Alexandra’s doyen of the arts Selaelo Maredi is no more
The Alexandra Township's most decorated playwright, master of the dramatic arts and former US exile Selaelo Daniel Maredi has died.
The arts industry in Alexandra has been dealt a severe blow following the death of one of its revered and most decorated doyen of the dramatic arts in the township, Selaelo Daniel Maredi.
Ntate Maredi (85), as he was fondly known to the new arrivals in the dramatic arts industry and those youngsters he was nurturing, died at his Alex home on August 17 and will be buried at his birthplace Uitkyk No 3 in Bochum, Limpopo, on August 26.
An Alex memorial service has been arranged at Sankopano Centre for August 23, starting at 11:00, and many big names in the theatre industry such as Alex’s own Matlakala Motloung and Refilwe ‘Fifi’ Pieterse and others including Sello Maake ka Ncube, better known as Archie, Nomsa Manaka and Bra Kid Sithole will attend the service before Ntate Maredi leaves for his final resting place.
The theatre was an early passion for Maredi as he got hooked straight after leaving school by writing short plays, one of which was A Little Education is Dangerous and It’s My Blackness They Hate Not Me which won him recognition and awards from the South African Youth Club National Theatre, and he never looked back.
He later directed the plays for an enthusiastic youth club at Thabisong Alexandra Community Centre in the late 1960s and his next efforts in writing and directing were two plays for an adult audience, Prosecution and Mboni and also acted in Gibson Kente’s Sikalo and Ben Nomoyi’s Born To Lose.
Maredi joined fellow actors Fana Kekana, Themba Ntinga and Seth Sibanda to establish the Experiment Theatre Workshop 71 as a platform that focused on fundamentals for acting, playwriting and directing, and produced their inaugural stage production, Crossroads, which was performed at Outer Space Theatre in Cape Town in 1972.
Six years later, in 1977, Maredi left South Africa for the United States of America, which was a year after the June 16, 1976 Student Uprisings in Soweto and Alexandra, to perform a production called Survival, alongside other actors in Off-Broadway.
For many years, Maredi toured the United States especially college campuses, presenting anti-apartheid plays. During his 14 years of exile in the United States, he managed to etch his name in the global theatre landscape and distinguished himself among the crop with awards and recognitions such as The Audelco Black Theatre Award with the cast of Survival, The Villager Award for excellence with his production of Homeland, which he co-authored with American playwright, Steve Freedman, The Arts Achievement Award from the New York City mayor with Woodie King Jr’s production of Survival, and a citation from Massachusetts House of Representatives in recognition of outstanding bravery and dedication to human rights.
Maredi also got another citation from the Massachusetts State Senate for acting ability, the Sesi Puede Award for best Community Theatre, the Cuba 1978 X1 Festival Mundial de la Juventud v los Estudiantes for Best Production Award, and recognition in San Francisco Chronicle as Best Musical Director for Original Music for his play S’Kotiphola.
In 1981, Maredi was featured in a film Death of A Prophet by Woodie King Jr starring Morgan Freeman as Malcolm X. Maredi was awarded a fellowship by The National Endowment for the Arts as a resident writer and director for the Julian Theatre in San Francisco.
He was a member of the Frank Silver Writers Workshop in New York City, and the Black Writers Group in Portland Oregon and Chicago and also directed Vernelle Edwards’ musical Amandla ka Mandela at New Federal Theatre in New York City. He later directed Black Arts Productions at San Francisco State University and taught an acting class at the San Francisco School of Dramatic Arts, and conducted acting workshops at the Riverside Studios in London.
Maredi is also the black South African author of The Sun Will Soon Rise, which was later recognised internationally as Protest Theatre. In 1990, he performed in the play again when Jerry Mofokeng revived Survival while studying in New York.
After many years, he became the artistic director of the Julian Theatre in San Francisco before returning to South Africa in 1994 after 14 years of exile. He was appointed director in residence at the Market Theatre in 1997, and in 2000 he became associate artistic director for the year.
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