| Emerging Theatre Directors Bursary 2023 – presented by Theatre Arts in Cape Town Winners: Amee Lekas and Andi Colombo Runner-up: Sohail Booise Where: Theatre Arts, Methodist Church Hall, corner Milton Road and Wesley Street, Observatory, Cape Town, 7925 Info: caroline@theatrearts.co.za or call 082 752 1376 Website: https://theatrearts.co.za/ For TA social media links, scroll down |
Exciting news is the announcement by Theatre Arts in Cape Town, of two winners for its Emerging Theatre Directors Bursary, for 2023 and its inaugural runner-up award. The winners are Amee Lekas and Andi Colombo. The runner-up is Sohail Booise. We must mention that Carlo Daniels, one of the 2022 winners of the bursary, went on to receive the Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for Best New Director [shows in 2022]. This is testament to the excellence of the work which is being presented on the Emerging Theatre Directors Bursary platform. TA recently went onto TikTok, so check out that page and its other social media pages. Follow the pages for news about shows, opportunities and other events at this vital independent theatre space in Cape Town. Read on for more about the 2023 awards for Emerging Theatre Directors Bursary. Info as supplied:
It is with huge delight, and with great gratitude to the National Arts Council, PESP, Woordfees and KKNK that this year Theatre Arts is able to not only announce two winners of the Emerging Theatre Directors Bursary for 2023, but also, for the first time, an opportunity for a runner-up.
This year, after a tough selection process, we are thrilled to announce that the winners are Amee Lekas and Andi Colombo. Amee will be taking up the bursary in late 2023, directing a production of Reza de Wet’s Diepe Grond. Andi will be directing a new work in early 2024. The winners were selected not only for their passion and perseverance within the industry, but because both are coming into directing from a history of working in theatre as writers, and in Andi’s case as a stage manager and lighting designer.
The runner up of the bursary is Sohail Booise, who was nominated for a Fleur du Cap Theatre Award for Best New Director for his production Hostel Lights which was one of the Zabalaza Festival’s winners. Whilst Amee and Andi are both offered the opportunity to bring a production of their own choice into being, Sohail, through the support of WoordFees and KKNK is offered the opportunity of participating in an established director’s rehearsal process.
About Amee Lekas and Andi Colombo.
Amee Lekas, is currently a Dramatic Arts teacher at Good Hope Seminary High School. She completed her BA Drama and PGCE at the University of Stellenbosch and is the only two time winner of Teksmark, a market place for new texts initiated by KKNK. Her award winning text Die Dans Van Die Watermeid was produced by the Baxter Theatre and directed by Jason Jacobs, a 2016 winner of the TA Emerging Theatre Directors Bursary.
Andi Colombo graduated in 2017 with an honours degree in Theatre Making from UCT. She is a writer, performer, theatre-maker, production- and stage-manager and lighting designer. Most recently she has been seen in i want to write you a submarine which she wrote, directed and performed in last year, and Double Star which she wrote and directed. In 2021, she wrote and co-directed the short film version of Verloren (Silver Standard Bank Ovation Award winner at the National Arts Festival), as well as co-creating the short film forgot/only, which was showcased at National Arts Festival, (un)Infecting the City and on DSTV as part of Woordfees.tv. Her latest work, i want to write you a submarine is showing at Woordfees 2023 on the main festival.
Amee and Andi join a legion of other notable winners including Amy Jephta, Nicola Elliott, Thando Doni and Mahlatsi Mokgonyana who all went on to win Standard Bank Young Artists awards for Theatre and Dance in 2020, 2014, 2021 and 2022 respectively, alongside other multiple awards; Kim Kerfoot and Carlo Daniels who both won the Fleur du Cap Best Young Director ten years apart – Kim for Statements After an Arrest Under the Immorality Act in 2013 and Carlo for No Complaints, New Dawn, New Day in 2023, Khayelihle Dom Gumede who won the Naledi Award for Best Director in 2016 for Crepuscule, and Jason Jacobs, a 2016 winner, who was named the Featured Young Artist for KKNK for 2017.
| About the Theatre Arts Built on the tenets of affordability, inclusivity and accessibility, Theatre Arts is a vibrant home for local theatre practitioners – a place where they can create work, develop skills, perform, engage in dialogue and meet and work with theatre practitioners who come from diverse backgrounds, whether cultural, social, and economic or simply in skill and experience. Described as the rehearsal space of choice, Theatre Arts is dedicated to creating the right environment for artists and theatre to flourish. In an industry which is culturally divided, dominated by a few voices and vastly under-supported financially, both through patronage and funding, Theatre Arts strives to support, enable and provide opportunity for artists to continue developing skills, creating work and generating income. Open to fresh ideas and up for experimentation based on current trends in economic thinking, Theatre Arts is an organic model and successful training ground for re-conceptualising what a theatre institution, in South Africa, can be and how it can sustain itself. Theatre Arts on social media Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheatreArtsObs/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theatrearts.obs/ Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/theatreartsct Telegram Channel: https://t.me/theatreartsupcomingshows TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@theatrearts.obs Website: https://theatrearts.co.za/ Info: caroline@theatrearts.co.za or call 082 752 1376 |
✳ Sponsored content. Images supplied. Featured image: Amee Lekas- one of the winners of the 2023 Theatre Arts Emerging Theatre Directors Bursary.
