Drama Current Affairs

Firstly, Prof Marth Munro travelled to the United States in January 2012. Her visit had three phases, as discussed in her own words:

1. “I attended the 7th annual conference of the Lessac Training and Research Institute, University of Memphis, January 5-8, 2012 during which I delivered two papers:  Lessac Kinesensic voice and body training as Sound Therapy and Organic shifts toward effective communication with L2 English through the use of Lessac Kinesensic voice and body training. This paper reported on a second phase of a research project executed by myself and a doctoral candidate Mrs. Karina Lemmer at the Drama Dept. University of Pretoria, who is a lecturer at TUT.

2. A weeklong visit to Ball State University, Muncie Indiana where I was a ‘visiting artist’. I thought various classes and Prof. Wendy Mortimer and I determined our shared project and timeline. As a bonus we also negotiated that Prof. Mortimer direct the student production for the Grahamstown festival for the Drama Dept., University of Pretoria. Prof. Mortimer received funding from Ball State to visit us. This will take place during June/July 2012.

3. Visit to New York with the primary reason to meet with the Laban Institute of Movement Studies to negotiate an MoU between then and the Drama Dept. University of Pretoria. In principle, they are as excited as what we are about the prospect and further negotiations will take place shortly.”

The visit was made possible with funding from the University of Pretoria as well as the NRF KIC grant.

Secondly, the recently appointed Dr Myer Taub has been busy shooting a performance art video in Johannesburg with Nadine Hutton called Memoirs of a Killarney House Boy. In addition, he is preparing to host a research master studio at WITS in April and May.

Thirdly, Head of Department Prof Marié-Heleen Coetzee has finalised her contribution, “South Africa”, to the forthcoming University of Illinois Press publication International Women Stage Directors, edited by Anne Flitsios and Wendy Vierow.