Magnet Theatre

Description

Cape Town’s Magnet Theatre has been a force in South African theatre for three decades, a crucial space for theatre, education, performance and community throughout a turbulent period in South African history. Offering a dialogue between internal and external perspectives, as well as perspectives from performers, artists and scholars, this book analyses Magnet’s many productions and presents a rich compendium of the work of one of the most vital physical theatre companies in Africa.

Chapter 1 - Plotting the Magnetic Field: Origins and Trajectories

Megan Lewis and Anton Krueger

Chapter 2 - Making Space for Ideas: The Knowledge Work of Magnet Theatre

Mark Fleishman

Chapter 3 - An Activist Company Inventing a Future:

A Conversation with Neo Muyanga

Chapter 4 - ‘Being There’: The Evolution of Performance Aesthetics from Medea (1994–96) to The Magnet Theatre ‘Migration’ Plays (2012)

Miki Flockemann

Chapter 5 - The Full Gamut of an Ideal Company:

A Conversation with Jay Pather

Chapter 6 - The Implacable Grandeur of the Stranger: Ruminations on Fear and Familiarity in Die Vreemdeling [The Stranger] (2010)

Anton Krueger

Chapter 7 - Theatre That Can Organize, Mobilize, Conscientize:

A Conversation with Mandla Mbothwe

Chapter 8 - Performing the Language of the Body in My Mother Tongue: 

A Conversation with Faniswa Yisa

Chapter 9 - Magnet Theatre and the Moving Body

Jennie Reznek

Chapter 10 - Ideas Dying to be Born:

A Conversation with Craig Leo

Chapter 11 - The Creative Flow of Arresting, Exquisite Fabric:

A Conversation with Illka Louw

Chapter 12 - Embodied Practice that Troubles Fixed Narratives of Identity, History and Memory

Yvette Hutchison

Magnet’s Recipe for Considered, Chapter 13 - Conscious Theatre-Making:

A Conversation with Frances Marek

Chapter 14 - The Performance Labours of Magnet and Jazzart’s Cargo (2007)

Megan Lewis

Chapter 15 - Making Space for Community: Magnet Theatre ‘Intervenes’ in Khayelitsha

Gay Morris

Chapter 16 - Vividly Feeling the Extremes of Being in the World:

A Conversation with Margie Pankhurst

Chapter 17 - By Telling Stories We Can Learn Something from Life:

A Conversation with Thando Doni

Chapter 19 - Catalysing a Community: Magnet’s Clanwilliam Community Intervention Project

Lavona de Bruyn

Chapter 19 - Bursting the Bubble of Play: Making Space for Intercultural Dialogue

Elliot Leffler

Chapter 20 - Keeping Theatre Alive in the Community:

A Conversation with Zwelakhe Khuse

Chapter 21 - Magnet Never Forgets its People:

A Conversation with Nolovuyo Sam

Sujets

• Performing Arts
• Theatre
• Performance art
• General officer
• General

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 15 février 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781783205394
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

First published in the UK in 2016 by
Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2016 by
Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
First published in South Africa in 2016 by
the University of South Africa Press, PO Box 392, Unisa,
Muckleneuk, Pretoria, 0003, South Africa
Copyright © 2016 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copy-editor: Michael Eckhardt
Cover designer: Stephanie Sarlos
Cover image: Garth Stead
Production Manager: Tim Mitchell
Typesetting: John Teehan
Intellect:
Print ISBN: 978-1-78320-537-0
ePUB ISBN: 978-1-78320-539-4
ePDF ISBN: 978-1-78320-538-7
Unisa Press:
Print ISBN: 978-1-86888-835-1
Prior to acceptance of this publication by Unisa Press, this work was subjected to a double-blind peer review process mediated through the copublishers.
Printed and bound by Gomer Press Ltd, UK.
With the support of the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund
Contents
Chapter 1 Plotting the Magnetic Field: Origins and Trajectories
Megan Lewis and Anton Krueger
Production History
PART ONE – Concepts: Making Space for Ideas
Colour Photographs: 1987–2009
Chapter 2 Making Space for Ideas: The Knowledge Work of Magnet Theatre
Mark Fleishman
Chapter 3 An Activist Company Inventing a Future: A Conversation with Neo Muyanga
Chapter 4 ‘Being There’: The Evolution of Performance Aesthetics from Medea (1994–96) to The Magnet Theatre ‘Migration’ Plays (2012)
Miki Flockemann
Chapter 5 The Full Gamut of an Ideal Company: A Conversation with Jay Pather
Chapter 6 The Implacable Grandeur of the Stranger: Ruminations on Fear and Familiarity in Die Vreemdeling [The Stranger] (2010)
Anton Krueger
Chapter 7 Theatre That Can Organize, Mobilize, Conscientize: A Conversation with Mandla Mbothwe
PART TWO – Collaboration: Making Space for Empbodied Practice
Colour Photographs: 2010–2015
Chapter 8 Performing the Language of the Body in My Mother Tongue: A Conversation with Faniswa Yisa
Chapter 9 Magnet Theatre and the Moving Body
Jennie Reznek
Chapter 10 Ideas Dying to be Born: A Conversation with Craig Leo
Chapter 11 The Creative Flow of Arresting, Exquisite Fabric: A Conversation with Illka Louw
Chapter 12 Embodied Practice that Troubles Fixed Narratives of Identity, History and Memory
Yvette Hutchison
Chapter 13 Magnet’s Recipe for Considered, Conscious Theatre-Making: A Conversation with Frances Marek
Chapter 14 The Performance Labours of Magnet and Jazzart’s Cargo (2007)
Megan Lewis
PART THREE – Community: Making Space for Cultural Interventions
Clanwilliam Photoessay
Chapter 15 Making Space for Community: Magnet Theatre ‘Intervenes’ in Khayelitsha
Gay Morris
Chapter 16 Vividly Feeling the Extremes of Being in the World: A Conversation with Margie Pankhurst
Chapter 17 By Telling Stories We Can Learn Something from Life: A Conversation with Thando Doni
Chapter 18 Catalysing a Community: Magnet’s Clanwilliam Community Intervention Project
Lavona de Bruyn
Chapter 19 Bursting the Bubble of Play: Making Space for Intercultural Dialogue
Elliot Leffler
Chapter 20 Keeping Theatre Alive in the Community: A Conversation with Zwelakhe Khuse
Chapter 21 Magnet Never Forgets its People: A Conversation with Nolovuyo Sam
Magnet Funders
Index
Chapter 1
Plotting the Magnetic Field: Origins and Trajectories
Megan Lewis and Anton Krueger
C ape Town-based Magnet Theatre functions as a nationally recognized theatre institution; not only in terms of its aesthetic originality and excellence, but also because of the company’s investments into cultural development and training. Over the course of almost three decades, the company has been ‘making space’ in South Africa: for creativity, innovation and embodied work, as well as for collaboration, community and cultural dialogue. Since Magnet Theatre’s first productions – Cheap Flights (1987) and The Show’s Not Over ‘Til the Fat Lady Sings (1991–93) – the company has gained an international reputation for its original repertoire of performance events that emphasize the primacy of the human body. From its inception in Johannesburg in 1987 to the establishment of its own theatre space in Cape Town in 2011, Magnet Theatre has been dedicated to what it sees as its role of exploring sociopolitical issues through personal, unconventional and highly physical theatrical expressions that energize audiences by shifting bodies, feelings and ideas (magnettheatre.co.za). Furthermore, the company is committed to training young artists, and to cultivating theatre in under-represented communities. To this end, Magnet has also played a vital role in cultural interventions within the broader South African community; guided by a spirit of theatrical research, artists who have worked with Magnet have remained deeply committed to social development. Their interventions into multiple communities have reached tens of thousands of people.
To understand the impact and particularity of Magnet’s work, we’d like to plot the magnetic field – the trajectories of their influence and influences – by framing the sociopolitical and historical context within which Magnet has functioned over the past three decades. Next, we briefly summarize the various sections and chapters of this book. We then trace the company’s origins in terms of co-artistic directors Mark Fleishman and Jennie Reznek’s personal and professional journey since their meeting in 1987, situating Magnet within the broader South African theatrical landscape before mapping how this unique and innovative company resonates within discourses and practices of physical theatre, devised work, workshop theatre and performance as research (PaR).
Our primary resources for the explorations of the company have been personal interviews with Magnet members and key collaborators. 1 Extracts from these conversations are woven between more analytical, academic analyses of Magnet’s work to form the multi-voiced substance of this project. As editors, we have curated many different voices in this collection to tell Magnet’s story, engaging in a dialogue with internal and external perspectives: between reflections by performers and artists involved with Magnet, and scholarly articles responding to Magnet’s many productions since 1987. In the spirit of Magnet’s ‘acts of storying, sounding, moving, feeling and relating’ (Fleishman 2009: 126), we have curated a variety of voices so that Magnet’s multi-textured nature is represented, pairing established scholars alongside more junior ones, and professional academics alongside fieldworkers and facilitators. We have deliberately ended this collection with the voices of two of Magnet’s young graduates, giving the voice of the next generation of South African theatre-makers the proverbial last word.
Historical Context
Over the span of Magnet’s existence as a company, South Africa has undergone an historic transition. In 2014, South Africa celebrated its 20th year as a democracy, having made the momentous political transition from the racially segregated apartheid regime in 1994. Since Nelson Mandela’s election as the country’s first black president, the young democracy has wrestled with what it means to be a truly multicultural society. Theatre artists have been at the forefront of this cultural transition, offering creative interventions that probe, question and (re-)imagine cultural identities as they tackle the viscous endeavours of memory and history in the postcolony (Mbembe 2011).
Apartheid came into being with the National Party’s election to power in 1949, which solidified Afrikaner hegemony. Afrikaners (settlers of predominantly Dutch and French Huguenot descent) and Anglo-South Africans (settlers of predominantly British ancestry) had been battling for control of South Africa since the colonial era. South Africa’s diverse indigenous populations had themselves been disputing control of contested territories, and, upon the arrival of the Europeans, they were relegated to second-class status. Imagined within the racial hierarchies of the state as a totalized mass, black and brown indigenous peoples were afforded few, if any, rights under apartheid law, while white citizens reaped the benefits of the country’s imbalanced system of privilege. Apartheid hierarchized individuals along racial lines while its laws regulated bodies and behaviour: segregating public spaces, schools and workplaces; instituting a system of regulations that determined where an individual was permitted to live, work or travel based on their racial classification; and forbidding cross-racial contact from the boardroom to the bedroom.
When Magnet was formed in 1987, the country was at the height of an extended state of emergency. The African National Congress (ANC) was a banned organization whose aim had been declared as wanting ‘to make the townships within South Africa ungovernable.’ The state responded with an increasingly militarized clamp down. In 1990, Prime Minister P. W. Botha’s successor, F. W. de Klerk, lifted the state of emergency, unbanning the ANC and other organizations. He released Nelson Mandela from his life sentence in prison and began the process of a negotiated transfer of power. Between 1990 and 1994, the legal apparatus of apartheid was gradually abolished, and with Mandela’s election to the presidency, South Africa emerged into democracy.
The Aims and Structure of this Collection
This collection documents Magnet Theatre’s work and ethos through a thick curation of scholarly investigation, first-hand interviews and visual material. Providing a deep analysis by means of a visu