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Internationally acclaimed performer Vusi “The Voice” Mahlasela will be on the stage of the Fugard Theatre on 29 and 30 April. Mahlasela will be performing two special shows focusing on his latest album “Say Africa”.
“I am delighted to confirm that Vusi Mahlasela will be playing two live shows at the Fugard Theatre. In keeping with our mission to present top quality local and international acts these two exclusive performances, by a world class South African artist, simply add to an already exciting line-up!” said Daniel Galloway, Fugard Theatre’s general manager.
“Say Africa” is the long-awaited follow-up to “Naledi Ya Tsela”, Mahlasela’s 2006 album which earned him the coveted Best Male Artist award at the 2007 South African Music Awards (SAMA). “Say Africa” was recorded in the USA, a first for Mahlasela, and produced by legendary US blues/folk musician Taj Mahal at the Haunted Hollows Studio in Charlottesville. This is the personal studio of Dave Matthews, longtime friend and fan of Vusi.
Mahlasela recorded “Say Africa” with the backing of a handful of expat South African musicians who’ve relocated to the US: Cape Town born drummer/percussionist Ian Herman (of Tananas fame), bassist Bakithi Kumalo (Paul Simon’s regular bassist) and Mongezi Ntaka, a gifted guitarist who played regularly with late Reggae great Lucky Dube.
D-seven, the acclaimed seven member all-male a capella vocal performance group, who recently performed with Grammy award winning artist Imogen Heap, will be the opening performance on the two nights. They create a completely unique experience through their live show. They are suave and slick yet bring a raw, and rough African feel into their songs and are very excited to be opening for Vusi.
These performances, supported by Bottletop Productions & Glenfiddich Scotch Whisky, will also be the first after the upgrade of the Fugard Theatre’s seating. The theatre will hence forth have 280 cinemas-style seats.
Tickets for these two unique shows are R150 and R200. Bookings can be made on www.computicket.com, or by phoning the Fugard Theatre Box Office on 021 461 4554. Reserved seating. Tickets for the world première of Athol Fugard’s The Bird Watchers, opening on 10 May, are also available.
On 8 April at 19:30 the Gordon Institute for Performing and Creative Arts (GIPCA), in association with the UCT School of Dance, presents the premières of Place of Grace by Gerard Samuels, and Homebody by Nicola Visser.
Place Of Grace is an open-air performance installation, featuring Samuels’ new dance film by the same title to be projected on an outside wall at the UCT School of Dance buildings, accompanied by performances by dancers featured in the film. Samuels received a Donald Gordon Creative Arts Award for this project, and collaborated with filmmaker Shelley Barry on the film, delving into themes of forgiveness and reconciliation. The film was shot in the Overberg community of Genadendal.
“I am hoping that dance and film students, and the public in general, will re-look at post modernist approaches to contemporary choreography,” said Samuels about what he wants to accomplish with this film and project.
“I was a delighted to work with high caliber artists like Jamila Rodrigues and Mduduzi Nyembe, who have both been directly exposed to the German dance theatre pioneer Pina Bauch’s tanzteater form,” said Samuels. “Ilona Frege, a guest lecturer of choreography and former founder member of First Physical theatre co. was also the perfect choice for me, given her open heart and nuanced performance,” he added.
The evening will also include Visser’s Homebody, an exhibition showcasing the process and outcomes of her two-year movement improvisation project with mothers and daughters. This is a culmination of Visser’s work as a Donald Gordon Creative Arts Fellow for 2010.
Homebody is a landscape and movement improvisation project involving a group of mothers and daughters, taking place in Kalk Bay, Western Cape and Smitsville, Klein Karoo. The exhibition will display artefacts – felt works and photographs – from the Cape Town stage of the project. The Smitsville arm of the project continues into 2012. “It is about shifting a local conversation in movement and dance away from a narrow focus on ethno-historical genre towards a far deeper set of engagements,” said Visser.
The double-bill event will take place on 8 April from 19:30 at the UCT School of Dance, Woolsack Drive, Cape Town. RSVP to angie.pearson@uct.ac.za or 021 650 2399. Admission is free. For further information, please contact 021 480 7156 or fin-gipca@uct.ac.za.
South African born artist Lindile Magunya studied Graphic Design at the Peninsula Technikon and since graduating, has exhibited widely throughout the Western Cape. As an artist he strives to communicate with his audience. He believes his work to be a recognition of all people in society and an awareness of the power within ourselves.
Says Lindile; “The human behaviour is very hard to detect due to the conditions that we are surrounded by; unemployment, living conditions, financial status and everything that is existence.”
Gerald Tabata’s work has been shown at galleries and art studios throughout the Western Cape and is in private collections both here and abroad. He is currently working from his studio in Observatory, Cape Town.
For the new body of work shown in this exhibition, Gerald was inspired by the people that he sees on a daily basis in Cape Town and areas around the city; people that are destitute, disadvantaged and unemployed.
“These people are intimidated and they tend to give up hope in life. This is what I strive to capture in my paintings.”
Gerald is based in Khayelitsha and paints the lives of the people around him. He has been creating striking works of art for more than ten years and he enjoys the challenges that he encounters.
“I hope that this new body of work will bring light to these day to day issues that face our society.”- Gerald Tabata
Ubuntu Bethu is a mixed medium exhibition and runs from the 7th April until the 29th May 2011.
For more information please contact Casa Labia on 021 788 6068 or email africanova@casalabia.co.za
UNIMA SA will hold a special event in May, hosted by Nik Rabinowitz, to raise funds for its activities with children and youth.
UNIMA SA, (International Union of Puppetry South Africa) will be holding a special event to celebrate the impact of its work and to raise funds for its activities with children and youth.
Hosted by Nik Rabinowitz at the gorgeous Gold Restaurant at the Gold of Africa Museum in Cape Town, it includes a 3 course meal, live Malian-Style puppetry and promises to be a delightfully entertaining event.
An auction will be held of getaways, cooking classes, and other exclusive products and services and all proceeds raised will go to supporting the participation of disadvantaged children and youth in creative activities though teacher training, workshops, professional development programs and attendance at Out The Box festival.
UNIMA SA believes in creativity as a source for personal power and communal strength. Giving children and youth at risk access to the arts makes a difference. Give us the means to create inspiration for, and with, those who need it most. Be part of creating a solution, support UNIMA SA.
The event takes place on Thursday 5 May at 18h30 for 19h00 at Gold Restaurant, situated at the Gold of Africa Museum, 96 Strand Street in Cape Town. Tickets cost R1000 per couple, or R800 per person.
Each ticket includes the following freebies to the total value of R960:
1 year Gold membership to UNIMA SA
2 seats to the Opening Gala event of Ouroboros by Janni Younge in association with the Handspring Puppet Company on 2 June 2011
2 seats to the opening gala event for Out The Box Festival in September.
For more information and to reserve your seats contact UNIMA SA on 021 462 5811 or e-mail admin@unimasouthafrica.org
Cape Town Architects, Designers and Cultural Entrepreneurs discuss how Cape Town may be transformed into a better city through the intervention of its creative professionals.
Date: 31 March 2011
Time: 17h30 for 18h00
Location: The Field Office, 37 Barrack Street, Cape Town
For more info and to RSVP: www.ctdn.co.za
Comedian Siv Ngesi stars in Dekaf, starting its national tour in Cape Town in March before moving to Joburg and Durban in April.
Dekaf is a black, white comedy about blacks who think like whites, as told by a black guy who sounds white.
The show starts at the Baxter in Cape Town in March and then moves to the Lyric Theatre in Johannesburg and the Sibaya Casino in Durban for limited performances in April.
The show stars the up-and-coming stand-up comic Siv Ngesi in a bold production from the comedic mind of David Newton (Politically Incorrect; Defending the Laid Man and Laugh).
Contrary to popular belief there is a new generation of black people who don’t bitch about the ‘struggle’, can swim, aren’t hated by dogs and didn’t vote for Jacob Zuma. In Dekaf, Ngesi takes you into the world of a black man who was raised in the suburbs, schooled in the public school system, dates white women and listens to Josh Groban!
Dekaf debuted at the 2009 Grahamstown National Arts Festival under Comedian, David Newton’s directorship. The show filled its capacity venue and garnered favourable reviews from the local press and audiences alike and at the 2010 Festival, the show won the coveted Golden Ovation Award.
Sivuyile ‘Siv’ Ngesi is a 25-year-old actor and comedian born in the township of Gugulethu, Cape Town. Acting came early to him and at ten years old Siv toured Asia with Les Miserables in the coveted role of ‘Gavroshe’. Since then he has landed roles in films such as Cape of Good Hope, After the Rain, Love in Africa, Zeenon z3, World Unseen and Schweitzer. He first made a name for himself in the popular SABC 1 television programmes Khululeka and The Adventures of Sinbad, Double Shift and Interrogation Room. Siv was also one of the leads in M-Net’s League Of Glory that ran during the Soccer World Cup in 2010. His best credit to date must be his scenes with Keifer Sutherland in ‘24’. Siv has extensive theatre experience, having performed in top class productions such as Sizwe Banzi is Dead, The Island, Sex and the Citi Golf, Star Wors, Off Your Trolley, Butlers and Brandy and most recently Dekaf, which he co-wrote with Newton.
Please note that the show originally planned for the Krakatoa at the Sibaya Casino in Durban on 10 March, has now been moved to 28 April at 8pm. The national tour schedule is as follows: Dekaf starts with a season at the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town from 21 March to 2 April, followed by one night at the Lyric Theatre in Gold Reef City on 9 April at 8pm and the finally one night at the Krakatoa at the Sibaya Entertainment Kingdom in KZN on 28 April at 8pm. All tickets and price info can be sourced via Computicket or 083 915 8000. PG12.
The One Roof Art Studio presents a new exhibition: “One Roof, One Word” for 1 night only!
The works on display are by the artists of the “One Roof Art Studio” and will include paintings, drawings, ceramics and jewelry. The exhibition will be held outside in the courtyard and a number of the Biscuit Mill establishments will also be open.
Please join us for a glass of wine under the stars, some music and a showcase of some of Cape Town’s best up-and-coming artistic talent!
The 4th annual Franschhoek Literary Festival is on from 13 to 15 May this year, and one of the key aspects to be addressed in various panel discussions is that of literacy and education.
In How to Fix our Schools on Saturday 14 May at 10:00, Professor Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Free State (Knowledge in the Blood), discusses solutions to current challenges faced in the South African education environment with Anne van Zyl, Head of the Oprah Winfrey Academy, and Melvin King, Head of Bridge House Primary, regulated (for once) by John Maytham.
Jansen also looks at the question Can Books Help to Heal a Nation? at 16:00 on Saturday 14 March with author Elinor Sisulu (co-founder of the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation) and Carole Bloch (co-ordinator of the PRAESA Early Literacy Unit at UCT). This session is chaired by SAfm’s Karabo Kgoleng.
In Leadership and Innovation Jansen debates fresh directions for South Africa with Justice Malala, economist Francis Wilson and sustainability consultant Camaren Peter at 10:00 on Sunday 15 May.
At 14:30 on Saturday 14 May Leon de Kock, Head of English at Stellenbosch University, puts three authors who teach creative writing – Kei Miller, Finuala Dowling and Kobus Moolman – on the spot with a leading question: Can You Teach Writing?
As part of the FLF’s commitment to create a reading and writing culture in the Franschhoek valley, the festival brings the grand finale of the Franschhoek Schools Spelling Bee on Saturday 14 May at 15:00, with primary school word experts spelling their way to glory.
The FLF is presented in association with Porcupine Ridge Wines and the Sunday Times, and is further made possible through the generosity of Franschhoek guest house owners and voluntary workers who give their time and energy to make it an event to remember. Ticket proceeds and other donations go towards the FLF Library Fund. The full FLF programme is available on www.flf.co.za. Bookings are open and tickets can be booked on www.webtickets.co.za. Ticket prices remain unchanged at R60 per event, unless otherwise indicated.
