| The Masque’s One-Act Play Festival.2024 Where: 37 Main Rd, Muizenberg, Cape Town, 7950, South Africa When: March 14-16, 2024 – scroll down for programme Tickets: From R120 at Quicket or the Masque Box Office – open 9qm to 2pm on Wednesdays Bookings link: https://qkt.io/1ACTFest Discounted block bookings -more than 10 tickets: e-mail manager@themasque.co.za Box office: The Masque Box Office is open from 9am to 2pm every Wednesday Wheelchair access: Yes Secure parking: Yes |
Bringing new plays to the stage is not easy. It is one thing to write a play but to get it stage ready, cast and produce- that is another story. It is incredible to see the Masque step up on to the boards with its One-Act Play Festival which features four new South African plays by Dawn Garisch, Robin Hoole, Lauren Bates and Alex Silberbauer. Yes, four NEW South African plays. Amazing. The festival is on March 14-16, 2024. Bravo to the Masque, the playwrights, actors and creatives involved. Read on for more:
Festival of new South African plays promotes and celebrates local writers at The Masque, March 2024
An incredible four new South African productions will be presented as part of The Masque’s exciting 2024 One-Act Play Festival.
The Festival takes place from March 14 to 16 at The Masque, staging new plays from four rising and established local playwrights. It’s a chance for audiences to experience the premiere of fresh stories from talented local writers, while giving the authors an affordable platform to present their work.
The programme features Inheritance by Dawn Garisch; Let’s Get Meta by Robin Hoole; Tommy and Dominick by Lauren Bates and Wrong Faces by Alex Silberbauer.
“A number of these texts were developed through The Masque’s staged reading process following a call that was put out last year for new scripts,” says Festival Director Melanie O’Connor Horn. “These readings were followed by amazingly supportive and productive discussions of the work. Mounting a new production can be a daunting and expensive process, so we are delighted that The Masque has created this Festival, enabling our playwrights to have the space to evolve their text and bring the story alive from page to stage.”
“Being able to engage with and enjoy new work hot-off-the-press always feels like a VIP experience,” says Faeron Wheeler, Head of Programming at The Masque. “South Africa has many original stories to share, so we are proud to be able to produce these four new texts. It’s also wonderful that we have established names among our line-up, as well as names that will become the established names of tomorrow – and you saw them first at The Masque!”
An argument with the departed. A punishing will. At what price would one pursue or relinquish success? In Inheritance by Dawn Garisch, a performance artist daughter and her disapproving mother tell each other what they really feel and think, after it’s too late. Or is it?
Let’s get Meta by Robin Hoole sees three social media workers, on the front lines battling online misinformation, struggling to keep up as the world spirals out of control. Can free speech be too free? What bigotry is allowed? And what happens when bad actors put the keyboard down and put actions into the real world?
Tommy and Dominick by Lauren Bates could be described as a light-hearted version of Romeo and Juliet. Set in two proud, competing restaurants, it celebrates the power of friendship. It’s a fable that speaks to many situations where hatred has caused division. Lovers of Shakespeare will smile at the snippets of his text woven into this contemporary script.
Alex Silberbauer takes on both writing and performing in her production, Wrong Faces – also starring Jason Bailey. It tells the story of a young man and woman who are stuck with each other in a house party bathroom under mysterious circumstances. It explores themes of vulnerability, intimacy, platonic love and the kindness of strangers.
FESTIVAL SCHEDULE:
Thursday March 14 at 7:30pm – Inheritance and Let’s Get Meta
Friday March 15 at 7:30pm – Tommy and Dominick and Wrong Faces
Saturday March 16 at 2:30pm – Tommy and Dominick and Wrong Faces
Saturday March 16 at 7:30pm – Inheritance and Let’s Get Meta
Tickets cost from R120. Bookings can be made at Quicket – https://qkt.io/1ACTFest
For discounted block bookings of more than 10 tickets – please contact manager@themasque.co.za
The Masque Box Office is open from 9am to 2pm every Wednesday.
Cash bar and simple snacks are available for sale at the Theatre.
The Masque is situated at 37 Main Rd, Muizenberg, Cape Town, 7950, South Africa.
Parking is available at the venue. Wheelchair Access and Facilities available.
The Masque has a back-up generator so the show will go on, even when there is load shedding!
*Join the Masque community! Become a member and have your say in the theatre. You can also sign up as a volunteer to participate on stage or behind the scenes, from stage management to archiving the wardrobe department! http://bit.ly/MasqueVolunteer
Robin Hoole
Robin Hoole is a new, fresh, Cape Town based writer and director. He graduated from UCT and now is a drama teacher for young kids. Robin was inspired to write Let’s Get Meta after witnessing his father stumble into the right-wing, hate-mongering side of the internet which ruined their relationship. Robin is fascinated with the intersection between politics, technology and humanity. Even though Let’s Get Meta is Robin’s first work, he hopes to continue to write strange, off-beat plays that expose the simple horror of humans being human.
Dawn Garisch
Dawn Garisch is an award-winning author, medical doctor, creative facilitator and founding member of the NPO the Life Righting Collective https://www.liferighting.com/. She has had seven novels, two collections of poetry, a non-fiction work and a memoir published. She has also written for the stage and film. Her poem Blood Delta won the DALRO prize (2007), and Miracle won the EU Sol Plaatjie Poetry Award (2011). Her novel Breaking Milk was short-listed for the CNA Sunday Times award in 2021, and will be published in the UK this year. A collection
of short stories What Remains was published by Karavan Press in 2023.
Lauren Bates
Lauren Bates has been writing plays since high school. Her one act play, Wax Poetic, won the audience choice award at The Masque Theatre One-Act Play Festival in 2002, when she was only seventeen. Over 20 years later, with a few degrees under her belt, including a Masters in Shakespeare and Creativity from the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-Upon-Avon, she is back at the Masque with a new play. Lauren currently teaches drama at Oakley House High School in Diep River and runs an Educational Theatre Company called Educasions, which takes plays into schools.
Alex Silberbauer
Alex Silberbauer is a French South African playwright and actress who graduated with her degree in acting at City Varsity, where she studied theatre and camera acting, as well as writing and text analysis. She wrote and starred in her first play, “Fleeting Depictions in Black and White”, at 18, where her love for playwriting began. She enjoys exploring themes of anxiety, vulnerability and intimacy through her dialogue, subverting character stereotypes, and using humour to play with audiences’ senses of security. She loves the continuous learning process of theatre and the excitement and fear of putting new performances into the world.
Melanie O’Connor Horn – Festival Director
Melanie Horn fell in love with theatre in primary school. She took to The Masque stage while at high school and has been intermittently involved in amateur theatre ever since, as both director and actor. She completed a BA in English and Drama and went on to help many students find their voices, both on the page and the stage.
| The Masque More than 60 years old, The Masque is an iconic venue in the Cape Town cultural landscape. A unique and historic space, it has been home to many amateur theatre societies over the years and was established by local attorney Bertie Stern with the objective of encouraging voluntary participation in all forms of theatre by all people. Stern had a vision to provide a platform for both amateur and professional performers regardless of their social or political situation at that time. When The Masque opened, it was one of the only theatres in Cape Town that was open to people of all ethnic backgrounds. A registered Non-Profit Organisation, The Masque strives to make theatre accessible to all – onstage, backstage and for the audience. Run by volunteers with a focus on community, the theatre showcases all genres of performance and is as widely inclusive as possible. The Masque is wheelchair friendly, has a fully licensed bar and snacks are available before shows and during intervals. In 1993 Bertie bequeathed The Masque into trust for the benefit and growth of community theatre. The theatre was totally destroyed by fire in 1997 and it took two years to rebuild (thanks largely to the generosity of the late Joan St Leger-Lindbergh). The Theatre is still owned by the Stern Masque Theatre Trust and is managed by a board of volunteers. At the helm of the operation is a team with professional theatre experience. Continuing its work into the post-Covid-19 era, The Masque seeks to present high-quality amateur theatre productions, providing a service of artistic engagement with the local community, celebrating diversity and building on the Theatre’s reputation as a sought-after professional venue-for-hire. Join the conversation on social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/masquetheatresa Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/masquetheatresa/ Website: www.themasque.co.za |
✳ Featured image: The team in rehearsal for Tommy and Dominick, which will be presented at the One-Act Play Festival at the Masque Theatre, Muizenberg. The festival is on March 14-16, 2024. Supplied, Sponsored content.
