Mtho’s passion for the stage knows no bounds

DURBAN actor, drama coach, filmmaker and theatre practitioner, Mthokozisi (Mtho) Zulu, is a rising star on the Durban theatre scene.

Mtho is currently acting as Siyanda, a theatre owner, in the Young Performers Project (YPP) production, Curtain Up! and will be playing Wilbur in KickstArt’s Charlotte’s Web, based on the children’s book by EB White, at the Elizabeth Sneddon theatre from 13 June until 7 July.

Mtho said it wasn’t always his dream to be an actor. When he was in high school, his father had encouraged him to study towards a ‘proper’ vocation such as accounting.

“When I chose my subjects for Grade 10 at Glenwood High School, I decided to rather choose drama, not knowing it would be something I would want to pursue as a career. In pre-school I always played the lead role in our small performances and acting was always in me, although I never paid attention to it. I went to watch the YPP performance of The Wiz when I was in Grade 10, and I knew then that I wanted to be in the next YPP performance. I knew I wanted to act,” he said.

He said actress and singer, Shelley McLean had started working at Glenwood High that year, and had established the Performing Arts Academy at the school. He said classes included singing, guitar, piano and dance, and when Shelley had small performances, she would use her students in the shows.

“My first professional performance was in a corporate show in the Drakensberg where I danced in Shelley’s show. That year she was in Sleeping Beauty and she invited us to go watch rehearsals. It was there that I met KickstArt and started working with them backstage and also doing puppetry work,” he said, adding that Shelley also introduced him to Aaron McIlroy and Lisa Bobbert, and that it was wonderful to be working with their daughter in Curtain Up!

Mtho’s passion for acting continued after school when he went on to study drama, graduating cum laude, at DUT.

“My dad got over the fact that I hadn’t chosen to pursue accounting! My grandmother had tried to bribe me to study something like law after school, and said I could go to any drama school in the world after that, but I declined, saying I was not going to waste years doing something I was never going to use! They were very proud of me for doing so well at DUT,” he said.

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Mtho ventured onto Durban’s theatre stage, performing as the cover for KickstArt’s The Lost Boys (Peter Pan), as a puppeteer in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, as Mustapha Kit Cat in Sinbad, Dennis/Perkins in The Play That Goes Wrong, and as Buttons in Cinderella. After his performance in Charlotte’s Web, he will be performing as White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland at the end of the year.

“I’m very excited to be playing Wilbur in Charlotte’s Web. I reread the book recently, as I hadn’t read it since I was in school, and I can’t wait to play this character,” he said.

Mtho also performs with Jean van Elden’s Wow Factory on children’s shows, something he started doing at the end of his matric year. He will perform in the children’s show iThemba, written and directed by Jean, which is about rhino conservation and tolerance, which tours to local and rural schools, and is also involved in a two-hander with either Rosemary Zimu or Phindile Dube, also a school performance.

Not only is he an accomplished actor, but Mtho has written plays The Crook’s Eye, which played in Durban, Witbank and Johannesburg, Journey to Eternity, which he co-directed with Phindile Dube, and which showed to a sold-out theatre in Johannesburg this month, and which he will be taking to Cape Town in October. Lions and Liquids, co-written with Monik Kosik from Germany and Lana Corpada from The Netherlands, showed at a festival in Germany last year, and is due for one more season in Germany.

“Acting is my passion, I enjoy every minute of it! It’s me, and I’m glad I found it when I was 16,” he said.

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