Rhodes University Drama Department

RHODES UNIVERSITY DRAMA AT THE 2021 NATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL
The Rhodes University Drama Department will be presenting two works – Mafungwashe (drama) and The Witch’s Party (physical theatre) – at the 2021 National Arts Festival.
Both productions will be available through video-on-demand streaming from 13 – 31 July.
Mafungwashe – written and directed by Drama Master’s student Siyabulela Javu explores a spiritual black tax: the sins and gifts of those from the past shall be passed on to those in the present. Mafungwashe, the protagonist, finds herself indebted to her two grandmothers who present themselves as both living and spiritual beings. These grandmothers are at odds with one another – yin and yang – and play a tug of war, all while using Mafungwashe as a vessel to store their strength and to share their life stories.
We see Mafungwashe navigate the payment of her debts by taking care of her ill father, confronting an oppressive education system and of course, connecting with the two matriarchs through visions, dreams, and memory. However, this is only an attempt to pay off the tax – the full cost might be her life.
The Mafungwashe cast is Hlumela Mpiti, Loyiso Kosana, Matshawandile Kopele, Nande Siko, Nanza Platana and Thumamna Sibhozo.
Born in the Eastern Cape, Siyabulela is a storyteller who expresses herself through writing, directing, acting, and spoken word/song. A healer, she acknowledges that Akahambi Yedwa; she walks with those from the past, who hold the present and are a compass for the future. This is reflected in all her expressions of “art”, which she calls ‘iCamagu’ – a manifestation of light (in darkness) and life.
Drama Master’s student Nokulunga Ncongwane will be presenting The Witch’s Party, a work choreographed as a real time event to which she is a Witch and has invited you to her party. This work has elements of physical embodiments of intangible corporeal occurrences, which are often silenced due to their lack of visibility and their womanly exclusivity. The theme of this party is … a curse. The curse of being a woman and the pain that accompanies the title: ‘woman’.
The curse is represented in a physical embodiment of an experience one fails to capture substantially using words only, thus the added use of sound and visual components to make the experience as authentic to a woman’s truth as possible. The Witch is indeed aware that the curse is something a woman must deal with on her own – sort of a secret – but she would like to show you what it looks like and what it would feel like in your body.
Nokulunga has dealt with painful periods all her life and in the last five years, been dealing with chronic, everyday pain from appearances of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome and Endometriosis. These “womanly” struggles are generally not well understood so she uses art and performance to communicate the experiences of women who are often silenced and ignored.
For more information on the shows and video access visit
https://nationalartsfestival.co.za/show/mafungwashe/
and
https://nationalartsfestival.co.za/show/the-witchs-party/

INVITING NAC TO THE DRAWING TABLE

The arts academics and/or supporters of the arts at Rhodes University have been deeply concerned by the evolving events between the artists in a sit-in at the National Arts Council of South Africa (NAC) offices. This relates to NAC’s role as a disbursement body of the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP). As those involved in the training and/or support of the artists, we write to express our solidarity with the group of artists, that includes Ms Sibongile Mngoma, who have been staging a sit-in at the offices of the National Arts Council (NAC). The roll-out of the R300 million PESP funding, meant for the creation of employment and the support of artistic endeavours for all in the creative and cultural industry during a time of great difficulty and strife, has been unacceptably slow, delayed, and marred by mismanagement. We concur with the artists currently occupying the NAC that the
following eight questions urgently need to be answered:

1. List of all those who have been paid and how much?
2. On stream 1, is this now completed? Who was paid? How much?
3. On stream 2, full list of those who are contracted, i.e., full list of those who were announced and those who have not been announced;
4. Full list of the 1300 PESP recipients;
5. When are payments being finalised for all those who have signed their contracts?
6. When are payments and contracts being finalised for those who are still awaiting contracts?
7. When are payments, contracts and letters being finalised for all those who are still under review?
8. When are those who have been rejected being notified?

We see the students that we teach as those who will one day take on the sacred and vital role shared by all artists, where their creative expressions constitute the fibre of any society. Artists illuminate and mirror who we could be and who we are. How can these artists survive without the proper support of government when other sectors do? While we acknowledge the good work of disbursing grants and scholarships to numerous artists and students in the past, we fear that the handling of the PESP will have a detrimental impact on the NAC as an institution and an ally of the arts.

Toward this end, we join the call for the Department of Sports, Arts and Culture (DSAC ) to consider engaging institutions of higher learning as well as other knowledgeable industry role players to work towards a sustainable solution toward the plight of the artists.

Yours in solidarity,
Heike Gerhing and Staff at the Drama Department, Rhodes University