2 Questions about Theatre now

Directors and Directing

A most intimidating and marvellous collection of people in conversation for a whole weekend, and I was there to listen to the conversation. How wonderful!

Jay Pather and GIPCA, thank you. Directors and Directing was a wonderful experience for me. It made me: angry, worried, sad, energised, mobilised and inspired. Today I have a head full of questions. And I truly believe that questions are more important than answers, so I am rather happy then with this head full.

And since I have this head full of questions I thought I’d sift through them all, decide on two of the more important and difficult ones and write them down here. Perhaps putting them down will allow us to continue the conversation. I can’t answer them easily. I need to think, but I wanted to put them into words and out there. So here they are:

Is it possible to try and develop new, young and a strong patronage to theatre in South Africa? And what is the practical role of the director in doing this?

There is no doubt that there is a crisis in theatre, and that crisis lies in the economics of it all. For whatever reason, the ‘bums on seats’ issue is an issue! Why are people not going to see theatre? What can we do, practically, to make things change? And more importantly, after the weekend’s topic, what is the role of the director in doing this?

Then the big one...

Is the weight of race too heavy for the South African stage?

It was clear, that there was tension in the room around this question for most of the weekend... 

Reflection on these questions to come in future writings – time is required for some thought.