Drama alumni activities

Melusine van Arkadia, directed by Corné Joubert, premiered at the Drama Department’s annual Krêkvars Student Arts Festival in 2013. The three actresses in the show were Drama Department honours students Sharlien Schwarz and Stephanie Gericke, together with second-year drama student Zia Sonnekus. The Woordfees arts festival in Stellenbosch offered a prize for the best Krêkvars production in 2013. The prize was a space on the Woordfees programme in 2014, as well as production, transport and accommodation costs for the cast. A panel of evaluators, together with a representative from the Woordfees, selected Melusine van Arkadia as the best production. The show was referred to as the hidden gem of the Woordfees by Die Burger’s festival correspondent.

Mdu Nhlapo’s Who stole the e-Toll also premiered at Krêkvars in 2013 as part of his honours course in direction. Mdu shared the KykNet cash prize for best artist at the festival with fellow Tuks drama student Francois Joubert. The show was performed as the Drama Department’s production contribution to the Mpumalanga Schools Festival in February 2014 and elicited enthusiastic response from the audience, the festival organiser and teachers alike. Drama lecturers Marié-Heleen Coetzee, Bailey Snyman, Morné Steyn and Myer Taub offered two-day workshops for the participating schools. The department has already been invited back to the next school festival.

Drama Department alumna Donnalee Roberts co-authored and co-produced the record-breaking Afrikaans film Pad Na Jou Hart. Donnalee, who also plays the female lead in this film, was rag queen during her studies at Tuks. Pad Na Jou Hart opened at number one at the South African box office and has been commercially more successful than any of the new international titles (including Monuments Men and Anchorman 2) that opened over the same weekend. It was the biggest opening weekend for an Afrikaans film ever. Donnalee and co-star, co-author and co-producer Ivan Botha, presented a guest lecture to drama students in which they emphasised the importance of entrepreneurship and foregrounded the transferability and transportability of drama- and theatre-related skills.

Drama Department alumna Taryn Papadopoulous Louch was nominated for the prestigious Naledi Theatre Awards in the category Best Newcomer/Breakthrough for her solo performance in Irene Stephanou’s Greek-South African play Meze, Mira and Make-Up. Taryn plays Mira, an adolescent girl who has to grapple with the tensions between the expectations of her family and community to uphold Greek traditions, and her own sense of self in contemporary South Africa. The department wishes to congratulate Taryn on this achievement.