UJ Arts & Culture is gearing up for its tour to the Vrystaat Arts Festival taking place in Bloemfontein from 2 to 8 October. A division of the Faculty of Art, Design and Architecture (FADA) at the University of Johannesburg, UJ Arts & Culture will be touring to the \u2018One festival, many stories\u2019 annual event with four productions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe festival caters for a diverse audience and offers space for a broad range of arts and culture events making it the ideal destination for UJ Arts & Culture that has garnered acknowledgment for its interdisciplinary and experimental work,\u201d says Pieter Jacobs, Head of UJ Arts & Culture.<\/p>\n
The festival, based at the University of the Vrystaat, has been a part of the South African arts and culture calendar for 21 years and continues to bring multilingual, national, and international work in a range of genres to Bloemfontein.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really look forward to this year\u2019s Festival. The diversity of stories seen in the four productions we are taking to Bloemfontein showcases the talent, concerns, and depth of content UJ Arts & Culture produces. They all speak in their own way to the festival\u2019s ethos and mission, bringing valuable conversations to the South African art landscape,\u201d says UJ Arts & Culture\u2019s Producer and Operations Manager, Karabo Legoabe.<\/p>\n
Developed in 2020 as part of the UJ Playwriting Laboratory launched by Jacobs, are two new South African texts presented as an experimental double-bill under the directorial hand of award-winning Jade Bowers. The project, titled \u2018The Paper Double-Bill\u2019, features two actors, two plays, one set, and one director and comprises \u2018Papercuts\u2019 by Tamarisk Ray Glogauer and \u2018Waiting for Lift-Off\u2019 by Nomakhwezi Becker.<\/p>\n
Directed by Gopala Davies and written by Pieter Jacobs, \u2018Macabre\u2019 delves into the experience of senescence and abandonment. This site-oriented suspense play featuring South African heavy weights, Judy Ditchfield and Fezile Mpela, invites small audiences to an experimental immersive theatre work.<\/p>\n
Developed during the height of the pandemic and first presented as an experimental virtual play, \u2018Mother\u2019s Grimm\u2019 written by Ameera Patel and directed by Jade Bowers, is targeted at younger audiences and is a coming-of-age story rooted in well-known fairy tales.<\/p>\n
Recently premiered at the Durban International Film Festival 2022, this unique experiment in theatre-making is director Jade Bowers\u2019 first feature film. Supported by Noah\u2019s Cheese, produced by Karabo Legoabe and written by Pieter Jacobs, \u2018Skeletons\u2019 features Jacques Blignaut, Carla Fonseca-Mokgata, Wayne van Rooyen and Mpho Osei-Tutu and will have two screenings at the festival. \u2018Skeletons\u2019 casts a spotlight on matters of land and ownership, the vicious cycle of oppression and confronts the notions of home, belonging, and identity.<\/p>\n
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ABOUT THE PRODUCTIONS<\/b><\/p>\n
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THE PAPER DOUBLE-BILL<\/p>\n
\u2018Papercuts\u2019 is set in a papery world somewhere between the old and the new. Embla and Writer search through the detritus in an attempt to find answers, each other, and complete an unnamed commission. The script explores themes of love, loneliness, womanhood, religion, and what it means to write down our stories in a burning world.<\/p>\n
\u2018Waiting for Lift-Off\u2019 features two sisters trying to connect from across oceans and using language, memory, song, and paper planes, the stories of their lives unfold. In their search for each other, they find different ways of taking flight, reaching, disappearing, and remembering.<\/p>\n
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Director: Jade Bowers<\/p>\n
Performers: Carla Classen and Ziaphora Dakile<\/p>\n
Playwrights: Tamarisk Ray Glogauer and Nomakhwezi Becker<\/p>\n
Duration: 50 min per show with an interval in-between<\/p>\n
Dates: 4 Oct 16:00, 5 Oct 16:00, 6 Oct 16:00<\/p>\n
Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium (AWO)<\/p>\n
Ticket Price: R160 | R170 at the door<\/p>\n
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MACABRE<\/p>\n
This immersive theatre experience is set in modern-day South Africa. The play delves into the experience of senescence and abandonment. This site-oriented psychological suspense play invites small audiences for an exclusive intimate experience. \u2018Macabre\u2019 is a story of guilt, loss, and remorse sparked by the dramatic collision between Maude\u2019s past and Abel\u2019s future.<\/p>\n
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Director: Gopala Davies<\/p>\n
Performers: Judy Ditchfiled and Fezile Mpela<\/p>\n
Musical Director: Matthew MacFarlane<\/p>\n
Playwright: Pieter Jacobs<\/p>\n
Production Designer: Karabo Legoabe<\/p>\n
Dates: 3 Oct 19:00, 4 Oct 20:00, 5 Oct 19:30, 6 Oct 20:00, 7 Oct 20:00, 8 Oct 19:00<\/p>\n
Venue: Adelante Lodge<\/p>\n
Ticket Price: R180 | R190 at the door<\/p>\n
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MOTHER\u2019S GRIMM<\/p>\n
This coming-of-age story sees Goldilocks, Shahrazad, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Evil Queen, Rapunzel, and Anansi all brought together in one tale. Thirteen-year-old Goldi has just become a big sibling and can\u2019t stand the new status quo. She misses her mother\u2019s stories as that little gremlin and the evil queen keep pushing her away. Through her mother\u2019s stories, Goldi tells her tales from being the Prince trying to rescue Rapunzel to chasing the stupid baby Anansi away.<\/p>\n
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Director: Jade Bowers<\/p>\n
Musical Director: Yogin Sullaphen<\/p>\n
Performers: Carla Classen, Chera\u00e8 Halley and Ameera Patel<\/p>\n
Playwright: Ameera Patel<\/p>\n
Dates: 3 Oct 12:00, 4 Oct 10:00, 5 Oct 10:00, 6 Oct 10:00<\/p>\n
Venue: Scholtz Hall<\/p>\n
Ticket Price: R100 | R110 at the door<\/p>\n
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SKELETONS<\/p>\n
Set in the heart of the Maluti mountains, \u2018Skeletons\u2019 grapples with social and political issues. This magical realism film experiment casts a spotlight on matters of land and ownership. As the stories of four multidimensional characters unfold in a space and time of absolute scarcity, and they wrestle to break free from the vicious cycle of oppression, \u2018Skeletons\u2019 confronts the notions of home, belonging, and identity.<\/p>\n
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Director: Jade Bowers<\/p>\n
Performers: Jacques Blignaut, Carla Fonseca-Mokgata, Wayne van Rooyen and Mpho Osei-Tutu<\/p>\n
Writer: Pieter Jacobs<\/p>\n
Producer: Karabo Legoabe<\/p>\n
Director of Photography: Bonga Nkomo<\/p>\n
Editor: Mzwakhe Dlamini<\/p>\n
Shoot location: Noah\u2019s Cheese Farm<\/p>\n
Dates: 7 & 8 Oct 19:00<\/p>\n
Venue: Visual Media Hub<\/p>\n
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ABOUT UJ ARTS & CULTURE<\/b><\/p>\n
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UJ Arts & Culture, a division of the Faculty of Art, Design & Architecture (FADA) produces and presents world-class student and professional arts programmes aligned to the UJ vision of an international university of choice, anchored in Africa, dynamically shaping the future. A robust range of arts platforms are offered on all four UJ campuses for students, staff, alumni and the general public to experience and engage with emerging and established Pan-African and international artists drawn from the full spectrum of the arts.<\/p>\n
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In addition to UJ Arts & Culture, FADA (www.uj.ac.za\/fada) offers programmes in eight creative disciplines, in Art, Design and Architecture, as well as playing home to the NRF SARChI Chair in South African Art & Visual Culture, and the Visual Identities in Art & Design Research Centre. The Faculty has a strong focus on sustainability and relevance, and engages actively with the dynamism, creativity and diversity of Johannesburg in imagining new approaches to art and design education.<\/p>\n
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ABOUT THE VRYSTAAT ARTS FESTIVAL<\/b><\/p>\n
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The Vrystaat Arts Festival is one of the key arts festivals on the African continent, offering national and international work in a range of genres for the past 22 years. The festival\u2019s vision is centred on the principle of \u2018One festival, many stories,\u2019 with its mission to support the development and presentation of great art in the Vrystaat for all. The festival is the first and only South African cultural entity to follow Khoi-San protocol, recognising the First Nations people and traditional owners of the land in public platforms and the festival programme. Over the last decade, it has become one of South Africa\u2019s most international and multi-lingual festivals, supporting and presenting a wide variety of work by both established and up and coming artists as well as providing space for community arts initiatives and student works. The festival takes place at the Bloemfontein campus of the University of the Vrystaat which is made available for the duration of the festival.<\/p>\n
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