Vermaak | Entertainment > Teater | Theatre > Kennisgewings | Notices > Artscape New Writing Programme Artscape New Writing Programme

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2006-11-02

Theatre veteran, Professor Roy Sargeant, breathes new life into the Artscape Arena in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth with the Artscape New Writing Programme. Each year plays are drawn from the Programme and produced to make up the Artscape Spring Drama Season. The 2nd Season is running presently. The Artscape New Writing Programme is a vital part of Artscape's educational programme. It is a playwriting programme devoted to the professional writing and production of new South African plays. The Programme is aimed at youth and adults.

The Programme has been running at Artscape since 2001, although Sargeant originated at an earlier date. During 2004 the Programme was invited to extend its work to the Port Elizabeth Opera House.

The Programme accepts unsolicited manuscripts from anyone in Xhosa, Afrikaans or English. These scripts are sent out to professional readers for assessments and then the reports are fed back to the playwrights. The Programme receives in excess of 50 scripts per year.

Once a play has been identified as having promise the playwright works with an editor/director to undertake re-writing, then the play may be given a Showcase performance or a Performed Reading, and if successful it will be considered for a Full Production. A central part of the Programme is the teaching of Playwriting Workshops. These are presented at the Guga S'thebe Arts and Culture Centre, Langa, and at the Alliance Francaise in Mitchell's Plain as well as at Artscape and the Port Elizabeth Opera House.

The Artscape New Writing Programme, with its varied support systems, is a vibrant activity, offering people, especially previously disadvantaged individuals, the opportunity to dream of writing a professional play and then to see the play produced.

The second season of the Artscape New Writing programme is in full force with Unforced Errors written by South African immigrant to Australia John Cundill at the Artscape Arena. John Cundill, brings us a gentle yet satiric comedy of domestic life in a small Australian town with his new play.

The play revolves around two retired couples, Marick/Barbara and Stan/Vonnie. who play tennis at the local club, socialise, get injured (they are all in their late 50's, early 60's), injure each other with trivial incidents and with larger more serious incidents, protest, and don't protest at environment-unfriendly developments, bicker and gossip in the manner of retirees all over the world.

Cundill's small town Mullagong is alive with serious and ridiculous goals where motions put to the tennis club AGM concerning un-sportsmanlike behaviour take on the gravitas of international politics. Where the unseemly diseases of advancing age are equally ridiculous and serious. Cundill's eye for the weaknesses of human nature, those weaknesses which cause tears and those which cause laughter, are unerring as he unravels these lives in a domestic comedy of universal appeal.

Directed by Roy Sargeant
Designed by Paul Regenass
Original music and sound score by Shaun Michau
Lighting by Faheem Bardien
Costumes co-ordinated by Ann Holmes

Unforced Errors @ the Arena:
19 October - 4 November; 20:15 - R60
Matinee 4 November, 14:30 - R30
October 19, 23 & 30 - Family Nights; 19:00 - R30
For more information or bookings visit www.artscape.co.za