My introduction to drama was a very real one. A school festival came around when I was about seven. I went to my friends and mom and said I wanted to do the Story of Red Riding hood from Roald Darl's: Dirty Tales. You know the one, she whipped a pistol from her knickers.
Anyway I gave my application to the headmaster and told him it all about it. My mum made costumes, really good ones. The cast of four rehearsed for hours and hours on the stage in the small town hall.
The schedules came out and we weren't on the program. The headmaster THOUGHT IT WAS A JOKE!!! Needless to say I cried myself dry my mum went ballistic. To this day my first play is the only play I failed to get on stage.
I love my drama and while acting is a great rush I've always been competent but nothing special. Where I find my talents used best is in directing and writing. Now I must admit my quill has gathered dust as you can tell by the dates of these plays. Sadly I have lost most of the brikka brac and souvenirs I collected when moving to the UK.
I warn you while I aspire to be as clear in my language as possible I am someone who throws out words, and art like I do code. Then if I have time I come back and correct the bugs. I like my structure to be stable and well balanced but the spelling and typing errors are endless.
All plays listed took in ticket sales and were performed at one festival or another. Most were from my high school years. I haven't listed plays that did not take tickets (ie in-house productions, drama work ect...)
Special Thanks to my Co-Star Ann-Elize Van Ellewee. Not only for a great performance but exorcising the nightmare from head onto the stage.
My Swansong... the play I've always wanted to make in a way since I was really young. My favorite plays are the likes of John Osborne, and Samuel Beckett. This was my chance to take all my darkest thoughts, dreams and nightmares to form an absurdist look at the self.
The play drew strongly on the characters of Black and White. The hardest thing was to keep the energy on stage. Normally in a one-person show you feed an empty space with yourself. Its tough. The larger the cast (to a point) the easy it gets the energy levels expand exponentially and you feed off each other. In this play it was different.
White was pale, melancholy, and a ghost who sucked in all emotion into her introvert soul. Black on the other hand was filled with so much hate, loathing and sheer spire which poured all over the stage. It was a hard play to do, the hardest. Even more than Burning Letter. Still my greatest creative achievement. By my own personal measure.
I have not been involved in drama since for personal reasons. I will return one day, maybe.
the only ticket taking play I've been in which I wasn't in control of. This play was SOOOO MUCH fun. We are all huge Pratchett fans. I met the majority of my Pretoria friend group thanks to this play. The after-party is still infamous to this day. I played several small roles.
Having bitten my teeth into a few more serious and political works it was time for a challenge. Opening night was 7th February 2002. The topic was the lead in to 911. The immediate choices were: Show both sides, not showing the towers, Greek chorus. Boy oh boy did this one get me in trouble.
So I think if I played this exact script today it would be thought to be American centric and supporting USA. Now I had to make some concessions, simply because of external pressure and pressure from the cast. However it was shutdown after its first night. I got in a lot of trouble for it. All I was trying to do was show that while it was a horrific event the US had killed its fair share and this was not an unprovoked event. At no point did I condone the violence and cruelty featured in the play. That was the main reason for the Greek chorus was to renounce the evil.
A friend who had immigrated to Canada was a victim of date rape, over a period of a year. Eventually she escaped the popular boy in the small town by revealing her shame through a photo album of injuries. She was sixteen.
I had to age the characters, taking some edge off but not much. The story of the burnt letter was a harsh one to tell. Special permission was needed for the flames involved (most stages wont even allow a Zippo Lighter without clearance). I only trusted myself with it even though my friends were better actresses. This one women show ended with me lighting a cigarette off the burning letter, the stage fades to black. Leaving one women on stage lit by the flame of her letter, then only her cigarette as she walks off.
Half my family was in Zimbabwe and this strongly pulled me. Thankfully I was given another chance, mostly due to the apathy of the seniors but partly out of respect. I knew most the house's acting talent was best used in mel-o-drama and large comedy. So despite the heavy political nature I was forced down a certain path. So we had all powers from terminator, mission impossible through to care bears attempting to stop the monster Mugabe. The structure was better, and a strange thing was happening the younger years had a lot of talent. The house focus was moving more and more towards the arts.
After the heady success of last year I was an automatic choice despite being a second year student. Sadly being a second year student in a house with very little drama skill, motivation for the arts and this time lacking the backing of my H-bomb of a house head it was a disaster. What was meant to be a structured comedy about time travel and evolution turned into a music hall farce of the lowest level. I managed to get it on stage and eek out a performance which was held together with duck tape.
The drunks, fools and idiots laughed but not much. Everyone else just sighed. My biggest failure.
Due to a crazy set of conditions I was in a house which lacked any significant acting talent and no motivation to act. So after years of back closet plays since the Red Riding Hood debacle being too frightened to do anything else this situation arose.
They need a playwright for the inter-house play festival. Anyone would do. Our house leader was an H-bomb waiting to explode. So I presented my idea being a first year student, and having already spent 5 years in boarding schools. They loved it and I got to be writer and director. Using my house leaders booming authority we went about create a set of loose double sided sketches splitting the stage into order and chaos.
The school flag (red and white) as a backdrop, clean lines on the left becoming bloody mess on the right. The sketches were primarily comedy but the narrator held them together and helped package the message. Considering the cast and limited time this play was a HUGE success. Coming second in the festival for best show. More importantly it was my comeback and first play all in one.