Itumeleng Wa-Lehure

(Itumeleng Wa-Lehure (1963-)  Actor, playwright, director and manager.

Biography
Born in Cape Town, 19 February 1963. His passion for drama started when he attended shows at the Space Theatre in Cape Town.

Training
Studied at Lehlohonolo Bantu Community School, Retlamile Middle School (Pampierstad), Fezeka High School and Community Arts Project (Community Theatre Diploma, Performers Diploma).

Career
His career began in 1980 as a poet and musician, before he joined the Gibson Kente Productions. In 1983 worked for the Congress of South African Students (COSAS) as National Organizer and Cultural Officer. In 1988 worked at the Market Theatre as freelance actor, and as a part-time teacher at both the Alexander Arts Centre and the Fuba Academy. In 1989 he moved back to Cape Town to work for SACHED as a Researcher on Oral History. Also appointed Assistant Theatre Coordinator to Mike van Graan at Community Arts Project and part-time Theatre Coordinator at the New World Foundation. In 1990 joined PACT in Pretoria and in 1991 became the Outreach Facilitator for the Market Theatre Laboratory and a freelance performer. In 1993 he became an Associate Director at the Baxter Theatre Centre and in 1994 he founded the Buwa Theatre Company and became its Artistic Director. In 1995 became the Director of the annual Ikhwezi Theatre Festival at the Baxter Theatre. From 2000 onwards*? he lectured at CAP and the UCT Drama School.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
His many productions as performer include Amabali - it’s a story time (Janice Honeyman, 1988), Carnival of the Bear (Mark Fleishman, 1988), Thina Bantu - We People (Mavis Taylor, 1988), Jacques and his Master (Ilse van Hemert, 1990), The Princess of Kurumbu (Peter Terry and Alan Swerdlow, 1990), Die Sakeman van Venesië (Ilse van Hemert, 1990), and an Industrial Theatre Production for Volkswagen with Lionel Newton and David Isaacs, (Lara Foot Newton, 2006).

As a director he has done among many productions including ** Entwined Lives by Phillip Kakaza (Grahamstown Festival and the Baxter Theatre Centre, 1993), * Beneath Silent Waters by Ntombesizwe Tena (assisted by Lionel Newton, Ikhwezi Theatre Festival and Grahamstown Festival, 2007), Girl Child from the Ghetto (Baxter Theatre 2007), Nosel’ Eyibethile Akakayoji (Artscape, 2007), Chorimba (Artscape, 2007), Amaza (Artscape, 2009).

He wrote The Coal Train to Wynberg (198*), You Strike a Woman, You Strike a Rock (198*??) and co-wrote including Thina Bantu - We People (with Mavis Taylor and Mark Fleishman, 1987), In Conversation, Indaba, In Gesprek (with Esther van Ryswyk and Libby Daniels) He wrote and directed Lavender Hill Blues (Baxter Theatre and the New World Foundation, 1989), Roxy (Baxter Theatre, 1993),  The Gaptoothes Sisters – Baxter Theatre Centre, 199*),  Down Adderley Street (Baxter Theatre Centre and Market Theatre, 1995-8*), Echoes of Our Footsteps (2001), Diaries of My Womanhood (Baxter Theatre, 2002), * The Red Winter  (Baxter Theatre 2008),.

Co-ordinated and produced The Reddening of the Greens, (Action Workshop Theatre Company, 1992),  and wrote, directed and produced Olympic Bid Road Show (1995), Arrive Alive Road Safety Campaign Road Show (1999).

Awards, etc
Awards include the Sunday Times Best Young Actor Award (1988) and an Arts and Culture Trust Award in 2004 for the Ikhwezi Community Theatre Festival.

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