SANCTA

SANCTA is the acronym for the South African National Community Theatre Association

SANCTA was founded in 19** by **, to improve the quality, status and profile of the community performing arts and provide entertainment for localised audiences in areas outside the mainstream towns and suburbs in order to make them viable once again and regain their place in the cultural life of our community. It committed itself to the use of the arts for educational, social and nation building purposes.

The association is supported and sponsored by The National Arts Council (NAC);The Arts and Culture Trust (ACT); Dalro - The Samro Endowment for the National Arts; has close ties with Sasol Secunda; Artslink, and is "mentored" by Business and Arts SA (BASA). Sancta is also a member of Theatre Managements of South Africa (TMSA), Assitej International and The International Amateur Theatre Association (IATA).

Aims
1. To provide a learning experience for all concerned and to improve the overall standard of community dramatics and provide entertainment for localised audiences in suburbs and smaller centres outside of the mainstream professional theatre based in central Johannesburg thus increasing the exposure of those societies who can otherwise only perform in their local church hall, school hall and community centre.

2. To provide a showcase to demonstrate the heights, which may be attained by those, whom - in their spare time - devote many hours to the preparation and presentation of theatrical works.

3. To encourage aspirant scriptwriters to write for and have the opportunity of seeing their work performed for the first time and to provide a forum for lesser known South African playwrights for the production of new and relevant South African works and to encourage the development of "workshopped" productions.

4. To bolster the funds of SANCTA in order to host workshops in various disciplines pertaining to technical, directing and performing aspects of the arts during the course of the following year.

SANCTA One-act Play Festivals
SANCTA sets about to achieve its objectives by running fully adjudicated one-act play festivals annually, with educational and mentoring courses for groups, to enable them to perform "in a proper theatre environment" -instead of church halls, homes, community centres- and to encourage new "workshopped" SA Productions.

SANCTA Community Theatre Award
We also run a new Annual SANCTA Community Theatre Award system whereby all plays produced by community societies throughout the year, i.e. not just our festival entries - are scrutinised by highly qualified professional adjudicators and awards are allocated to deserving participants in various categories, the zenith of which is the winner of the Best Production, which is eligible for the coveted Community Theatre Naledi Award, in the fully professional Naledi Awards Ceremony sponsored by Computicket (Pty) Ltd.

SANCTA Playwriting Competition
SANCTA also runs an annual new South African play writing competition, as well as a full length play competition. Sancta is also the official National representative of The International Amateur Theatre Association (IATA) and the winner of the 2008 Sancta Festival has just returned from performing at the prestigious international Festival du Mondial, in Monaco - The third time this millennium.