge and prescient approach challenged and moved both students and staff at Wits, leading to important critical debates about literary studies. These were frequently acrimonious.

Committed to equality and justice for all, his publications from the late 1980s until his most recent book Race (2019) cemented his international reputation as a literary scholar. As John Drakakis wrote in response to the news of Orkin’s passing: ‘Martin was a brave and courageous literary and cultural critic, qualities he combined with an extraordinary humanity and generosity of spirit.’

Shakespeare against Apartheid (1987), written during a time of intensifying polarisation and militarisation in South African society, sought to politicise the teaching and learning of Shakespeare. Orkin argued that the traditional text-centred and character-centred approaches of the day reinforced the dominant order’s hegemony in South Africa, instead of enabling critical awareness of issues of power and justice in South African society. He protested against the ‘narrowness of South African criticism’ which in his view constrained the meanings and relevance of the plays.

Through this book, Orkin ‘struck the first and still the most decisive blow against bardolatry’ in South Africa, as David MacFarlane put it. His interpretations of the plays spotlighted nefarious state dealings and themes, which continue to haunt South Africa today. Hamlet was discussed in terms of state power in Denmark and South Africa; it opened up parallels between apartheid’s infamous security system and that in the Denmark of the play. King Lear was presented in terms of the notorious Natives Land Act of 1913, which stripped indigenous peoples of their land.

His next Shakespeare book, Postcolonial Shakespeares (2002), co-edited with Ania Loomba, was the outcome of an international conference which Orkin organised at Wits University in 1996, along with progressive members from other departments (he was the sole representative of the English Department). In Local Shakespeares: Proximations and Power (2005), another lively and combative book, Orkin continued to challenge neo-colonial ‘metropolitan’ criticism, in opposition to which he offered an approach to the later plays based on ‘local knowledges’.

The celebratory Drama and the South African State, published in 1991, explored the protest and resistance theatre of Athol Fugard, Lewis Nkosi, Workshop 71, Matsemela Manaka, Maishe Maponya, the Junction Avenue Theatre Company and others. His latest book, Race (2019), co-written with Alexa Alice Joubin, may be seen as a culmination of his quest for a pedagogy and criticism that intimately connects literature with society, and, in particular, engages with discriminatory practices and ideologies.

Martin was a sensitive and humane teacher and friend, and an ardently brave cultural and literary scholar. His criticism may be seen as a record of his soul. His presence will be missed by the local and international academic community, but his ideas will continue to prick and tantalise, and hopefully prompt us to Shakespearean projects that continue to fight for equality and justice.

Hamba Kahle, Martin.

---