Dance, drama, music and poetry will permeate and reverberate through The Baxter until Saturday 1 April as the Western Cape’s greatest staging of fresh and innovate theatre has returned for the 13th instalment this year.
The annual Baxter Zabalaza Theatre Festival, which kicked off on Friday 24 March, will showcase 37 productions and 189 participants, set to entertain, captivate and intrigue audiences.
This year’s festival is the product of the successful hybrid mentorship programmes launched during the Covid-19 lockdown. The programme saw script writing mentorship for writers and mentorship workshops for directors, to ensure the finest in trailblazing theatre.
This year the mentorship collaboration has extended with double the number of mentor’s offering support to each of the main festival productions. The main festival programme includes themes of tradition, culture and identity.
Since its introduction, the Family Day has been a much-loved start to the award-winning festival. The Family Day, on Saturday 25 March, included food stalls, a jumping castle for children to enjoy, market stalls and a children’s theatre programme that ran from 09:45 to 12:00. As per tradition, the Best of DCAS showcases its productions, with participants from the Overberg, Cape Winelands, West Coast and the Garden Route districts.
The festival also paid tribute to writer, actor, director and mentor, Khayalethu Anthony, who died in September. A special screening of his award winning production The Champion was shown on Family Day at 17:00. Anthony’s work, which won the Best of Zabalaza award in 2013, was published by Junket Publishers the following year. The champion also won the Fresh Award for Writing in the 2017 Cape Town Fringe Festival. All proceeds from the screening of this award winning production will go to Anthony’s family. His unwavering involvement and contribution to the Zabalaza Festival was exemplary, both as a participant and as a mentor. The founder of the Imbawula Theatre Company in Khayelitsha, Anthony performed with Dame Janet Suzman in Baxter CEO and artistic director Lara Foot’s award winning two-hander Solomon and Marion at The Baxter and overseas.
For adult audiences Saturday evening offered a selection of performance experiences. An eclectic and innovative poetry performance in the Baxter Garden at 18:00 and RAW (Real Art Wednesdays) returns to the line-up, with a platform for a variety of talented performers, in the Concert Hall at 19:00.
On Sunday the 26th, afternoon comedy was featured, with Choice Mtshixa, Kate Pinchuck, Altaaf Sayed, Ayabona Kene, Dylan Mccabe and Sivuyile Dunjwa at 15:00 in the Concert Hall.
The 37 productions of the main festival take place from Monday 27 to Friday 31 March, with performances at 09:45, 11:00, 12:00 and 19:00 daily. These were selected following months of mentorship and development, culminating in mini festivals that took place over three weekends at the end of November and early December.
The Zabalaza Theatre Festival is generously supported by the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, the Western Cape Government, National Arts Council of South Africa, an agency of the national Department of Sports, Arts and Culture, through the Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme, the Distell Foundation, the HCI Foundation and Pick n Pay, while the script of the winner of the Best of Zabalaza is published annually by Junkets Publisher.
Curated by awardwinning director Mdu Kweyama, along with Zabalaza team members Imameleng Masitha (festival administrator), Bulelani Mabutyana (coordinator), Nonsikelelo Maboza (audience development) and Katharina Rosch (dramaturg). The festival will culminate in a gala awards ceremony, on Saturday 1 April, where accolades will be handed to various artists and productions and the Best of Zabalaza winner will be announced. The winner will enjoy a two-week run at The Baxter in August later this year.
The full Zabalaza Theatre Festival programme can be found online at www.thebaxter.xyz/zabalaza2023. Tickets to the main festival are R30 each or R45 for two shows for schools and organisations only, and available through Webtickets on 086 111 0005 and online at www.webtickets.co.za; or at Pick n Pay stores.
Schools and organisations with group bookings have the option of affordable transportation offered by Golden Arrow Bus services, who support the festival yearly, at R5 per person, for groups of more than 40, with a strict maximum of 60 people per bus. For school or group bookings, fundraisers or charities contact Carmen Kearns on 021 680 3993 or email her at carmen.kearns@uct.ac.za or Nonsikelelo Maboza on 021 680 3984 or email her at nonsikelelo.maboza@uct.ac.za
