Francois Venter

Francois Venter (19**-).

Biography

Completed his schooling at Noordheuwel High School (1982-1987) and the University of the Witwatersrand's School of Dramatic Art (1989-1993) obtaining a BA (Dramatic Art), and later obtained his Master’s degree in Performance Studies at Wits.

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

As teacher/coach

Venter has taught at Wits School of Dramatic Art and the Market Theatre Laboratory (inter alia as Diction Coach from 1991 to 2011)

As performer

He has had roles in u'Bejani (1997),

As playwright

Francois wrote the one-act plays Woknakwyf! and Kandy en Dagga is Gagga.

As crew member

He built the set for a production of Caritas in 1983 and had a role in Tooth and Nail (NAF 1991).

As arts manager/consultant

Venter worked as South African co-ordinator on the 1994 Dogtroep workshop for the Arts Alive Festival.

He was a founder member of KLAP public performance company in 1995, and was involved in various performance projects in Newtown, the Market Theatre and in downtown Joburg. He also worked as company/stage manager for Junction Avenue Theatre Company, and attended a two-week theatre workshop in Berlin.

In 1996 he worked with street theatre outfit Jungle Performance. In 1997, he was involved in founding the Performance Initiative, and worked on a four-week master class with nine South African artists and Dogtroep in Oudtshoorn. The result of the master class was the creation of the show, Sweet Pham-Pham, which the South African team took on a national tour as the A1 Theatre Company.

Between November 2009 and November 2011 he was also a consultant on theatre spaces for the Steven Biko Foundation and from 2011 onwards worked for the Cultural Programmes Department of the Goethe-Institut, Johannesburg.

Sources

https://www.linkedin.com/in/francois-venter-62b51a30/?originalSubdomain=za

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