Realogile Secondary School got the accolades after winning the most awards at the inaugural Olivetree Theatre’s Schools Theatre Festival.
The awards ceremony, co-ordinated by and held at the Olivetree Theatre, was for secondary school students who had spent seven weeks refining their raw talent while working out plays depicting important social issues. Their unpolished talent swayed judges the Realogile way after excellent performances demonstrated their potential as future professional artists should they choose the arts for a career.
The event was a great first term school holiday send-off and was watched by a capacity crowd at the 400-seater venue in Wynberg, and is proving to be a draw card in the theatre’s attempt to revive township arts. Spearheaded by the director Ntsieng Mokhoro, the event was to attract children and youths – many of them first-timers to theatre – expose them to the arts as potential careers, and showcase untapped hidden talent, and used it as a tool for learning, and to help keep them off the streets. They practised after school under the guidance of semi-professional directors who were also perfecting their own artistic development.
The capacity crowd, which was treated to a typical theatre atmosphere with free popcorn, intermission and movies to whett their appetite, was left aghast by the acting quality and themes of the different groups’ plays. Remarking on the performances, Joy Moyo, theatre project manager, said the level of beauty, finesse, discipline and punctuality from the rehearsals to the stage reflected the extent of the children’s need and hunger for platforms to keep them engaged positively to polish and display their talent while keeping out of trouble.
“I wish schools could adopt and deepen their commitment to the arts as an extra mural activity to enable the rappers, comedians, dancers, poets and singers who participated in the festival to excel in their areas of interest at school,” she said.
Realogile won first prize, with Pholosho and Alex High coming second and third respectively. Realogile scooped prizes for the play Unfinished Young Woman directed by Bongi Mmako; female cameo role was won by Cecilia Pheeha; Karabo Majola won for best actress; and a special award went to Kgomotso Mafokoane who had the crowd spellbound with his poetic acting.
Pholosho won for the play Analysis of Casualty directed by Zodwa Nkosi, and best actor went to Action Ndlovu. Alex High won for best directed play, and best supporting actor went to Bongani Mayisela, while best cameo role went to Phumlani Hlongwane. The best supporting actress went to Dineo Makhubela of Eastbank.
Details: Olivetree Theatre 073 591 9567.
