PACOFS

Acronym for the Performing Arts Council of the Orange Free State

History - After 1994 political transformation

In 1996 PACOFS became a section 21 (non-profit) company with reduced state subsidy and a management board appointed by the minister of Arts Culture, Science and Technology. In April 1997 PACOFS closed their drama department and over a period reduced their total staff from 300 to 91 and started functioning primarily as a playhouse for productions in the Sand du Plessis Theatre, the André Huguenet Theatre and the Civic Theatre in Bloemfontein and the Ernest Oppenheimer Theatre in Welkom. In December 1999 Pacofs severed ties with the city council of Welkom, who were the managers of the Oppenheimer Theatre, as result of bad debts of about R1,2 million. The theatre’s staff was retrenched and the doors closed.

When PACOFS closed their drama department, in contrast to the professional theatre artists in the other provinces, those in the Free State took the initiative and under leadership of Gerben Kamper, artistic director of PACOFS, the Free State Ensemble, based at the Sterrewag Theatre in Bloemfontein, was formed in 1997. (JvH)

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