Are artists seismographs during processes of transformation? Is theatre a mirror of society? And how does it influence society offstage? To address these questions, this collection brings together analyses of cultural policy in post-apartheid South Africa and actors of the performing arts discussing political theatre and cultural activism. Case studies grant inside views of the State Theatre in Pretoria, the Market Theatre in Johannesburg and the Baxter Theatre in Cape Town, followed by a documentation of panel discussions on the Soweto Theatre. The texts collected here bring to the surface new faces and voices who advance the performing arts with their images and lexicons revolving around topics such as patriarchy, femicide and xenophobia.

Autorentext

Wolfgang Schneider (Prof. Dr.) is chairman of the Fonds Darstellende Künste e.V., personal member of the German UNESCO Commission, tutor of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, member of the federal board of the Cultural Forum of Social Democracy as well as of the board of Initiative für die Archive des Freien Theaters e.V., honorary member of ASSITEJ Germany and Switzerland, and honorary president of Internationale Vereinigung des Theaters für Kinder und Jugendliche. He was the founding director of the Department for Cultural Policy at the University of Hildesheim and holder of the UNESCO chair »Cultural Policy for the Arts in Development«. He was the first director of Kinder- und Jugendtheaterzentrum in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, chairman of the theater advisory board of Lower Saxony, member of the dance and theater advisory board of the Goethe-Institut, and rapporteur as an expert member of the Enquete commission »Culture in Germany« of the German Bundestag. In 2018 he was awarded the First Class Federal Cross of Merit.
Lebogang L. Nawa is a former post-doctoral researcher at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and now Director of privately self-owned Segarona Culture Institute, South Africa.