Dude! Wa’s My Phone?

“Dude! Wa’s My Phone?” is designed for high school students from Grade 10 to Grade 12 who are enrolled in Dramatic Arts. This age group is our main target audience, given the themes’ relatability, the cultural insights it offers, and its ability to captivate and educate a demographic highly connected to the challenges and opportunities associated with digital technology.

The play provides valuable insights and raises awareness about the consequences of smartphone addiction. Our interactive story creates an environment where young audiences are more receptive to messages encouraging a healthier balance between online and offline life.

“Dude! Wa’s My Phone?” utilizes humour, drama, and relatable situations to engage learners in a contemplative exploration of the role of technology in our lives. It delves into its impact on relationships, social consciousness, and the intricacies and absurdities that arise in the digital age. The production addresses the contemporary issue of smartphone addiction, examining the following themes:

• Addiction and Dependence on Technology
• Friendship and Connection
• The Intersection of Comedy and Tragedy
• Identity and Sense of Self
• Spark Dialogue and Reflection

Die towersleutel neem vir Kalla, Biebie, Vlooi en Flappie op ‘n avontuur na ‘n bos waar die singende, kokende Draak woon. Flappie beland in haar kloue, en amper in haar pot! Leerders sien bekende lees-woorde op die verhoog as deel van die rekwisiete, en word op ‘n interaktiewe manier bekendgestel aan basiese teater-terme.

About the Director:

Studying performing arts and teaching in drama at the Waterfront Theatre College, she taught drama at the Stellenbosch Waldorf School for 3 years and in 2016 she was a part of a programme called ‘Miss Earth South Africa’ and became one of 16 National finalists. At the end of the year she wrote a play called “The Recycling adventures of Reece”. A play that aims to inspire children and up lift them through storytelling and teaches them about taking care of the earth.

uNontombi is a traditional musical play which portrays two men fighting over a beautiful woman in a Zulu village. The young man Mkhonto make use of traditional powers to win the love of uNontombi as our story continues the audience witnesses a crucial turn where love is taking its direction. we see mbuzini a close friend of Mkhonto betrays him by proposing uNontombi and only to find out that she loves Mbuzini more than Mkhonto.

Hans is baie ongelukkig, want sy broers het elkeen ‘n groot erfporsie by hul pa gekry, en hy het vir Kiets gekry. ‘n Kat. Wat doen mens met ‘n kat? Of eerder, wat kan ‘n kat vir jou beteken as jy honger en werkloos is? Maar Kiets laat hom nie onderkry deur Hans se negatiwiteit nie, Hy maak ‘n plan, of drie!

Emperor Loxly’s court is in turmoil, because his designer quit the day before his birthday, and left His Highness without a new show-stopper outfit. That is, however not the only problem. The much bigger issue is Wonty, the unenthusiastic court jester, who stole the emperor’s prized watch, and is planning to take over the kingdom. The emperor’s loyal servant, Wilma, tries to maintain the status quo: keeping Loxly happy and Wonty quiet, but then Wonty is banned, Loxly almost loses his mind, and a stranger makes his appearance. Can the smooth talking, never-heard-of designer called Wontier, save the day?

In the workshop, learners evaluate all the characters in the play, and decide who displayed good leadership skills. They also apply it to their own environment and lives.

A poignant, bunraku-style puppet play for older children and adults based on the life of Sadako Sasaki. At two, Sadako survived the Hiroshima atom bomb but ten years later developed leukemia. A Japanese legend tells: ‘if you fold 1000 origami cranes, your wish will be granted’; Sadako began folding paper.

We leave our children a complicated legacy, growing up in a world where they face the consequences of adults’ actions: war; nuclear power; global warming; HIV. Sadako’s experience transcends culture and period and is able to speak to a contemporary South African or French youth audience. Young people who have shifted from picture books to art galleries; from nursery-rhymes to pop music. They are ready for theatre that can offer them cathartic and transformative experiences; challenge them with profoundly moving and thought provoking ideas. Sadako is real theatre for young people.

A barman, trapped by the codes of the bar that render him invisible; a flamboyantly macho cowboy, with a flair for the Argentine Tango; and a guarded woman, whose sensuous alter ego is released as she nurses her wine as if it were mother’s milk; all hover at the edge of existence, ever short of bridging the gaps between them.  The one minute they’re keeping time to the music, the next they’ve slipped out of the real time of their unfulfilled lives and into the vacuous space of the bar.  They flirt, fight, drink and forget, fuelled by the answers they find at the bottom of the glass.

A new play by Craig Higginson

First commissioned by the National Theatre, London, for the 2012 Connections Festival

Directed by Malcolm Purkey

Production Design Neil Coppen

Little Foot was first commissioned by the National Theatre, London, for the 2012 Connections Festival. Craig Higginson is one of ten writers from around the world participating in this prestigious festival, and Little Foot is to be performed at the National Theatre prior to the 2012 Olympics. The National Theatre has generously agreed to allow the Market Theatre, in association with the Grahamstown Festival, to put together a South African production of their own – a production that will be an extended version of the original play.

This powerful and poetic new South African play is situated on a farm in the Cradle of Humankind, where much of the world’s pre-human remains have been found. It takes the audience down into the vast network of caves where the three-million-year-old hominin Little Foot was discovered. Out of sheer co-incidence, the production will be released at the same time that Little Foot’s remains will finally be freed from the rock. It has taken thirteen years to extract the hominin’s calcified bones, using brushes and dentists’ drills.

In Higginson’s play, we experience the caves through the eyes of a group of young South African university students – who went to school together and are having a reunion on New Year’s Eve, exactly a year since they last saw each other. One of them (Wizard) brings along a new girlfriend from England (Rebecca). He wants her to meet his oldest friends, not suspecting that a terrible trap is being set for him. What starts as a practical joke soon leads to a series of events that appear to have tragic consequences. As the students delve deeper into the caves – and we travel ever deeper into their psyches and their shared histories – a Chorus of ancient hominins steps through the walls of the caves. The play finally dramatises the coming together of our most primal and contemporary identities

Little Foot draws on Greek theatre, Philosophy, Palaeontology and South African mythology to create a powerful portrayal of modern relationships. Not only does the audience come to a deeper understanding of their common ancestry, but the play powerfully illustrates how the best and the worst of us has its roots in the ancient past, and how these two capacities are carried through into our contemporary democracy.

Since we first learned to control fire, light has been used to satisfy our best and our worst impulses as a species. It is what we do with the light handed down to us that we define ourselves. The theatre – which provides a darkened space into which we introduce light for the telling of our stories – is surely the perfect place to explore these themes and concepts.

For this production, writer Craig Higginson and director Malcolm Purkey are collaborating with Standard Bank Young Artist of the Year award-winner Neil Coppen to create a multi-media event that will include a composer, videographer, sound designer, sculptor, editor, choreographer, as well as a lighting, costume and set designer. Huge cloths will be used to create different spaces and textured surfaces, as well as being used for surfaces for video projection and shadow puppetry. The Chorus will be created using masks, sculpture and projection. In both content and form, this promises to be a unique piece of storytelling that will redefine the boundaries of contemporary South African theatre.

Previous collaborations between writer Craig Higginson and director Malcolm Purkey include the internationally acclaimed plays Dream of the Dog and The Girl in the Yellow Dress – both originally produced by the Market Theatre.

Performers

• Dylan Nicol Horley
• Jenna Dunster
• Phumzile Sitole
• Khayelihle Dominique Gumede
• Glen Biderman-Pam
• Mlondolozi Bradley Zondi
• Chorus – Kyla Davis, Jaques de Silva, Sibulele Gcilitshana, Peter Langa, Sello Sebotsane

Every year a stork migrates from the lush Dutch landscape to the deep warm South of Africa. He knows lots of stories. One of which is the true story about Nongqawuse, a 15 year old Xhosa girl that radically changed the history of the Xhosa people. One day Nongqawuse comes back from the river. She tells that the ancestors appeared to her with the prophecy that the dead will arise, the white people and unbelievers will be driven into the sea and the once powerful Xhosa people will be as strong as before. To make this happen they have to kill all their cattle and burn all their grain. This prophecy brings hope to the people. They are tormented by colonial wars and mysterious cattle diseases. But it also brings discord among the Xhosa people, manipulation and betrayal and in the end a terrible famine. Everyone points at Nongqawuse. But was she really the cause of the disaster that ensued? Maybe this mystery can never be unravelled. Everyone has his interpretation of the facts. Will a bird with homes in both hemispheres ever be able to understand?

Red Earth is a co-production with Speeltheater Holland and premiered in Grahamstown 2006 and was later performed in the Netherlands more than 200 times. In 2013 Red Earth will be on tour in South Africa.