Matsemela Manaka - Revision history

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Sources

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Plays

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Plays

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Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

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 [[ESAT Bibliography Da-Daz|Davis, Geoffrey V.]], 2003. pp. 163-202.
-Xaba, Andile. 2021. 'Collective memory and the construction of a historical narrative, analysis and interpretation of selected Soweto-based community plays (1984–1994)'. Unpublished PhD thesis.
+[[Andile Xaba]]. 2021. 'Collective memory and the construction of a historical narrative, analysis and interpretation of selected Soweto-based community plays (1984–1994)'. Unpublished PhD thesis.
 == Return to ==

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 ''[[Siza]]'' (1986)
-''[[Domba: The Last Dance]]'' (performed in Johannesburg in 1986)
+''[[Domba: The Last Dance]]'' (1986)
 ''[[Koma]]'' (1986)

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 ''[[Domba: The Last Dance]]'' (performed in Johannesburg in 1986)
 ''[[Toro: The African Dream]]'' (1987)
-''[[Koma]]'' (1988)
+''[[Goree]]'' (1989)
-''[[Ekhaya: Museum over Soweto]]'' (1992)
+''[[Ekhaya: Museum over Soweto]]'' (1991)
 There are also comprehensive collections of Manaka’s plays, including ''[[Beyond the Echoes of Soweto: Five Plays by Matsemela Manaka]]''.

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 ''[[Ekhaya: Museum over Soweto]]'' (1992)
-There are also comprehensive collections of Manaka’s plays, namely ''[[Beyond the Echoes of Soweto: Five Plays by Matsemela Manaka]]''.
+There are also comprehensive collections of Manaka’s plays, including ''[[Beyond the Echoes of Soweto: Five Plays by Matsemela Manaka]]''.
 == Sources ==

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 ''[[Ekhaya: Museum over Soweto]]'' (1992)
-There are also comprehensive collections of Manaka’s plays, namely ''[[Beyond the Echoes of Soweto: Five plays by Matsemela Manaka]]''.
+There are also comprehensive collections of Manaka’s plays, namely ''[[Beyond the Echoes of Soweto: Five Plays by Matsemela Manaka]]''.
 == Sources ==

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 ''[[The Horn]]'' with the Soyikwa theatre company (1977)
-''[[Egoli: City of Gold]]'' (1978, performed 1979, published 1980)
+''[[Egoli: City of Gold]]'' (1978)
 ''[[Blues Afrika Café]]'' (1980, a one-man show, performed in Germany)

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 ''[[Pula]]'' (performed from 1981-84)
-''[[Vuka]]'' (Edinburgh Festival in 1982, [[Market Theate]], 1986, Downstairs at the Wits Theatre 1985 (Tucker 443)
+''[[Vuka]]'' (1982)
 ''[[Imbumba]]'' (1983)

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 ''[[Goree]]'' (1992)
-''[[Ekhaya: Museum over Soweto]]'' (1992). The latter play and his eloquent and articulate articles were all part of his efforts to have the African contribution to the arts understood and recognized, and his involvement with setting up a museum for the history of Soweto***.  ''[[Ekhaya]]'' (performed in translation in France, 1998)
+''[[Ekhaya: Museum over Soweto]]'' (1992)
 There are also comprehensive collections of Manaka’s plays, namely ''[[Beyond the Echoes of Soweto: Five plays by Matsemela Manaka]]''.

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 ===Plays===
 ''[[The Horn]]'' with the Soyikwa theatre company (1977)
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 ''[[Children of Asazi]]'' (1984)
 ''[[Domba: The Last Dance]]'' (performed in Johannesburg in 1986)
 ''[[Goree]]'' (1992)

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 His innovative theatre productions combine art, dance, drama, music and African food.
-His first major stage work was ''[[Egoli: City of Gold]]''. Almost overnight, at the tender age of 21 (1976), he had become the principal black playwright in the hottest township in Africa and catapulted himself into national and international recognition. The play struck a chord with the rising crescendo of black resistance and mobilised theatre audiences to hunger for political conscious works. Combining his politically-conscious credentials with longstanding connections with activists close to [[Steve Biko]], Manaka had with one production dislodged [[Gibson Kente]] as the pillar of township theatre. Kente, to Manaka and his Black Consciousness exponents, represented a variety of cultural worker in the 1970s who glorified the indignity and humiliation of the black man in his country through song and dance.
+His first major stage work was ''[[Egoli: City of Gold]]''. Almost overnight, at the tender age of 21 (1976), he had become the principal black playwright in the hottest township in Africa and catapulted himself into national and international recognition. The play struck a chord with the rising crescendo of black resistance and mobilised theatre audiences to hunger for political conscious works. Combining his politically-conscious credentials with longstanding connections with activists close to [[Steve Biko]], Manaka had with one production dislodged [[Gibson Kente]] as the pillar of township theatre. The play was banned in South Africa. Kente, to Manaka and his Black Consciousness exponents, represented a variety of cultural worker in the 1970s who glorified the indignity and humiliation of the black man in his country through song and dance.
-It was the early success of ''Egoli'', his searing indictment of the exploitation of industrial workers - banned in South Africa but awarded a Fringe First at the Edinburgh Festival- which set him on his way as a playwright. Black Consciousness shaped his critical eye-in the I970s students repeatedly sang one refrain, "Black man, you are on your own." This was the message Soyikwa wanted to get across in ''[[Pula]]''. The great wave of Black Consciousness carried Manaka into his venture without having had any theatrical training.
+Black Consciousness shaped his critical eye-in the I970s students repeatedly sang one refrain, "Black man, you are on your own." This was the message Soyikwa wanted to get across in ''[[Pula]]''. The great wave of Black Consciousness carried Manaka into his venture without having had any theatrical training. Manaka used theatre as a political platform. In the improvisational work that is part of the preparation process, Manaka drew from those written works of Stanislavski and Grotowski that he could find in local libraries. He had never had the chance to do practical work in their methods, but he used Konstantin Stanislavski's[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konstantin_Stanislavski] ideas about making actors aware of their physical, psychological, and daily environments and saw a similarity between his own working conditions and Grotowski's "poor theatre." In February 1986 Manaka told Wakashe that Grotowski's influence goes far beyond the implicit economics of poor theatre. Like Grotowski's performers, members of Manaka's company show their most personal selves as well as express their own moral values in their art. Manaka's theatre - like all true protest theatre - cannot be associated with or funded by the state. His works have been banned because they express a revolutionary tone full of sharp criticism of the government's policies.
 He founded the [[Soyikwa Players|Soyikwa African Theatre]] company at the [[Funda Centre|Funda Drama Centre]] in Diepkloof, Soweto, in 1978, where he taught acting and directing.
 In the early and mid-1980s, there seemed to be a growing struggle between the likes of [[Mbongeni Ngema]] among others and Manaka over who was the genuine mirror of the black experience. By this time Manaka had been pushed to the margins due to lack of sponsorship because of a misconception that he was an uncompromising militant radical.