Magnet Theatre: Three Decades of Making Space
Keywords:
Community Theatre, Magnet Theatre, Performance aesthetics, Cape Town, Khayelitsha, Township theatre, Theatre education, Theatre company, South Africa, socio-political turmoilSynopsis
Cape Town’s Magnet Theatre has been a force in South African theatre for three decades, a crucial space for theatre, education, performance and community throughout a turbulent period in South African history. Offering a dialogue between internal and external perspectives, as well as perspectives from performers, artists and scholars, this book analyses Magnet’s many productions and presents a rich compendium of the work of one of the most vital physical theatre companies in Africa.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1 - Plotting the Magnetic Field: Origins and Trajectories
Megan Lewis and Anton Krueger
Chapter 2 - Making Space for Ideas: The Knowledge Work of Magnet Theatre
Mark Fleishman
Chapter 3 - An Activist Company Inventing a Future:
A Conversation with Neo Muyanga
Chapter 4 - ‘Being There’: The Evolution of Performance Aesthetics from Medea (1994–96) to The Magnet Theatre ‘Migration’ Plays (2012)
Miki Flockemann
Chapter 5 - The Full Gamut of an Ideal Company:
A Conversation with Jay Pather
Chapter 6 - The Implacable Grandeur of the Stranger: Ruminations on Fear and Familiarity in Die Vreemdeling [The Stranger] (2010)
Anton Krueger
Chapter 7 - Theatre That Can Organize, Mobilize, Conscientize:
A Conversation with Mandla Mbothwe
Chapter 8 - Performing the Language of the Body in My Mother Tongue:
A Conversation with Faniswa Yisa
Chapter 9 - Magnet Theatre and the Moving Body
Jennie Reznek
Chapter 10 - Ideas Dying to be Born:
A Conversation with Craig Leo
Chapter 11 - The Creative Flow of Arresting, Exquisite Fabric:
A Conversation with Illka Louw
Chapter 12 - Embodied Practice that Troubles Fixed Narratives of Identity, History and Memory
Yvette Hutchison
Magnet’s Recipe for Considered, Chapter 13 - Conscious Theatre-Making:
A Conversation with Frances Marek
Chapter 14 - The Performance Labours of Magnet and Jazzart’s Cargo (2007)
Megan Lewis
Chapter 15 - Making Space for Community: Magnet Theatre ‘Intervenes’ in Khayelitsha
Gay Morris
Chapter 16 - Vividly Feeling the Extremes of Being in the World:
A Conversation with Margie Pankhurst
Chapter 17 - By Telling Stories We Can Learn Something from Life:
A Conversation with Thando Doni
Chapter 19 - Catalysing a Community: Magnet’s Clanwilliam Community Intervention Project
Lavona de Bruyn
Chapter 19 - Bursting the Bubble of Play: Making Space for Intercultural Dialogue
Elliot Leffler
Chapter 20 - Keeping Theatre Alive in the Community:
A Conversation with Zwelakhe Khuse
Chapter 21 - Magnet Never Forgets its People:
A Conversation with Nolovuyo Sam
