Naledi Theatre Awards drama: the way forwardTMSA - Theatre Managements of SA03/10/2008 13:42:59 
Naledi Theatre Awards drama: the way forward The Theatre Industry has been reeling with the added drama at the recent Naledi Awards Ceremony held at the Lyric Theatre on Monday 5 March. There have been accusations of Racism, lack of Transformation in the Industry in general and Naledi in particular, of not enough Black winners, not enough Black faces, not enough funding for the Arts, of in-fighting and back biting, mud slinging and sequinned tantrums … there have been interviews and debates, and more column inches than ever before in our short 5 year history. Where to from here? Do we all retire to our various (colour coded) corners, glowering at each other and spitting hate and vitriol; do we kill off the Naledi’s and start yet another Awards system? Or do we keep an open and adult mind about the real issues facing our Industry (which is and has always been a mirror and microcosm of the Country as a whole) and work together to move forward and attempt to address any perceived or real injustices, inaccuracies, or lack to build Naledi into what we all have dreamed of and worked so hard for: A National Theatre Awards system that raises the Profile of SA Theatre and recognises and rewards Excellence in the Live Performing Arts. With this end in mind, may I summarise for interested readers and the media, some of the issues and questions raised during the past week and give the FACTS as they are concerning our Industry and Naledi: HISTORY: The Naledi Theatre Awards is firmly branded as the premier Awards Event in SA to honour excellence in SA Theatre. The NTA was started as an Initiative of the TMSA (Theatre Managements of SA) in 2003, when FNB pulled the plug on funding the Vita Awards. Dawn Lindberg took it on as a project and it has become a full time job. She is the Executive Director. The NTA is registered as a Section 21 company and our Chairman is Dali Tambo. With his support and help we are in the process of forming a new Board of Directors including luminaries of our Industry. These names will be released as soon as they are confirmed. SABC3 is our Media Partner, thanks to the vision and support of Pearl Luthuli (Group Executive Director, External Commercial Services) and Quraysh Patel (GM SABC3) and a 90 minute special of the recent awards will be flighted on 27 April (Freedom Day) FUNDING: We ran the NTA pro bono for 2 years, with modest seed funding from Founding Sponsors which paid for the making of the trophies and cash cheques for the winners. With the help of our Chairman, Minister Pallo Jordan agreed to fund us from his Discretionary Budget for the next 2 years, enabling us to run and administer a small office, to stage a more glamorous and Ceremony, to increase the cheque amounts and to shoot the entire Ceremony for Television. On 3 May I met with Pallo Jordan at his office in Pretoria at which I presented a full report back and gave him a dvd of the 2006 Awards (the meeting was minuted by a department Secretary). We parted on cordial terms; no mention was made of “Transformation” then or ever by any person in the Department. (see City Press 9 March, which is completely inaccurate) I submitted our budget for 2008 the following day and heard nothing until 3 October, when we received a fax from Sydney Selepe (Deputy DG) saying briefly that there were no funds available for NTA and that we needed to find sponsors from within the Industry of from the Corporate Sector. This of course left us too little time to find a major Sponsor for the 2007 Awards, but we are hopeful that with Television giving much needed brand exposure, we will find new sponsor/s for 2008 and thereafter. CRITERIA FOR ELIGIBILITY and MODUS OPERANDI: We include all fully professional work staged in Main Stream Theatres in Gauteng (as well as productions that come up from the Cape and KZN) The NTA is Proudly SA; only SA producers, directors, actors and designers are eligible. So, for example, the Production of the Lion King was eligible, as the producers were Lebo M and Pieter Toerien, but the Director (Julie Tamor) and set, costume, masks designers were not. The same applied to the other “franchised” musicals such as Phantom, Rent, and Thoroughly Modern Milly... We have 24 categories, among which are Best New SA plays produced, small innovative works which we call “Cutting Edge”, new comer/breakthrough performers and Community Theatre (which is now a major section of the Theatre Scene in SA) . We also honour Life Time Achievement and those Thespians who have died, sometimes tragically, during the year under review. We have a panel of 20 judges who have to attend a minimum of 75% of the 60-plus productions during the year (also pro bono) . We try to be representative in terms of gender, age and culture, but several of our (primarily Black) judges have fallen away as they have been unable to see the requisite number of productions. The voting system is simple: judges score productions and performers 5-0 which is inputted into a computer programme specially devised for the Naledi’s, which calculates the scores and divides by the number of judges who saw the production; the top 5 names (or in the case of a tie, 6 names) then go back to the judges for final voting for the winner in each category. These scores are verified by an independent auditor. The list of finalists is circulated to all producers and managements to check spellings and production credits (they may not comment on the choice of nominees) and we will also send the list to our Ombudsman (Percy Tucker) who has been appointed for 2008. We request that Producer/Managements either notify the nominees from their productions and forward the official invitation, or provide us with all contact details so that we may invite all nominees personally. Here’s a quick analysis of the ratio (in blunt terms: colour) of winners/Life Time Achievers/judges over the past 2 years: WHO WINS AND WHO JUDGES: 2006 Awards: Black winners: 10 individual: including Best Director (James Ngcobo), lead Actor Siyabonga Twala), Best Newcomer male :(Tshediso Lawrence Mofali); female: Nqobile Sipamla, Musical Director (Taliep Petersen) and 3 Productions including : Best New SA Play (the Suitcase) Best Straight play (the Suitcase) and Best Musical (Ghoema) 2007 Awards: Black winners: 3 individual, including best support actress (Bronwyn van Graan) , best new comer (Christo Davids) and best musical Direction/score (Zwai Bala); and 4 Productions (Best new SA Play: “Shirley Goodness and Mercy”; Cutting Edge “Molora”, Ensemble “Telling Stories” and Musical; “Lion King”) representing over 400 Black practitioners. Judges: 2006: 15 judges: 5 Black (5 fell away); 8 women Judges: 2007: 17 judges: 4 Black (3 fell away); 10 women Life Time Achievers (2003-2007): 46 Awards: 23 Black HISTORY OF SA THEATRE INDUSTRY: SA Theatre was desegregated in 1977, the first Bastion of Apartheid to fall (long before Sport, Schools or hotels) This was spearheaded by Des and Dawn’s production of Godspell, which was the first multi racial production to be produced and staged publicly in SA in 1973. They were also the first to go to the Supreme Court and to successfully fight the banning of Godspell (all with their own money) Before Godspell the Space in Cape Town was doing wonderful cutting edge work with people like Athol Fugard and Yvonne Bryceland and many others (in private membership format) All productions in SA are cast on merit and since 1994 over 10,000 jobs have been created for Black actors, directors and technicians...as well as many prominent Black producers and directors eg: Mbongeni Ngema, Aubrey Sekhabi, John Kani, James Ngcobo, Duma Ka N’dlovu, Mpumulelo Paul Grootboom to mention but a few. More Black artistes were employed during 2007 on our stages than in the history of SA theatre, and many of them work consistently all over the world. THE WAY FORWARD: THEATRE MANAGEMENTS OF SA: Dawn Lindberg elected Chairman (the first woman in this position in the history of Theatre Managements i.e.: 25 years … I feel very privileged to have been elected Chairman of TMSA at the AGM held on 25 February. In my acceptance speech I stated that I saw myself as a “Caretaker Chairman” while actively working for more Transformation (I personally lobbied 4 potential Black theatre luminaries to agree to stand as Chairman before the AGM, but all were already heavily committed and most are out of the country most of the year) We all recognise the need for more black managements and larger black audiences, but Theatre has always been fairly low on Governments’ Priority chains. Here’s my vision: WHAT ARE ISSUES FACING SA THEATRE TODAY; IS THEATRE SUFFICIENTLY TRANSFORMED; SUFFICIENTLY FUNDED? WHAT SHOULD DAC BE DOING? Theatre in SA is a Business like any other and is Market driven. Independent Producers put on what they believe will bring in bums on seats; sometimes they win and sometimes they lose. The Naledi Theatre Awards does not dictate to or drive the Industry; we can only reflect what is staged in any given year and hold a mirror to and applaud excellence. Of course there are many challenges within our Industry, just as there are in every Industry in SA; we have NO lack of talent on our stages, but do we have a black audience to come and support them? Sadly, not enough! I feel there are two main challenges facing our Industry in SA: Building new young audiences who will get into the habit of going to theatre, and training of more Black Producers, writers, Directors, Technicians and Designers. DAC can assist with both these issues: Together with the Dept of Education, budget should be allocated to bus in school Learners to matinees at a nominal cost (not free) of say R2-R5 per ticket (which monies can go towards the hire of buses) State funded Theatres (such as the Market, State, and Artscape) should be staging set works as well as providing active mentoring and training for the skills mentioned above. Windybrow should be given to the producers of Community Theatre (Mpho Molepo of SATI is doing great work in this area) and should be serving its own Community, which is Hillbrow and Berea … as well as providing a platform for new fledgling Black directors and writers... DAC could also be putting budget towards Technicons for training of Black Technicians and Designers as well as encouraging State funded theatres to have active mentoring programmes (there is no better way to learn than “on the job”...) DAC should be helping build new multi purpose Community Centres in Rural Areas which are equipped with basic lighting and sound to encourage more shows to be produced and staged on the Fringe, and especially shows featuring young people; this could include talent competitions, play writing competitions, Social issues (such as Aids/Women Abuse/relationships etc) The relationship between Naledi and Lebo M remains cordial and we are committed to moving forward together in order to address his areas of concern expressed on 3 March, and the concerns of many people in the Industry... I hope that this effort in transparency and explanation will go some of the way towards convincing some sceptics out there that our main aim and mission is to keep Naledi on track and to work towards whatever is needed in order for people to feel comfortable and proud to receive a nomination or award from Naledi in the future. Dawn Lindberg Executive Director – NALEDI THEATRE AWARDS Chairman – THEATRE MANAGEMENTS OF SOUTH AFRICA 3, 8th Avenue, Parktown North, Johannesburg 2193 PO Box 1828, Saxonwold, Johannesburg 2132 Tel : 011 880 7760 - Fax : 011 880 0833 - Cell : 082 900 7527 E-mail: dawn@desdawn.co.za - Web: www.desdawn.co.za |
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