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Mncedisi Baldwin Shabangu

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The future is here and we don't even notice

Mncedisi Baldwin Shabangu* speaks from his berth at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg

I am writing this monologue within a dialogue as young black actor/director living in post-apartheid South Africa.

Since my first involvement in mainstream theatre in 1996, many young black aspiring theatre practitioners have been sidelined because they were perceived as amateurs or exponents of community theatre. For me the question was: Are we as black people destined to remain only amateurs or practitioners of community theatre in a world where many white artists were being promoted from being mere actors to directors? The theatres are creating these platforms based on colour. Is this what we call the way forward in theatre development?

But anyway, I also drew a line between what is true and what is not. Then I began to judge the whole brouhaha based on what I see as true and meaningful theatre and its future, using my two naked eyes as binoculars and magnifying glasses.

I don't want to believe that the state of theatre has improved since 1994. There are, of course, various reasons for this, ranging from poor management to lack of substance and quality and the reasons for doing theatre. If we were capable, as artists, of bringing apartheid to its knees, where is the credit and the funding? We need funds to further our visions and nurture the new generation, but because we all have to fight for the little bit there is, many of us have actually not bothered even to ask for those funds. In a way, this has created atrocities between government, as supporter of the arts, and artists.

We are also victims of fund squandering. Often we can't even report properly after being funded, because we are so corrupt. We falsify all the expenditure in order to enrich our own pockets.

Then lastly, because we don't know the real reasons why we're doing theatre, we end up creating works that shame our creativity and have no substance and quality. They're just bad acting and directing.

I must say that although many still believe the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown is owned by whites and that the audiences are white, I don't fully agree with this. I, and many others who will share the same sentiments, might say: the festival might be white but at least they gave me an opportunity and I used it to prove that I am capable of much more than merely representing their ideas, of fronting black faces. I have been to the festival twice now as a director of successful productions and I have proven that my Standard Bank Young Artist Award for 2004 was no fluke but a reward for my hard work. I earned it. But I must also point out clearly that the programme needs to be balanced a lot more. It will take time, but at least an effort has been made.

But then comes the issue of the Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees. It's a simple story, theirs: an Afrikaner festival for the benefit of the Afrikaner. If Afrikaners are of national importance and interest then theirs might be a national festival, but if they're not, it's another story. I went to the Klein Karoo Festival this year with an English-language play Tshepang, and the people didn't come in numbers. So why would I be interested in their festival if it has nothing to do with me? Unfortunately enough I won the Best Actor Award and made my speech in Siswati and they were offended because they didn't understand what I said. Funnily enough, I wasn't offended for not understanding Afrikaans.

One also believes that journalists should, in a way, be of great assistance when it comes to these matters, but they too suffer from similar conditions, having to stomach their editors who are also mainly white.

But those who can access facilities haven't actually played a role to such effect. For instance, the coverage jazz gets is beyond endurance and theatre doesn't get much either. Now and again you read about the new heart-throb young person who has just released a hip-hop album, or the mother of all bashes in some venue where top DJs will be spinning at the expense of the opening of a play in a theatre somewhere. It's worse now with the gossip columns - journalists are party animals, not storytellers. They need a workshop to revive the true culture of journalism.

As I said before, this represents my own personal views, not those of the public in general. Community theatre mustn't be used as a shield to chase black people away from the mainstream. If we look at community theatre, who was it designed for? Blacks, of course, and if that's the future, where does the future of white theatre lie? We need to be cautious of such statements. The truth is: black people have arrived and have opportunities. Let us use them to shape the future and stop complaining about things we never had. Right now I am serving as the Associate Artistic Director at the Market Theatre and I'm not apologetic - I serve with pride. As a nation we're at a point where we need to stop debating the future, because the future is right here with us and we don't even notice it.







*Mncedisi Baldwin Shabangu is an actor and director. His theatre credits include Gomorrah, Hamlet, Ways of Dying, Call us Crazy, Orpheus, Best Wedding Ever and Tshepang. He has directed Vuka Machel, Wangesheya-Wangesheya, The Barbershop, Queen, Late, Mooi Street Moves, Tapsula and Cold Stone Jug, to mention only a few. He received the Fleur du Cap Award and the Kanna Prize for Best Actor at the KKNK 2004 for Tshepang, as well as the FNB Vita for Best Supporting Actor in Call us Crazy. He was the recipient of the Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Drama at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival in 2004.



LitNet: 14 September

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