Events

Wits Theatre is proud to present the So Solo 2017 Festival from 27 September to 8 October. Now in its fourth year, the much-acclaimed festival has become an annual barometer of the predominant undercurrents within South African society.

Established by Gita Pather, Director of Wits Theatre in 2013, the So Solo Festival celebrates the one-person play and offers audiences a diversity of thought provoking theatrical experiences from some of South Africa’s most talented actors. This year’s chosen plays allow audiences to immerse themselves in the stories that reflect the huge diversity of experience and reality.

“Solo performers delve deeply into themselves to create performances that reflect the overt and subliminal dilemmas of a country wrestling with multiple demons. Their experiences are our experiences as we struggle to find a sense of self, to fix an identity, to make sense of our world rocked each day by forces that are seemingly beyond our control,” says Pather.

“I have always believed in the power of the word. That power is intensified in performance and never more so than in the solo performer, who for the duration of a performance grabs our attention, forces us to focus, think and reflect. And that is what the arts do…it changes us and surely that is what we need…change?“ she adds.

Identity is a predominant theme at this year’s festival with twelve actors interrogating personal histories, values and aspirations against the volatile turbulence of a society in flux. Each production is different, its creative form reflective of the amazing talent that epitomises the performing arts in South Africa.

 

 

 

So Solo commissioned Tracks crosses the lines between personal and political family histories

                                                                                                                                             

From the 27 September to 8 October Maude Sandham presents her So Solo commissioned work Tracks at the Wits Theatre. Drawn from her personal experience, this one-woman show, directed by Nicola Pilkington, is a poignant portrayal of a granddaughter’s search for meaning in the unanswered questions and unexplained silences in her grandfather’s life. 

In her unhindered and raw style Sandham excavates the layers of myth and memory of Alan Sandham, tracking her grandfather’s past through the fragments of her family’s history. Alan grew up in pre-Apartheid Fordsburg and in his early 20’s moved to Crosby, a suburb of predominantly White railway families. He was father of six and worked hard to provide for his family. He worked as a bricklayer at the South African railway, but at one point was doing three jobs to shape a better life for his family. Alan was considered a tough man, ‘self-made’ and proper, a man of poise with a strong sense of duty and obligation. Yet he was also a man with a secret – a secret he kept for more than 40 years.

Nineteen years after Alan’s passing, the majority of his family learnt of this secret. After finding a photograph of Alan’s mother and siblings, his children learnt that Alan was not a white man. He was a man that slipped through the cracks of the Apartheid architecture, and lived a life ‘in the light’, on the right side of the tracks. 

Tracks paints a poignant picture of a man who led a dual existence. It pieces together a picture of a complex man, a man half in the shadows, a man of sacrifice, an absent husband, a lover of food, and a grandfather. In retelling the stories of her grandfather’s past Sandham brings to light the paralleled personal and national effects of the Regime. 

Tracks uncovers the familiar stories we tell to fill the gaps in the documentation printed in the South African history books.  The reliability of memory and the retelling of others’ memories is brought into question while the credibility of history books that prioritise certain narratives and icons, exploded through the scrutiny and investigation of document and photograph. 

Sandham is a Johannesburg-based playwright, director and performer who specialises in physical and devised theatre.  She studied directing under Janet Buckland at Rhodes University and later Devising Theatre and Performance under Thomas Prattki at The London International School of Performing Arts in Berlin. She has performed in several works for theatre, television and film and is cofounder of creative productions company Alt Eye Productions. In 2014 Sandham was one of five young women directors chosen to direct for the Olive Tree Theatre’s Women’s Theatre Festival.  

Sandham‘s nuanced writing engages with the critical question: when we learn more about those we love: what do we choose to tell or ignore? While the story is a deeply personal narrative it deals with the complexities of being a young person in South Africa where personal histories are seldom a straightforward story. 

Dates:                   

• Wednesday 27 September @ 1.15pm
• Thursday 28 September @ 7.30pm
• Friday 29 September @ 6.30pm
• Sunday 1 October @ 6.30pm
• Wednesday 4 October @ 7.30pm
• Thursday 5 October @ 1.15pm and 6pm
• Friday 6 October @ 7.15pm
• Saturday 7 October @ 4pm
• Sunday 8 October @ 3pm 

Venue: Downstairs Theatre

Running Time: 50 minutes

Age Restriction:10+ 

Tickets are available at www.webtickets.co.za or you can book online or through any Pick n Pay store. Even better, you can load your ticket on your Pick n Pay Smart Shopper card. Tickets can also be purchased at Wits Theatre’s Box Office. Contact Yuhl on yuhl.headman@wits.ac.za/ Bridget bridget.vanoerle@wits.ac.za for block bookings.

Ticket prices are as follows:       

Full price online – R75.00
Full price at Box office – R 80.00
Pensioner, Wits Staff and Student Discount online – R 60.00 on presentation of ID document or valid student card
Pensioner, Wits Staff and Student Discount Box office – R 65.00 (on presentation of ID document or valid student card 

Wits Theatre Box office: 011 717 1381
Facebook: Wits Theatre
Twitter: @WisTheatre1
Instagram: witstheatre

http://www.wits.ac.za/witstheatre

Media Queries: Bridget van Oerle

011 717 1376

bridget.vanoerle@wits.ac.za

The Witsies will be out to win the B Section and qaulify for Varsity Cricket in the process. Their 1st 3 fixtures are as follows.

2 Oct vs TUT at UP B Field

3 Oct vs Rhodes at Sinovich Park

4 Oct vs CUT at UP B Field

Many would argue that good leadership is key to our future, as a country and as a continent.  And that good business leaders, who are in tune with our changing environment, will play a critical role in steering our economy forward towards a stable future.
 
But how do we develop our future leaders?
 
To address this profoundly important issue, Mr Matimba Mbungela, Chief Human Resources Officer at the Vodacom Group, will deliver a presentation which will focus on:

• Current trends in leadership development
• Understanding what qualities future leaders will need
• How we can prepare the next generation of leaders well enough, and fast enough

If you are a business leader, an HR practitioner, an executive coach or an ordinary, concerned African citizen, please join us for what promises to be a thought-provoking lecture.

Andanda will shed light on big data in public health research.

Big data enables health care providers to monitor individuals and systems in real-time. However, the challenge is how to overcome the barriers to using such data in public health research.

This calls for an alternative normative framework capable of reconciling stakeholders’ competing interests while ensuring fair access with minimal legal and ethical risks.