Development is the Soweto Theatre’s main aim, writes Diane de Beer
‘I was yearning for stage,” says artistic director of the Soweto Theatre, Warona Seane, while talking about a production of Neil Coppen’s Tin Bucket Drum. It will be presented by Jade Bowers Design & Management with UJ Arts & Culture from tonight until August 22 at the UJ Con Cowan Theatre, Bunting Road Campus.
Approached by director Bowers, she asked for the script, liked it and immediately said, ‘yes, let’s do it’. “I hadn’t seen any previous production, loved the characters and was keen to get back to acting,” says this passionate theatre maker.
“It’s not a typical solo performance because I work with a musician (Matthew MacFarlane) and we were tasked with connecting the text to the music.”
She’s thrilled with what they achieved and loved being an actor again – far away from her managing responsibilities.
She describes her passion for acting as “telling stories in yet another way and attempting other realities. These are real people we’re talking about and here specifically it was about connecting/ rediscovering what I had been silencing in myself,” she says.
Tin Bucket Drum explores the way global systems advance personal gain by those in power and, as a result, restrict ordinary people on the ground. It also looks, rather optimistically, at the power of creativity
Two years in at the Soweto Theatre? She smiles as she says: “I’ve survived!”
Not that there was any doubt about that. But it’s been a learning curve and for Seane it has been about listening to the community and what they want without compromising artistic integrity.
“It’s also about experimenting with artists and looking at art and how it is made,” she says.
For her it is about opening the Soweto Theatre’s heart to new ways of making theatre. With Masote’s Dream, for example, this was storytelling with live musicians, the sets moving on stage and the narrative coming alive in this way.
Book of Revelations, on the other hand, was about something almost working against theatre but set in a theatrical space. “Theatre should be challenging, shift minds,” she says. At the same time, the importance of creating spaces for artists to work is a priority.
But what’s been a struggle and something she is coming to grips with is building a loyal audience. “I would wish for more of a dedicated audience I can rely on to come to theatre,” she explains. But she knows, one of her goals is to build trust with the community. She understands that as a theatre they have to prove themselves with their programming. People want to know what they can expect to see. “Am I speaking in a language they understand?”
Another dream she hopes to fulfil is a development programme that’s sustainable.
“Mostly, these are school children who come for classes,” she notes. She would love to reward their work and success with some kind of accreditation which could help with their further studies. That would also encourage more aspirant actors to participate.
She’s thrilled that they were awarded a lifestyle and entertainment award by Soweto’s biggest radio station, Jozi FM. “That means we’re on the right road,” she admits.
She’s also anxious that the different theatres across Gauteng and the rest of the country reach out to one another more easily.
“It would create a value chain for the productions and the casts,” she says about a more lasting and longer life and bigger audiences for specific plays.
She also wants to focus more strongly on developing writing. “Managements need to focus on this aspect of theatre making,” she emphasises. That’s where she sees the future.
Speaking to anyone involved in the making of theatre today, development has become a buzzword and Seane wants the Soweto Theatre to be in the foreground.