Sancta once again hosts play-writing course

HIGHVELD – The South African National Community Theater Association (Sancta) has a longstanding relationship with the local theatre community.

According to Mr Noel McDonald, Sancta national chairman, the Mpumalanga Provincial Government is involvement with Sancta.

“Initially we received grants from Sasol, but for the last five years the Mpumalanga Provincial Government has supported us.

“For the last two years these grants have been split equally between a new play writers’ course and the annual one-act play festival, and a trip to the Remix/ Drama for Life Course at The Grahamstown Festival for 10 days.”

This year will be the 36th one-act play festival that will be held and it will take place in Secunda in February

In preparation for this, they have begun with their 10 minute play writing courses in Trichardt and are already in the middle of the four-course run which ends this month.

“The idea of the course is to teach new play-writers how to structure a 10 minute play and type it out in the correct format.

“They then go back to their various groups scattered over the seven municipalities of the Gert Sibande Region to complete and refine the play.

“All of this hopefully culminates in the Evening of Plays for local residents to attend.”

The main objective of the course is to enable the writers to extend their scripts to 30-45 minute plays and to submit the finished product to Sancta by 30 November.

Once submitted, Sancta and a panel of professional thespians under the guidance of Dorothy Anne Gould, Michael Maxwell and Ismail Mahomed, will read them and decide if these plays have merit to “reach the stage”.

Though the play-writing course is not compulsory, writers who have attended the course will be given priority should their work be deemed worthy.

Mr McDonald said: “Those writers who are chosen, will be mentored by our patrons and others professionals early in next year in preparation for the performance of the play at the festival in February.”

Groups from as far as KwaZulu-Natal, the Free State, Gauteng and North West will also perform at the festival to allow local writers to measure their work against those of other writers from other provinces.

The plays performed during the week will receive both verbal and written critique and the three best plays will be selected for the gala evening performance and award ceremony on the Saturday evening.

“Our main aim is social upliftment and education and to give expression to people interested in the arts, especially those in small rural towns, and encourage audience participation.

The International Amateur Theatre Association in Monaco runs the Festival du Mondial every four years.

Two of the winners from the previous year are from Mpumalanga and have been entered for this contest, but it depends on whether they raise the necessary money to attend.

The two plays are The Dream by S’madzadza and My Blood in Chains by Siphohule Theatre Group, both written by Njabulo Mhlanga.

Any individuals or business who is willing to assist or who wants to know more about the courses, can contact Mr McDonald at 083 309 4315.