{"id":35,"date":"2017-11-18T21:48:41","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T21:48:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imaginedtheatres.dustysheldon.com\/?post_type=issue&p=35"},"modified":"2017-11-25T19:22:10","modified_gmt":"2017-11-25T19:22:10","slug":"south-africa","status":"publish","type":"issue","link":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

The central fiat of Daniel Sack\u2019s Imagined Theatres: Writing for a Theoretical Stage <\/em>is to offer up \u201cthought experiments\u201d about the potential and (im)possibility of theatre. Driven by a concern \u201cwith what the language of theatre might afford our thinking,\u201d Sack gathers a collection of \u201chypothetical events and worlds that might test the limits of the stage.\u201d Imagined theatres, he writes, \u201cshow us what should<\/em> be possible today, what thinkers like Jill Dolan and Jos\u00e9 Mu\u00f1oz have framed as the utopic aspect of performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what might such hypothetical worlds look like in the South African context?<\/p>\n

South Africa is in its twenty-third year as a democracy and there is much to celebrate: a significant black middle class; leadership positions for women; same-sex marriage protection; and robust, thriving creative industries that generate world-class, collaborative, physically-energized, provocative art, theatre, music, and dance. A utopian vision, perhaps, but these are material, symbolic, and psychic accomplishments worth honoring.<\/p>\n

Yet it is also safe it say that the dystopian cracks between the many colors of Mandela\u2019s Rainbow Nation are showing. The gap between rich and poor is ever-widening; the economy is in crisis; the educational system is in need of radical decolonization; and, despite the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, many South Africans are still victims of rampant racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and violence. Political cronyism and corruption are rife and huge swathes of the population have not yet seen the changes promised to them two decades after the transition out of apartheid and into democracy.<\/p>\n

Passionate debates are raging over who controls, funds, and produces theatre and art in South Africa; whether spaces are open, have opened, or will open to all who wish to present their work for the country\u2019s publics; and who is sanctioned to tell stories and in what idioms. There are tensions and divisions between mainstream, established sites for theatre and community spaces whose practices and audiences are starkly different. Two decades into democracy, the ubiquity of whiteness lingers and black and brown artists are ceaselessly demanding systemic change.<\/p>\n

Against this complex sociopolitical landscape, Imagined Theatres: South Africa\u00a0<\/em>asks what artists, thinkers, and theatremakers imagine their nation, their \u201cimagined community,\u201d to be. The diverse community of South Africanists I have gathered here offer up all manner of responses to the challenge of imagining theatres for a South African future.<\/p>\n

They wrestle with legacies of fathers and sons; the past, present, and future; and galactic and uterine time. They place black women at the center of the discourse, not at its margins. And they imagine futures populated with afronauts, Namaqua chameleons, and inter-racial, brownish offspring. They conjure up a kraal of dreams; a theatre that speaks all of South Africa\u2019s eleven official languages; and is lit with multicolored flames of crimson, ochre, indigo, African violet, bitter lemon, and aloe-green. Some offer cautionary tales of flying too close to the sun, reflecting on the racialized power dynamics of the past. Others try, failingly, to measure up to the freedom fighters we seek to emulate. Another calls for the opening up of spaces of palliative, cathartic inclusion. There are invocations and evocations of festival vibes, unbreakable circles, cross-community theatres, and extreme theatres of radical otherness.<\/p>\n

The voices and visions in this collection represent some of South Africa\u2019s most celebrated artists, seasoned veterans and newcomers alike. They are women, queerfolk, men, white, black, and brown South Africans. They are based in-country from Gugulethu to Grahamstown, Johannesburg to Kings Williams Town, and abroad, from the UK to the US. They study theatre and performance, and perform and make theatre. They use multiple modalities of expression: spoken word, physical theatre, applied dramaturgy, choreography, playwriting and filmmaking. Their contributions reveal the rich tapestry of South African creative culture.<\/p>\n

While each imagining reveals individual aspirations, perspectives and dreams, they share a desire to shift South African culture towards greater inclusion and affirmation of all of the country\u2019s citizens, not only those in historic positions of privilege. There is an urgent call for economic changes required for the transformation of South African culture specifically, demands for spaces in which to create artistic work and the material support to make that work possible. And there is a collective sense that the politics of South Africa are central drivers of its poetics.<\/p>\n

I am honored to curate this first digital iteration of Imagined Theatres<\/em>. Following the format of Sack\u2019s book, I have retained the structure of pairing an imagined theatre with a gloss. Some of the glosses were commissioned in response to a specific imagined theatre, while others were paired after having been written independently. I grappled with how to pair the pieces so that tensions and resonances emerged to stimulate insights and reflections. There were\u2014and still are\u2014a multiplicity of pairings that these provocative imaginings might render possible. At a certain point, I had to simply choose one and stick with it, knowing that the audience would be able to draw out many more connections and intersections between the pieces than a simple coupling of \u201cimagined theatre\u201d and its \u201cgloss\u201d made visible.<\/p>\n

I imagine this collection as a web, a spinnerak<\/em> (Afrikaans), ulwembu<\/em> (Zulu), or sekholo<\/em> (Sesotho).<\/p>\n

I offer it to you for your contemplation and unpicking. May its threads yield insights into what, and how, and why, and for\/by\/with whom we might imagine<\/em> South Africa\u2026<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dr. Megan Lewis<\/strong><\/p>\n

Guest Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

University of Massachusetts Amherst<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Africa is in its twenty-third year as a democracy and while there is much to celebrate, the dystopian cracks between the many colors of Mandela\u2019s Rainbow Nation are showing. Against this complex sociopolitical landscape, this issue asks what artists, thinkers, and theatremakers imagine their nation–their \u201cimagined community\u201d–to be. \r\n\r\nTexts from South African artists and theorists, edited by Megan Lewis.","protected":false},"template":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/issues\/35"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/issues"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.imaginedtheatres.com\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}