The exciting history of Alex Arts Academy

Alex Arts Academy was founded in 2017 by the Alex-born Mpho Molepo who is famously known for his role in Generations, the Legacy.

“I was part of Squints Artists under the leadership of Peter Lehabe and later we became Alex Theatre Company,” Molepo explained.
“We were the first generation and we spent almost 15 years working in the Sankopano Centre. As a group we once received money from the Alexandra Clinic through a programme of HIV aids.

“We used the money from the programme to build a two-roomed house in my family’s yard and named it Blue Train. We lived there for 10 years – this afforded us an opportunity to come to the centre and rehearse, watch movies, and do poetry.
During the time we had no sponsorship, we survived by performing in events. Linda Twala would drop food parcels for us every Thursday.”

Molepo said they later decided they wanted to grow so they applied to various institutions of learning and left Alex.
The house remained closed for about 20 years and they left the company they had started in Ntshieng Mkgoro’s care until she also grew and opened what was called the Olive Tree Theatre.

“About 20 years later, I called the old members of Alex Theatre Company and asked that we go back to the township to try and create a replica of ourselves as we had worked on ourselves and I have seen the success of each individual. That was 2017. Some promised to come, but never showed up. So I decided I will do it, again with no funding.”

Mpendulo Vena, a former student at the academy added, “The academy has progressed much better, because we now have a company and we also have practicals unlike before when we would only have classes.

“As a school, we are trying so hard to make theatre accessible to the community by doing film screenings and theatre performances which are free of charge – we even have book clubs.”