Alex Arts Academy has partnered with various departments and organisations to bring a Current Affairs Theatre Festival to Alex from the 23 to 25 October at Alexasan Resource Centre.
This follows after a successful policy conference for Gauteng community arts centres in partnership with the National Department of Sports Arts and Culture, Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, and the City of Joburg through Arts Alive Academy Festival.
Alex Arts Academy was established last year by well-known arts administrator, actor, director and activist Mpho J Molepo. “It has grown in leaps and bounds, not only by nurturing young minds and empowering future generation artists but also by partnering with leading arts institutions, arts organisations and practitioners alike,” he said.
“It is through this partnership with Arts Alive, which has been growing from strength to strength, that the academy is in a position to present the Current Affairs Theatre Festival.”
The festival will take place over three days, and 10 productions will be presented over the three days, with four productions on the 23rd, three productions on the 24th, and three productions on the 25th of October.
“The stories told by 10 directors, 10 assistant directors and 10 actors will take the audience through varied and alternated journeys that our youth went through since the declaration of the Disaster Management Act of 2020,” said Molepo.
“The stories will be looking at Covid-19 from different perspectives, stories of love, despair, anger, displacement, happiness, isolation, community, fear and hope. The 10 productions have been in rehearsals since early September and we are thrilled to be sharing them with the community of Alexandra and beyond.”
The festival also serves as an incubation and mentorship programme as student directors have been given an opportunity to work with established directors to learn from them.
The directing process is set up in a way that allows for learning to take place, knowledge to be shared and as a platform for assistant directors to experiment and learn first-hand during rehearsals, all through the trajectory into the presentation.
The academy has cast full-time students as actors in these productions as they prepare and transition them from students of the arts into the professional world. “We are happy that this two-month programme will not only come out with 10 productions but a group of 23 students who would have gone through a process of mentorship and hands-on production in acting and directing,” he said.
According to the festival coordinator Moses Rasekele, the festival is an opportunity for our students to experiment, be mentored and transition into the industry. “The two-month mentorship programme is meant to give them hands-on experience in theatre-making production processes,” he concluded.
