Theatre and Apartheid Flashcards

Flashcards about South African Theatre, Apartheid laws, and key figures like Athol Fugard and the Serpent Players.

Workshop Theatre

A collaborative process involving research, improvisation, scripting, music creation, rehearsal, and performance, often based on the own stories to tell.

Serpent Players

A New Brighton drama group, including John Kani and Winston Ntshona, known for creating plays based on personal experiences.

Athol Fugard

A humanist playwright who addresses social and political problems, drawing on the experiences of black African actors.

Black Theatre

Theatre by and for Africans, which strongly emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, often addressing oppressive laws.

Apartheid Laws

Oppressive and degrading laws in South Africa that affected black and sometimes white people.

Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949

Law that prohibited marriage between persons of different races.

Population Registration Act of 1950

Law that formalized racial classification and introduced identity cards specifying racial groups.

Suppression of Communism Act of 1950

Law that banned the South African Communist Party and any other political party labeled as 'communist'.

Group Areas Act

Law passed in 1950 that partitioned the country into different areas allocated to different racial groups, forming the basis for political and social separation.

Bantu Education Act of 1953

Law that crafted a separate system of education for African students.

Black Homeland Citizenship Act of 1970

Law that changed the status of black South Africans, making them citizens of autonomous territories instead of South Africa.

The Island

A play created by Fugard, Kani, and Ntshona, based on stories from prisoners, using a minimalist staging to emphasize universality and isolation.

The Market Theatre

A world-famous theatre in Johannesburg known for its role in South African theatre.

Acting Style of The Island

Very physical, spontaneous use of mime, grotesque, elements of Poor theatre, actor-centered to enhance meaning.

Grotowski's Poor Theatre

Theatre stripped of inessentials, relying completely on the brain and body of the actor, with minimal props and focus on physical and vocal qualities.

Existentialism

The question of quality of existence, not reason for existence. Each individual is responsible for making himself what he is, since his being defined by his choices and actions, and that unless a man acts only after choosing consciously and freely he cannot truly be said to exist.

John Kani

Won Tony Award for performance in Sizwe Banzi is Dead. Worked with Athol Fugard and Winston Ntshona focusing on a passion for the truth.