Presenting Unrehearsed Futures: After the Fall livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Thursday 20 May 2021 at 4 a.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 9 a.m. BST (London, UTC +1) / 10 a.m. SAST (Cape Town, UTC +2) / 1:30 p.m. IST (Mumbai, UTC +5:30) / 6 p.m. AEST (Hobart, UTC +10).
What can we describe (albeit speculatively) as emerging “classical” forms of African postcolonial drama? With what kinds of stories and encounters would such a theatre concern itself? What might it look like, and what work can it do? And what does naming and marking out this terrain place at stake? Using Mark Fleishman and Mandla Mbothwe’s work with Magnet Theatre and the ongoing ReTAGS (Reimagining Tragedy from Africa and the Global South) project as a point of departure, we’ll be discussing decolonial performance aesthetics and futures to explore formal theatrical interventions and reinventions of Western form and narrative that mine the legacies and ghosts of the past as a means of asserting a postcolonial vision of theatre and its attendant politics.
Curator: Mbongeni N. Mtshali
Mbongeni N. Mtshali works across a range of performance disciplines, including dance and movement composition and performance, animation and puppetry, and site-specific performance installation among others. He earned a PhD in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, as well as the Standard Bank Silver Ovation Award and the Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for his achievements in directing and performance-making. Mtshali is primarily interested in black queer/femme performance in South Africa as well as Africa and its diaspora, turning towards queer genealogies of African decolonial world-making in the Caribbean, South Atlantic and Indian Ocean. These research interests frame his practical and theoretical enquiries - with Unrehearsed Futures, as another venture into understanding the broader landscape of global theatre practice.
Speaker 1: Mark Fleishman
Organization / School: Professor, CTDPS University of Cape Town | Magnet Theatre
Mark Fleishman is a professor at the Centre for Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies at the University of Cape Town, and Artistic Director of Magnet Theatre, an independent theatre company established in 1987 in Johannesburg and based in Cape Town since 1994. He has created and directed many performance works for the company that have been performed nationally and internationally over the past 26 years to great critical acclaim, and is involved in development projects in urban townships and rural communities where he uses theatre as a tool for social justice and transformation.
Speaker 2: Mandla Mbothwe
Organization / School: CTDPS University of Cape Town | Magnet Theatre | Mud&Fire Parables
Mandla Mbothwe is an acclaimed South African playwright, researcher, director, art teacher and theatre practitioner. A former Artistic Director at the Steve Biko Centre and former Creative Manager at Artscape Theatre Centre, he has created theatre productions of high quality, in South Africa and abroad, dealing with cultural and historical themes. Mbothwe is also Founder and Artistic Director at Mud and Fire Parables, Co-Artistic director at Magnet Theatre, Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Theatre, Dance & Performance Studies at the University of Cape Town, and co-Artistic director at Mbothwe and Doni Collectives.
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