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Nkosi also holds the position of Director and Scriptwriter at Hidden Cliff – her own production company, which took her first production of Ninah to several stages including the South African State Theatre and the National Arts Festical in Makhanda, Eastern Cape. This project was done in collaboration with the South African Theatre Village. Nkosi elaborates on what inspired her to create Ninah:
“In drama school, we were taught pages and pages of Western drama… and we would find that there would only be a page on African theatre [in a book of 500 pages], and this often made me question why this was so.
In my third and fourth years… I directed Absurd plays… so I believed that what I knew about Absurd Theatre, I needed to learn just as much and more about African Theatre… Ninah was born in a time when women were walking targets… it felt unsafe to be a black woman. Ninah was inspired by the interviews of the Chibok girls, particularly those who had returned.”
Nkosi believes in the power of making relevant and timeless work that has the possibility of giving a message of urgency to African peoples. Ninah suggests that it is time for African people and women in particular to regroup. “We are in a state of emergency,” exhales Nkosi, “where women are being killed, harmed”.
Ninah makes a clarion call for women in particular and black people in general to stand together and fight back against those who have taken from us for so long.
The play is set in a cave and looks to rely on African storytelling narrative techniques, with elements of physical theatre.
Through collaboration that relies on a scripted narrative, Nkosi and her collaborators, Mpho Ngoepe (24) and Mimi Mamabolo (28) engage the work as if putting together a puzzle.
Ninah calls for four things:
First, for a woman to know that she possesses gold within her and realize that she is a goddess.
Second, for the children of Africa to stop fighting between themselves and unite as children of the same mother protecting the gems, naturally located in their homes.
Third, for society to realize that the cruelty against women could lead to the end of our generation.
Fourth, for African people to become aware of the urgency needed for us to reclaim our identities.
A Letter To My 23 Year Old Self
South African Development Community (SADC): Evolving Theatre in SA
Katlego Chale is a 27 year old South African writer, actor, lecturer and social entrepreneur, who holds MTech (Cum Laude), BTech (Cum Laude) and National Diploma qualifications in Drama. He works as a lecturer at the University of Pretoria, teaching Playwriting and at the Tshwane University of Technology, teaching several subjects including Scriptwriting, Speech Sounds (Accent Acquisition), Physical Theatre and Unarmed Stage Combat. Katlego is also a graduate of the NYDA Entrepreneurship Development Programme and the SADC Theatre Camp hosted in Zimbabwe by Savanna Trust. As a writer Katlego has several titles including “Ubulution”, which was directed by Prof. Janine Lewis (2016), “The Torture” which was conceptualized and performed by Kenneth Mlambo (2015-2016), “Roots in the Sky” with Calvin Ratladi for the National Arts Festival (2014), “Born Free Odyssey” with Gavin Matthys and the cast (2014) and “Apple Soup” in collaboration with the director Kenneth Mlambo which was performed at the National Arts Student Festival and then the following year at the National Arts Fringe Festival (2013 – 2014). Katlego is also the founding member of The Writers Lab (2018), an NPO which focuses on developing the skills of aspirant writers, theatre makers and creatives in general. He also runs a WordPress page called KatlegoChaleWrites with content varying from orignal micropoems to elaborate reviews of theatre productions by young, black South African theatre makers. The journey is still young for Katlego, as his ambition unlocks itself to the boundless possibilities for social entrepreneurship within the arts sector.
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