Selaelo Maredi
Selaelo Maredi (1938-2023). South African theatre director and playwright.
Contents
Career
The career of Ntate Selaelo Daniel Maredi began in the early Seventies when he was a co-founder of the Experimental Theatre Workshop which contributed greatly to the development of skills for the current generation of Black South African theatre. With this group he created Crossroads and Survival, which were staged at The Space in the 1970s.
In 1977 he left for the US to play off-Broadway in Survival. In 1990 he performed in the play again when Jerry Mofokeng revived Survival while studying in New York.
After many years he became artistic director of the Julian Theatre in San Francisco. He returned to South Africa in 1994 after fourteen years of exile in the United States.
He was appointed director in residence at the Market Theatre in 1997 and in 2000 he became associate artistic director for the year. In 2002 became a board member of the Limpopo Province branch of PANSA.
Maredi’s influence extended beyond writing and acting. He conducted workshops for community theatre groups and college drama departments and even received a fellowship from The National Endowment For The Arts for his contributions to human rights and community theatre development.
He lectured in drama, taught Black Arts Productions and directed plays at various universities and theatre institutions in the US.
His performances and contributions spanned the globe, from the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland to London’s West End, and from Denmark to Cuba.
He was part of the inaugural Limpopo Arts and Culture Council with Arlette Franks and Patrick Shai.
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
He appeared on stage in Crossroads (1971), Marabi (the play) (1995), The Good Woman of Sharkville (1996).
As playwright
- Homeland (with Steve Friedman, 1992)
- Blackage (1995)
- Bound by Love (1997)
- Beautiful Things (2001)
- Locking Horns (2003)
- Sinning In Sun City (with Ed Bullin)
- Sing Anyway (with Joyce Carol Thomas)
- Melodi (with Hugh Masekela)
- Voice of Rage
- S’kotiphola
- For Better Not For Worse
- Breaking The Cocoon of Ignorance
- Hell, We Can
- The Core
Sources
Astbury 1979.
The Citizen, 7 January 1997.
Pretoria News, 4 March 1997.
The Citizen, 22 January 2000.
Johann van Heerden (2008)][1]
Kedibone Modise. 'Theatre doyen Selaelo Maredi remembered as a master writer and change-maker'. IOL. 22 August 2023.
'Legendary theater icon Selaelo Maredi to be laid to rest'. Mega Press. 25 August 2023.
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